AST—Are You Next To Change?!

Are there also changes coming to the Authorized Specialty Coffee Association's Trainer (AST) program that many will not like? Is a risk, the SCA’s evolving partnership with CQI may reshape the AST program. What does regional licensing mean for trainers, and who will be affected?

On May 4, an interview with Cosimo Libardo was published on Comunicaffe.it.

What We Know: Key Takeaways from the Interview

We learn from it that the Coffee Quality Institute will receive a license fee of $250,000 per year for transferring the Q Grader program to the SCA. There is also talk of negotiations with other organizations, following Colombia's La Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros, on the adaptation of the Coffee Value Assessment (CVA) - ACE (Alliance for Cup Excellence - COE) and ICO (International Coffee Organization). 

You can support and worry, get upset and angry, and even boycott CVA, SCA, everyone, as you wish. What struck me most in this article, and what I think all Authorized SCA Trainers like me should hear about, is something else. 

Cosimo Libardo, member of the SCA board, a highly distinguished figure in the European and global specialty coffee movement, as he himself admitted on social media, “clarify the SCA-CQI agreement and the long-term vision of SCA.”

He acknowledges that Evolved Q (the new SCA program for Q Graders from CQI and new ones) is an opportunity for ASTs with Sensory Skills to become Q Instructors and that their number will increase significantly, as expected by the SCA. We already knew that. 

What is new is that the licensing and fee system that SCA will set for participation in these courses will also change. He announced that from June, SCA fees (for exams and certificates) will be indexed to the average income in each region, according to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This makes sense, as we do something similar in The Better Coffee system, where we enable fair access to education by limiting the influence of wealth resulting from various causes (not just geographical location, so as not to exacerbate local internal differences).

As Libardo points out, “This should significantly reduce the cost of Evolved Q for students, certainly to a large extent compared to what few can afford today, making Evolved Q certification much more accessible to students from all low-income areas of 

the world.”

“Our goal is to make this course more accessible so as not to create an elite group of instructors and students. The aim is to create a common language that is also accessible in manufacturing countries.”

We read further: “We will not have a single license for the whole world, but licenses will be issued on a regional basis: the fee will vary depending on the place of teaching, and teaching will only be possible in areas covered by the license. This will promote the creation of strong local communities that will develop both in terms of the knowledge of instructors and students.

Relying mainly on instructors coming from Europe, Asia, or the United States because only they could afford to acquire this knowledge no longer made much sense in Africa.

The same is true in Central and South America: having instructors with local licenses is a form of empowerment.”

All quotations translated from Italian to English by deepl.com.

Why It Matters to ASTs

And now the mystery begins. Will licenses for a given region (continent?) apply only to Q Instructors or also to Authorized SCA Trainers (AST)? 

Can a current AST with Sensory Skills, whose license is not (until its expiry date) tied to any specific area, work anywhere (as long as they pay SCA fees), or will they only be able to provide Evolved Q courses in their local (continental) community, according to an unofficial announcement?

Will existing CQI Q Instructors have to limit themselves to their “local” area in the new system?

Is this a step towards regionalization and monopolization of coffee education?

Will a local license operating on predetermined rates, anchored in IMF data, be commercially attractive enough for instructors to want to become licensed at all?

Will we in Europe, Korea, Japan, or the US soon hit an educational wall? 

And really, why are we finding out about these changes again suddenly and quietly? From an Italian website, instead of through consultation with those concerned? 

I remember during the Covid pandemic, when for several long months we, AST, were effectively unable to train anyone (lockdowns around the world), SCA stood by us, extending our licenses by three months and quickly providing Foundation course syllabi with a new feature at the time—an online and combined version. We were kept informed about the changes and felt supported. 

Unanswered Questions and Concerns

Now, I don't even know who to ask whether the changes discussed in the interview (regionalization) will only apply to new Q Instructors and Q courses, or to all courses and trainers in general, including AST. As we were informed in mid-April, Ben Helt, the current AST Program Director, is leaving the SCA. This is happening just before the changes.

So I asked for clarification on whether the changes will also affect AST - CEO Yannis Apostolopoulos and director Cosimo Libardo. When I receive a response, I will inform you and post it here. Maybe there's no need to worry as an AST (but there is as a Q Instructor), and I just misunderstood the interview in Italian?

Either way, regardless of the response and further changes, our credibility is falling in my eyes. Ours – as AST, as Q Graders. We don't know where we're going or how they're going to change us, we have no influence over it. So there's no need to worry? The problem is that teaching people is also our job, which requires planning, e.g. a calendar, in advance. We have invested time and money in this, we wanted to develop the highest quality coffee movement through education and work. We still want to! 

A Personal Reflection: What Should Trainers Do Now?

Maybe it's easier for me to speak out because I've created my own private education system based on my experience, innovative methods, and scientific discoveries. I also license it, in case you want to join.

I created it in synergy with private and non-sectoral programs such as the Coffee Quality Institute, Specialty Coffee Association, but also others such as the educational activities of the Sustainable Coffee Institute, Barista Hustle, CoffeeMind, Coffee Knowledge Hub, and many others that I value and wish educational success. We complement each other, we can exist on different principles, we have similar goals, perhaps different means to achieve them.

As you suggest, is it worth continuing as an AST (my license expires in June, should I renew it?) and Q Arabica Grader (according to CQI, I am qualified to use the 2004 SCAA form until 2027)? It would be nice to know what these SCA programs will ultimately look like before I have to make a decision...

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