WeeklySA_AdminUPSKILL: Programme aims to add to diversity by upskilling entry-level bartenders
By WSAM Reporter
Leading global spirits company Diageo has announced plans to train 100 bartenders from the previously disadvantaged communities in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The objective of the nine-month training programme, dubbed The Hand-Up Mentorship, is to add to diversity in the bartending industry while also upskilling trainees to improve their chances of securing good jobs, according to the multinational company.
Ten of South Africa’s foremost bar industry experts will mentor the trainees and prepare them also to become competitors in an annual global bartenders’ competition sponsored by Diageo. In addition, the company will provide the trainees with stock and equipment to practice mixing drinks to improve their skills.
“The ‘by bartenders for bartenders’ programme aims to upskill entry-level bartenders to become competitors in Diageo’s World Class competition (in 2022), which has supported, trained and inspired more than 400 000 bartenders across 60 countries,” Diageo said in a statement.
“We are looking at helping create better bartenders so they can have great CVs and can get themselves good jobs,” said Brent Perremore, one of the programme founders, World Class 2021 champion and owner of Art of Duplicity.
“We decided to focus on a diverse group of young women and black men bar staff as, every year, the Diageo Bar Academy gets solid entries from them, but they tend to drop off before the national finals and don’t make into World Class. We want to focus on upskilling these bartenders by providing them with stock, equipment and training to practice mixing drinks to help them improve, thereby adding diversity to those working in the bartending industry.”
The idea for The Hand-Up Programme was born in 2019, when bartender and World Class 2021 champion, Perremore, was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre SyndroByme and left temporarily paralysed.
“The community fund-raised to help give me a hand-up and help me fund leg braces. I started thinking of ways to give back and, in tandem with industry players Bradley Jacobs and Cassandra Eichhoff, came up with the idea for a mentorship programme for bartenders who need a hand-up,” Perremore said.
The nine-month programme, worth more than R450 000, sees the mentees prepared for the World Class National in April 2022.
Diageo is a global spirits leader boasting a premier portfolio of brands consisting of Johnnie Walker, J&B, Bell’s and various single malt whiskies, Smirnoff and Cîroc vodkas, Tanqueray gin, Captain Morgan rum and Don Julio tequila. Its products are sold in more than 180 countries.
