I hold a national diploma in oenology, which I obtained in at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Montpellier. I've been working in this profession for thirty years.
For the first ten years I was a technical manager in a large cooperative winery, and for the last twenty years I've been doing the same job in another winery of a similar size. So my skills are mainly technical.
Over the years, I felt that a routine was setting in, and in I asked my employer to carry out a skills assessment. This revealed my ability to pass on knowledge and a certain amount of teaching know-how. It has to be said that since my early student days, I've never stopped giving maths support lessons to secondary school pupils in difficulty.
And on another level, I've always enjoyed taking on trainees in my company, supporting them and sharing my practice and experience with them. Last spring, they offered me a work placement in the absence of their oenology trainer. From there, the idea of becoming a trainer and the desire for a change in my professional life germinated within me. Perhaps at first I'd simply do some temporary work as a complement to my job, and then why not envisage a smooth end to my career devoted solely to training?
Madame Ceccaroli, who was in charge of training at the CFPPA, pointed me in the direction of the adult trainer degree available at the University of Avignon.
