World Tea Media Launches its New Online Certification Program

“We have always had a robust educational program as the foundation for our leading trade events and continued to see demand and requests for education throughout the year” stated George Jage, founder and director of World Tea Media.  “With online education soaring in popularity, the strong e-media resources F+W Media brought to our team, and our longstanding and deep relationships with some of the sharpest minds in the tea industry, we knew it was time to fulfill this unmet need in the market.” With that, World Tea Media is introducing a new online certification program. new_logo_wta “We are confident this is the future of education and certification.  Our program will allow students to focus their investment on the classes and not travel and allow The program classes are delivered online in concise three-week instructor-led sessions with the first class beginning July 8th.  Students can enroll into a core curriculum that will allow them to become Certified Tea Specialists in as quick as 6 months.  From there, students can pursue an advance certification as a Certified Tea Sommelier, Certified Tea Professional, or Certified Tea Health Educator depending on their specific needs and goals. Each class runs three weeks with each class consisting of three one-week sections.  The sections consist of a mixture of educational content, instructional videos, individual and group assignments, cupping notes, key vocabulary definitions, additional learning materials, and of course, a test.  The last week of every session involves a series of cupping that students will conduct with teas sent for each course, most of which will be North American Tea Championship winning teas. donnaDonna Fellman, founder of the Tea Education Alliance, serves as the program’s director and lead instructor for the online classes.  Donna has managed tea houses, trained staff and served as a tea buyer.  She also has written numerous training programs and educational materials for a number of businesses and organizations over the past 20 years she has been involved with tea.  Jage commented, “Donna has been a great asset to our team and has shown a lifetime of dedication to both educating herself and others. There are few others with both her credentials and passion.” World Tea Academy is supported by a long list of luminaries that serve as Strategic Technical Advisors.  They include Roy Fong, Kevin Gascoyne, Suzette Hammond, Austin Hodge, Frank Jaksch, Manik Jayakumar, Beth Johnston, Eliot Jordan, Joshua Kaiser, Brian  Keating, Nigel Melican, Dan Robertson, Ken Rudee, Mo Sardella, Devan Shah, Den Shirataka, Thomas Shu, Scott Svihula, Aaron Vick, Bill Waddington, and Sanje Widyarante. Registration for the inaugural class is opens June 7th and the class will commence July 8th.  Click here for more information and click here to register.