More women fascinated by winemaking profession

According to the study, the average proportion of female trainees rose from 22.5% in the five-year period from 2014 to 2018 to 30% in the period from 2019 to 2023. This corresponds to an average of 86 young women per year who have started training as winegrowers since 2019.
However, the evaluation of the data on winemaker training has also shown that the wine industry has not been spared the general decline in training figures. The total number of trainees in the winemaking profession fell by 16% to 684 between 2018 and 2023.

Job profile with a good image

What is striking is the relatively high proportion of lateral entrants who start training as winegrowers without a family background in viticulture. It is now estimated to be around half of all trainees, which is also due to the good image of the profession. With its numerous and varied fields of work, the winemaking profession is certainly one of the most versatile that you can learn. After all, the winemaker determines every single step that a wine goes through from the vine to the glass. This begins with planting the young vines in the right soil, continues with the care of the vineyards from pruning to harvesting and the subsequent processing of the grapes, through to winemaking with all its facets and the final marketing of the wine.

The areas of knowledge and application covered by the winemaking profession are correspondingly diverse. As part of the training, you learn how to use machines and technology of all kinds, you learn about the biological and economic relationships in the vineyard and cellar, how to taste wine professionally and how to present it to your customers.
"It is incredibly exciting to see how many different paths can be taken on the way to a wine in a glass. For this reason, the trainees often complete their apprenticeship in different training companies with different focuses," explains Ernst Büscher from the German Wine Institute i.e. Deutsches Weininstitut (DWI).

High proportion of women in Bachelor's degree programs

After the classic three-year or, for high school graduates, shortened two-year winegrowing apprenticeship, there are a variety of further training options, for example to become a master craftsman, technician or in various Bachelor's and Master's degree programs. At the Neustadt Wine Campus and at Hochschule Geisenheim University, it is also possible to complete a Bachelor's degree and a winemaking apprenticeship at the same time.

The bachelor's degree courses in wine at German universities are even more in demand among women than winegrowing courses. In the winter semester 2024/25, 46% of a total of 169 newly enrolled students were female.