Well that’s very nice of you…what skills are you talking about?
Shiny new skills to help all wine and spirits companies better equip themselves for the future, that’s what. Skills that are currently not commonplace even in the most developed of drinks, retail and hospitality businesses. The opportunity to tap into a new pool of talent that will set the agenda for employment in the coming years.
This all sounds rather dramatic…
Well, it depends what sort of business you are running in terms of how dramatic it is. Ask the vast majority of wine companies what sort of training they offer and the overwhelming response will be “putting staff through the various WSET exams”. Get a Level 2, or Advanced under your belt and the world is your oyster. Throw in other traditional business areas like sales negotiation, finance, management training, or data analysis and the skills cupboard in an awful lot of companies is bare.
Well, the wine and drinks industry has coped pretty well up to now without having a whole load of MBAs wandering around the office corridors?
It has, but then it hasn’t. Not when you compare it to other drinks sectors, particularly spirits. Look outside the drinks industry and the gap in skills in terms of what is needed to do well in a top consumer goods company and any of the businesses, say, in the FTSE100, to what you need to rise to the top in wine is vastly different. For decades the wine industry has operated in its own little world where the emphasis is all about knowing the differences between all the sub-appellations of Burgundy, or what makes a Chablis a Petit Chablis - and so on. But the employment world is changing and it is not just the number of people drinking wine that is declining, but the number of potential people who might consider a career in wine, compared to what is on offer in terms of skills and development in other sectors.
You seem very sure of yourself. Have you got any evidence to back this up?
Well thanks to the clever and resourceful folk at Areni Global, I do. It has just completed and released an in-depth report into Rethinking Education: Shaping the Future of the Wine Trade which is the first study of its kind that really puts the skills gaps in the wine industry under the microscope. It looks to address the lack of profitability and staff shortages in the wine industry and questions the role of professional wine education in addressing these issues. As Areni’s co-founder, Pauline Vicard, explains: “After 18 months of research, we can confidently say there is a discrepancy between what we like to learn - or teach - and what we need to know. If we were to rethink wine education, it could lead to greater profitability that in turn will allow higher salaries and a better ability to attract the right candidates.”
So what does Areni Global think should be done?
It has identified a number of key areas where businesses are struggling to find the right candidates which includes: financial acumen; project management planning and organisational ability; sales strategy and sales techniques; strategic thinking; the ability to understand consumer research; data analysis; negotiation and problem solving; content creation; editing and writing; resilience and flexibility. In a nutshell it says it’s “critical for the future of our industry” that we now “build educational programmes that balance wine knowledge and business skills”.
OK you’ve made your point about business skills, what about actually making wine itself? How well equipped are we to do that?
Good point and there big steps being taken to plug the necessary winemaking and viticultural skills the UK wine industry is going to need if it is to going to be able to maximise the unprecedented increase in the number of vineyards, growers and producers there are in England and Wales. WineGB, for example, predicts there is going to be a 50% increase in full-time employees coming into the UK wine sector.
To help identify what skills are going to be needed Plumpton College, the main winemaking educational centre in the country, has been working with the Vintners Company and WineGB to establish what it is calling the new National Competency Framework - an initiative to provide the platform on which the right new talent can be brought into the winemaking and viticultural end of the industry.
What sort of skills do they mean?
Well clearly winemaking and viticultural skills are at the heart of it, but producers and growers will also need people with good sales, marketing, hospitality and tourism experience as well as technology, data and content creation, amongst many others. A big crossover with the employment trends and skills gaps identified by Areni Global.
Where does good old fashioned wine education sit amongst all this?
It sits where it has always been. As the backbone, the blood supply system of the industry. The WSET will continue to provide the knowledge, education and support every wine professional needs. But the industry as a whole needs to wake up to the speed of change - driven by further technological advances, particularly the impact and use of artificial intelligence - and be part of that change.
Which to paraphrase the famous phrase from US businessman, Jack Welch, that if the pace of change going on outside your business, is greater than what is happening inside it - then you’re going out of business.
* Don’t miss the debate hosted by Richard Siddle, at London Wine Fair, on the skills gap in wine and spirits and what needs to be done to fix it. A chance to hear directly from Areni Global and Plumpton College on the matter. Centre Stage, Monday, 19th May at 4.45pm.
