Bachelor of Agriculture and Technology (Viticulture and Winemaking)

Melbourne Polytechnic is the only metropolitan provider in Victoria running this course, and it teaches on working wineries rather than simulated ones - a 100-tonne winery at Epping and a 250-tonne winery at the Ararat Training Centre, plus more than 40 hectares of vineyards spread across Ararat, the Yarra Valley and the Northern Lodge Training Centre at Eden Park. Vintage work happens on real fruit that becomes real bottled wine, not a classroom exercise that gets tipped down a drain.

Three years full-time (part-time available), delivered as a mix of face-to-face and online so students who work full-time or live outside Melbourne aren't locked out. The degree covers both ends of the trade - vineyard management and winemaking chemistry - so graduates aren't pigeonholed into one half of the industry. Career outcomes run from vineyard manager and viticulturist through to winemaker, agronomist and rural business manager, with the Ararat facility in particular giving students exposure to a cooler-climate growing region distinct from what they'd see purely around Melbourne.