October 3rd marked the launch of the winemaking classes following the preparatory activities that are part of the group training of the “Horizons” Dual Education Program. The course on the basics of winemaking is being held by lecturers of the Armenian National Agrarian University for 260 beneficiary learners from 11 schools.
The practical lessons for the participants were held at 3 wine factories, including Armenia Wine, Van Ardi and Voskevaz where they were introduced to the production processes, starting from purveyance of grapes and ending with wine bottling. They also witnessed how sugar content in grapes is determined in the laboratories of wine factories.
The aim of the course is to provide the participants with basic professional knowledge and skills in the areas of viticulture, winemaking, wine marketing and wine tourism, which will be helpful for them in terms of professional orientation in the future.
The program was developed through the preparation of modules that provide basic knowledge and are distinguished by units that are as concretized as possible (this is necessary in order to make the group training versatile). The theoretical and practical lessons are combined, and the basis for calculation of the program’s duration is the workload of the learners in the course of 34 weeks of training.
The following are the modules for teaching: Basics of Viticulture, Basics of Winemaking, Basics of Wine Tourism and Basics of Wine Marketing.