European bartending schools are found all over the continent, if you want to learn the art of bartending, you only have to choose the country where you want to go.
About European bartending schools
These schools are very popular and combine fun with learning. Often the students of these schools use the skills they learn to get jobs that help pay for their travel, finance their studies, build up a network and make new friends.
The courses offered by these European bartending schools are unique and international in their content. They provide a solid foundation of bartending skills both in theory and practice, thereby gearing up the successful students to get a job anywhere in the world. There are four weeks intensive courses that include classroom based on learning along with practical sessions, all in an atmosphere of fun.
These training programmes are conducted by experienced, world class teachers, who can help even the absolute novice become an expert bartender within those four weeks. If you enroll in a European bartending school, most of your time will be spent behind the bar so that you get used to the environment and learn how to handle the stress related to the trade. You will get hands on training in Mixology, Free Pouring, Flair Bartending along with master classes on the theory of the trade. You will learn not only the ‘tricks of the trade’ but also how to overcome your nervousness and make a good impression.
Although many of these European bartending schools also offer short crash courses in bartending, the four week course is the most comprehensive. Every employer is looking for experienced bartenders who are knowledgeable and can produce drinks in a fast and efficient manner. The hours of practical training and practice that the four week course provides helps the student to master these very qualities, thereby making it far easier for him to get a job easily.
Normally the instructor shows how to prepare each and every cocktail with real alcohol and allows the students to taste them so that they know exactly what each cocktail is all about. The students then duplicate those same drinks behind the bar with similar coloured non alcoholic liquids. The instructor guides them and keeps an eye on their use of the bar equipment, ingredients, and presentation till they perfect them.
Apart from learning how to create cocktails, a bartender has to have other qualities as well. He has to:
• Be charming and charismatic
• Be honest and helpful
• Have speed and flair in his service
• Know all the legalities of operating a bar
• Be able to design bar menus and work out the costing of the drinks
• Be able to keep tabs on the customers and ensure that all drinks that are served are paid for
• And finally be able to handle inebriated customers with tact and thereby avoid any untoward situations.
In a recognized European bartending school you can learn all that and more.
After the four weeks the aspiring bartender leaves the institute not only with skills that will get him a job anywhere in the world but also with a confidence to face that first interview.