Amazing news! I’ve been accepted onto the WSET Educator Training Top-Up Programme so that I can start offering Level 3 Wines at Vino Vallarta. This has been on my to-do list for more than a year as my original class was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Of course, the pandemic still rages in many parts of the world, so instead of jetting off somewhere to take the class in person, it’s going to be a virtual program. And…. it’s going to be on London England time. Yes, that means my classes will be held from 3 AM - 7 AM Puerto Vallarta time. I plan to be the proverbial ‘early bird’ and catch this sneaky Level 3 worm once and for all!
WSET takes their education programme seriously (it is, after all, the charity’s entire reason for being) and they don’t just hand out educator training certificates like candy at a parade. Having been through the Level 1 and 2 training program in New York City in 2018, I have a fairly good idea of what to expect, and as a WSET educator, I know that reviewing the Course Specification in depth is KEY.
So I had a look at Module 1:
Suddenly, it was like a lightbulb flashed. Of course! The best way to understand the differences between levels is to make a chart of the information! And of course! The reason it’s key for an educator to know this information inside and out is so that they can assist WSET candidates with their questions and individual needs. Now, every qualification level’s Course Specification is already available for download elsewhere on this website, but you would have to download all three levels and then wade through and parse the information from each document yourselves in order to get a working snapshot of the differences.
But as a WSET Educator, I have a duty to provide this information to my candidates. So…. I decided to just go ahead and make the snapshot for you. Enjoy!
You can see that while Level 1 and 2 have multiple-choice exams, Level 3 adds in a written and tasting component. You can also easily see which LOs are most important for exam questions.
You can see at a glance just from the text under each banner how the levels of knowledge change as you move along from Level 1 (knowing) to 2 (understanding) to 3 (describing/explaining).