The London-based Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), is the largest wine education institution in the world, offering international courses and accreditations in the fields of wine and spirits.
The training programme of the WSET has established itself very solidly in the past fifty years; since then more than seventy thousand candidates per year take examinations with the WSET or its international partners.
The WSET offers a progressively-structured qualification in wine and spirits at more than 600 centres in seventy countries; succesful completion of the highest level of training is rewarded with the WSET DIPLOMA IN WINES AND SPRITS, which at the same time is the recommended preliminary step for those wishing to prepare for the Master of Wine training programme. The Austrian Wine Academy has provided training for this diploma in cooperation with the WSET for more than twenty-five years now, and in doing so annually graduates 10–15% of the more than 300 worldwide diplomates.