Vinpro is encouraging all wine tourism establishments to participate in a Wine Tourism Skills Survey to gauge their team’s proficiencies, while enabling the organisation to prioritise areas for further training and development.
“This exciting Vinpro initiative, which holds significant benefits for the industry, is supported by the Cape Winelands District Municipality (CWDM) and is aimed at assisting the industry to identify and address the skills development needs of our people,” said Vinpro Wine Tourism Manager, Marisah Nieuwoudt.
The initiative aims to rebuild the wine tourism sector, which was hard hit by COVID-19 trade and tourism restrictions this year. In October, Vinpro, in collaboration with the CWDM and Commerce7, presented a series of workshops for wine cellars to improve their direct sales to consumers and on November 16 the Western Cape Department of Agriculture launched a R12 million (€652 500) support fund for employees in the wine tourism sector.
“One of the after-effects of COVID-19 is that many wine tourism employees are performing different or more roles than they did before. This project will help identify the skills that they need to successfully fulfil these new roles and maintain world-class service standards,” said Nieuwoudt.
The survey will focus on identifying learning needs related to employees’ understanding of the wine tourism industry’s roles and functions, the relationship and interaction with visitors and colleagues, and workplace-specific skills. It will also record information related to the qualifications, professional registrations and licences that employees already have, are busy with or need to do, and will allow participants to indicate the languages they understand and are able to speak.
“We encourage employees in various wine tourism-related fields to register and complete the survey, ranging from accommodation to cellar door, and tasting-room operations, events, food preparation, leisure activities and tours and restaurant services,” concluded Nieuwoudt.
Employees and winery managers who have completed the survey can view their personal development plan, read suggested articles or watch informative video clips on the website that relate to their identified skills needs.
