The Gérard Basset Foundation and the International Wine Education Centre (IWEC) are celebrating an incredible start to 2025 with the announcement of eight superb passes in the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 3 Award in Wines for the 2024 Bursary students. Of the eight passes, six were with Merit and the top student of the year was Tonderai Teddius Makonye who achieved a Pass with Distinction.
The WSET is the world’s leading provider of drinks qualifications. The WSET Level 3 in Wines is aimed at senior management level, suitable for people in a range of wine and hospitality industry roles.
Cathy Marston, the owner of the IWEC, says: "I think that, collectively, this was the smartest, most engaged, most curious and most enthusiastic WSET Level 3 class I have ever taught. These students were all hugely motivated to take the opportunity that had been given to them and really make the most of it. I’ve said it before and the results here prove my point yet again – we have students of the very highest calibre here in South Africa, all we lack is the means to let them showcase their talents. I cannot thank the Gérard Basset Foundation and WSET enough for supplying those means and for their support of these incredibly bright young people. I look forward to seeing them take their places as leading lights of the South African wine industry and hopefully progressing to WSET Level 4 Diploma in due course."
Already the effects of the Gérard Basset Foundation WSET Level 3 in Wines course are being felt with one student securing a full-time sommelier position in the Seychelles and another succeeding as a tasting room manager in a well-known South African winery. It is expected that the students will now start to leverage their new qualifications, using them to help carve out successful careers in the wine and service industries both in South Africa and beyond.
The Gérard Basset Foundation is the world’s leading charitable Foundation dedicated to using the wine, spirits and hospitality industry as a vehicle for change in order to improve livelihoods. Their aim is to deliver grants to carefully selected partners who serve economically disadvantaged and under-supported communities by delivering education, training and career enhancing programmes. In addition to the WSET Level 3 Award in Wines programme, they also fund other projects in South Africa. These include the WSET Level 4 Diploma scholarships and the Pinotage Youth Development Academy.
The International Wine Education Centre (IWEC) is the largest provider of WSET courses in Africa and the Middle East and teaches all levels of wine, spirits and sake courses, both in-person and online.