SEYCHELLES TOURISM ACADEMY SEEKS SOUTH AFRICAN WINE EXPERTISE
(Posted 03rd September 2015)
Seychelles Tourism Academy professionals travel to South Africa to be trained in Sommelier ‘science’
The Seychelles Tourism Academy and the Cape Wine Academy in South Africa have crystallised their first working partnership. Four professionals from the Seychelles Tourism Academy, Peter Moncherry, the Academy’s General Manager, Michel Athanase, the STA Operations Manager, Jill Emile and Sylvianne Bonnelame who are food and beverage lecturers will leave Seychelles September 06th 2015 for a sommelier course at the Cape Wine Academy.
The Seychelles Tourism Academy firmly believes the course will give its trained professionals a firm ground to deliver wine courses to its students and more importantly to be fully fledged to take on new challenges of its future purpose built wine cellar and business entity at the Seychelles Tourism Academy for excellence. It was about two years ago that the Seychelles Tourism Academy undertook a fact finding mission at the Cape Wine Academy in South Africa and as a result came out with the brilliant idea of using the academy’s professional expertise for the betterment of its lecturers. According to the Seychelles Tourism Academy those students trained as professionals in the sommelier course will find open doors of opportunities for them to progress and later on become professional sommeliers. During the ten days course will the four STA staff follow seven modules in sommelier’art. The modules will only be validated after an exam and the successful candidates will earn a certificate as a sommelier.
The Seychelles Tourism Academy’s interest to introduce sommelier course on its curriculum started two years ago. The aim was to enable the institution to teach sommelier course. The course gained support of the French government who assisted the academy with a full-time sommelier from Reunion island, Virginie Julenon. The Seychelles Tourism Academy said the course proved to be a success story with the graduation in 2014, of its first batch of trained sommeliers. The departure of Virginie Julenon after completion of her two year contract left an gap in the academy’s desire to continue with more sommelier courses. With the lack of professionals in sommelier, the Academy said the course ‘died a natural death as students have been denied the opportunity to follow the course with a trained professional’. Now, with the professional trainings offered by the Cape Wine Academy in South Africa, there is a good chance the course will get back on track at the Seychelles Tourism Academy and more Seychellois will graduate in the field of sommelier science.
Photo caption left to right: Michel Athanase, Sylvianne Bonnelame, Jill Emile & Peter Moncherry
