The Specialty Coffee Association of Europe announced at the end of December the first two dates for World Coffee Events (WCE) Judges’ Certification Workshops in the New Year. The first workshops, which were previously run and overseen by SCAE partner company WCE, will run in Dublin, Ireland from 5 – 6 February 2014 and in Ancona, Italy from 13 – 14 March 2014. For details see www.scae.com
The workshops, being hosted by Bewley's Coffee in Ireland, and Nuova Simonelli in Italy, consists of the qualification tests for those interested in becoming eligible to judge in World-Level coffee competitions produced by WCE. Attendees may qualify to judge in the World Barista Championship (WBC), World Brewers Cup (WBrC), World Latte Art Championship (WLAC) and/or World Coffee In Good Spirits (WCIGS) by passing a series of knowledge and skills tests designed to assess specific
competencies. Candidates who pass all tests for one or more competitions are awarded Judge Certification credentials for a period of two WCE Competition cycles.
“As chair of the SCAE Education Committee, it gives me great pleasure to oversee SCAE’s inaugural hosting of the WCE Judges’ Certification Programme (JCW) in Dublin on February 5th and 6th,” said Education Committee Chair Paul Stack. “The JCW will become an important part of our annual education calendar as we continue to work closely with WCE to ensure their judges meet the exacting standards of organising committees and competitors alike.”
“WCE is pleased to work with the SCAA and SCAE to deliver the world judges certification programme to more locations around the world,” said WCE Managing Director Cindy Ludviksen comments. “National judges now have more opportunities to become world certified judges through our partnership with the SCAA and SCAE to host the certification workshops. We continue to see increased interest in becoming a judge at the world level. This program helps to support the demand as well as build our pool of qualified judges for the world championships”
To attend a WCE Judge Certification Workshop, participants must have two years of judging experience at a national-level competition for Latte Art, Coffee in Good Spirits, Brewers Cup, or Barista Championships. They must also agree to abide by the WCE Judges Code of Conduct The WCE Judge Certification Workshop is facilitated by a team of highly qualified and vetted WCE Representatives Anyone interested can contact Sonja Björk Grant at SCAE sonja@scae.com