Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) said it is fast-tracking its investment plans for online delivery of all its qualifications.
WSET currently offers its Levels 1-4 Award in Wines and Levels 1-2 Award in Spirits as online courses. However, in response to the current situation – which forced the vast majority of its 800+ course providers to suspend delivery of classroom courses – the organization has offered all course providers enhanced digital delivery options. This will enable as many students as possible to continue their WSET learning journey.
Although WSET’s Online Classroom currently only supports course delivery in English, WSET is also enabling course providers to deliver courses in local languages through online conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. As a result, around 200 of WSET course providers are now able to offer online courses to their students.
WSET’s own WSET School London, which was forced to close in mid-March, is now offering a ‘blended learning’ program for its students. This will give them the option to continue their studies online through digital classes, webinars and live Q&A sessions.
WSET is also exploring options to fast-track the use of computer-based testing for all its online courses. Trials are currently being run for its Level 1 Award in Sake.
“Our Digital Education team has been working around the clock over the past few weeks to progress our digital learning offering at an unprecedented pace,” Ian Harris, WSET CEO, said.. We are determined to give our course providers the best online tools available and to minimize the impact of the current crisis on our students’ educational journey with WSET. We already had a strong ‘digital first’ strategy and investment plan in place, so I am incredibly proud that our dedicated team has been able to roll this out in such a short space of time.”