Premier Wine Training is launching blended wine courses, in addition to traditional wine courses and online wine courses.
Blended wine courses include practical classroom-based wine tasting sessions, with weekly live Zoom webinars. These are further supported by activities on Canvas, which is a world-class learning platform, used in over 4,000 educational institutions around the world.
This platform allows students to watch recorded classes and videos, take practice tests and complete written and practical assignments. Students can ask the tutor questions, as well as engage with fellow online classmates through discussion groups.
“Like many businesses, I had to reconfigure for working remotely last March when Covid-19 changed our worlds. My Advanced Course students were just over halfway through their course. I felt it was important to continue the learning momentum, keep everyone connected and maintain a thread of ‘normal’.
They took to Canvas and weekly video calls like ducks to water. As well as studying at a time that suited them, they loved the flexibility of being able to listen to a class while out walking or driving.” – Maureen O’Hara
Advantages of blended and online courses:
- Flexible – whether you’re a night owl or early bird, you can study when you wish.
- Transportable – access materials from your phone.
- Listen again – you can play recordings over & over.
- Safer – minimises social contact and public transport.
- Apart but together – tutor support, and discussion groups among classmates.
- Should lockdowns occur, you are not disadvantaged.
- You can swallow your wine, and not worry about driving!
This is typical of students’ feedback: “I hadn’t used Canvas before I did my course with Maureen. It only took me a few minutes to set it up on my laptop and I found it really useful to have everything all in one place (each week’s lecture, the assignments, self-checking multiple choice quizzes and optional video content). And to be able to pause a lecture session, double check on something or run through them again for review was a big bonus. Highly recommend it.” – Richard S.
“In Canvas, the user interface was simple and well designed. I found it easy to navigate and locate essential materials.” – Nathaniel X.
“Reading in conjunction with the notes, videos, quiz lets & quizzes made it a more holistic learning experience. Canvas is easy to use and it’s good to have all materials on one platform that’s easy to access.” Eilis M.
WSET Level 1 Wines is ideal for someone discovering wine for the first time, perhaps working in a wine-related business. This course is offered online, with several dates starting Sept 7th.
WSET® Level 2 Award in Wines is a beginner’s/ intermediate level wine qualification. It is suitable for wine enthusiasts, and wherever a sound but simple level of wine knowledge is required to underpin job skills, in hospitality, wine retail and wine wholesale sectors.
It has three formats – blended and traditional, and online. These all start the first week of September. Places are limited.
WSET Level 3 Wines is an advanced course, suitable for people with good basic knowledge (Level 2 or equivalent); both wine enthusiasts and experienced professionals. This course is offered as a blended format and online .
The venue for traditional classes is the Camden Court Hotel, Dublin 2.
Maureen O’Hara has over 25 years experience working in the wine industry in Ireland, and students achieve above-average results.
