“italian wine, global market”: APply now for master’s course jointly offered BY SANT’ANNA school, university of pisa, university of siena and the siena university for foreigners. ALMALaUREA verified first launched master’s graduates employment rates
The Master’s Program “Italian Wine, Global Market” is designed to train wine professionals and ambassadors attending theory lectures on Tuscany’s grape varieties and the culture of Italian wine terroirs. The Master’s course is offered in partnership with University of Pisa, University for Foreigners of Siena, University of Siena and AIS, the Italian Association of Sommeliers. The course, in its 5th year, boasts graduates of 2015 (when the course was first launched) employment rate of 85.7% verified by AlmaLaurea Consortium.
Through the combined expertise of these four universities in Tuscany, this program prepares wine professionals of the future to develop communication skills and support systems for the wine trade with a focus on Italian wine industry. The AlmaLaurea survey confirmed there was a strong consensus amongst the interviewees that interdisciplinary training produced better quality outcomes in marketing and branding strategies including online trade.
The “Ambasssadors” of Italian Wine. This course focuses on the education of wine professionals. Future Ambassadors will improve Italian winery’s brand through marketing initiatives and targeted campaigns in well-established export markets for Italian wines such as USA, Germany and the UK, less traditional markets as China, Korea and Russia and emerging markets India, Africa, Mexico and Asian countries.
The “Ambasssadors” of Italian Wine will have a robust understanding of Italian wine industry, a deep knowledge of winery, vineyard, and tasting. They will focus on the value of brand ambassadors to boost market shares and to drive sales among the wine and spirits international markets. AIS, the Italian Association of Sommeliers, will offer additional teaching, seminars and workshops allowing students to get extra qualifications to create educational and promotional events, vineyard tours, social media and overall hospitality events. The program put a special focus on the digital transformation of the industry and on the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach.
Application process. The program is designed for graduate students, wine industry professionals, and individuals interested in advancing their career in the area of viticulture or enology. The program is available to undergraduate students who have passed their exams and are in the final stages of theses.
The teaching session is divided into modules taught over weekends. This program is 400-hour classroom training and additional 450-hour internship. Modules on international markets are taught in English.The deadline for applications is 7 October 2019.
Professor Pietro Tonutti, as the Course coordinator, gave his comments “When we started this master’s program, wine exports in Italy accounted for 5 billion Euro. Over the years, Italian wine production has continued to grow; in 2018, our country reached 6.2 billion euros in export sales. Total exports grew at a rate of 76% over a nine-year period (2009 – 2018) amounting to 42% of total production. We expect this positive trend to continue for the future. For the coming years, exporters and producers expect market attractiveness to go up most for Asia, Russia and Australia”.
“While domestic wine consumption is declining (almost 37 liters per capita), exports have generated growth and increased tourism. We have expanded the “Made in Italy” offering and extended our vineyard areas over the past three years. All across Italy, grape and wine producers supported experimental cultivations and sustainable winemaking processes. Ampelographic and molecular collections were performed by molecular biologists, plant pathologists and viticulture specialists as a long-term perspective is needed for our 408 DOP wines and the expectations for the emerging markets prove realistic in future”.
"The image of Made in Italy wine needs a new start on the international stage – concluded Tonutti - This means, wine trade will continue gaining in volume and retailers expect online sales of wine to increase further. Over the next years it will be of decisive importance to the industry to find new marketing solutions: this means, we need to take advantage of the present industry focusing on the education of wine professionals”.
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Cover photo: Master’s Program “Italian Wine, Global Market” Alumni
