A career in wine retail is not just open to wine connoisseurs, say Majestic Wine graduates.
Majestic Wine is one of the UK's leading wine retailers with shops across the country. Graduates on the company's Trainee Manager Programme recently revealed that expert knowledge is not required in order to take on a position with Majestic.
Karl joined the company in 2009 after studying Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at Edinburgh University. His knowledge of wine was minimal before he began Majestic's graduate programme.
"I didn't know a great deal about wine at all, if anything, apart from the fact I liked it," says Karl.
"The beauty of working at Majestic is that they encourage you to learn about wine from the first day. You're always on the tasting counter, your assistant manager and manager get you on the tasting counter, tell you little facts about wine and get you selling wine immediately."
As part of Majestic's Trainee Manager Programme, graduates study for a Wine & Spirit Educational Trust qualification to improve their knowledge of the field. Trainee managers also receive further training to help their all-round retail skills.
Jennie, an Environmental Management graduate from the University of Leeds, says graduates receive great training at head office.
"My training at Majestic has been brilliant. I've obviously done my WSET exams and since then we do courses at Head Office in customer service and product knowledge."
"Even since I've become a Manager I still feel that I've been learning lots," she says. "I've recently been helping out doing risk assessments round the various stores."
Another graduate, Ludovic, says the best training he's received at Majestic has come from learning on the job.
"In terms of training, there's very structured training in place at Majestic. And you learn a lot on the job, you learn a lot on various courses in Head Office," he says.
"But for me it's really when I became a Manager and had pretty much learnt the basic way to do the job that I started growing."