Top 10 Questions to Ask When Booking a Coffee CourseBarista Basics

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Barista Basics

Top 10 Questions to Ask When Booking a Coffee Course

In the days of google and paid adwords, it is very easy to click on the top paid ad in any category when we google “coffee course” or “coffee training”. With so much reliance these days on the internet for information, there is a real danger that we tend to end up believing whatever we read. In the old days, people used to be taken to task about false and misleading advertising. These days, it seems, anything goes! It’s the modern day wild west, so to speak.

If a private company tells us that they are the most popular (even though they have only been in business for a few months), that they have 50 years experience in the coffee industry or that they offer TAFE modules or train “according to national standards” (even though they may be totally outside of the formal qualification system) we take it at face value and believe what they say. But should we?

We’ve created a list of questions for anyone wanting to enroll in a coffee course so that you can get to the bottom of the false and misleading and find out exactly what is fact and what is fiction. We often wonder why magazines and newspaper journalists don’t do a mystery shopper story on coffee courses in Australian cities to match what people advertise, with what they deliver. It would make for a very interesting read!

Our list of questions was NOT compiled with a slant on our company, so that you end up choosing us. They should be questions that anybody with an interest in due diligence would ask when “ringing around” companies that offer training.

We’re trying to lift the bar in coffee in Australia, not lower it.

So grab a coffee, find your phone, take out your list and ask away…..

Top 10 questions to ask when calling a private barista training company:

Has your company (not a company who delivers their training second-hand through you) been fully audited and registered to deliver the only nationally recognised barista qualification in Australia – SITHFAB012A Prepare and serve espresso coffee? (even if you say you offer "nationally recognised training programs" does your coffee school back this up in writing with the government logos on your actual certificate?)
Are the owners of the company industry professionals who have owned cafés and coffee roasting companies?
Does your company offer a TAFE certificate or is it just your own company’s certificate? (And if you say something like Accredited by X Co. & Nationally Recognised by TAFE & RTOs can you explain what the TAFE has to do with your couse and what this actually means?). Put them to the test: can you show me your TAFE certificate? (some coffee schools have been telling people that they offer a TAFE certificate - this is absolutely not true!)
Does every student get their own section of the commercial machine to work on, or do you share it with others?
Is your company's course VETAB accredited?
Is your company a Registered Training Organisation (if yes, the training company has had their course audited by the government and have their seal of approval, if not…..)
Does your company offer ebooks, certificates, coffee menu movies, written coffee menus and in the case of your Coffee Art course, an etching guide, podcasts, milk texturing movies and free-pouring movies?
What is your company's trainer to student ratio (ie, if you are in a class with 10 or even 15 students, how many teachers will there be?)
Is the head trainer going to make me watch long-running videos on how to make coffees etc during the class or will I get live instruction at every step along the way?
Is your course 100% practical? (if so…PROBLEM! – unleashing students on espresso machine for 3 hours with no discussion on what they should be doing and the theory behind it is a waste of time).

An additonal one that might be worth asking is: why are you offering 50% off? What compromises are being made in terms of content, staff:student ratios, quality of certificate and amount of consumables (milk and coffee) allocated to each person in the class? Remember - you get what you pay for!