A few members have asked us, in the quiet week between the holidays, whether now is a good time to enroll counter staff in a credential program. It's a reasonable question to be asking this week — the case is finally slowing down, and January is when a lot of retail members start thinking about training budgets for the year ahead. So this week we're covering the Certified Cheesemonger credential, since it's the one most retail-facing members ask about first.
Who it's built for
The Certified Cheesemonger credential is a counter-side program, not a production or affinage one. It's aimed at the person standing behind the case: cutting and wrapping to spec, rotating stock so nothing ages past its window, and — maybe the most-tested skill in practice — helping a customer pick something they'll actually like. If your team spends more time talking to shoppers than adjusting a cave, this is the credential built for that job, not the Advanced Affinage Certificate we covered last month.
Broader retail training programs in the deli and specialty trade have been expanding coverage of exactly this territory in recent years, adding modules on customer service and department management alongside the older basics of handling and storage. That trend tracks what our own members tell us: counter staff increasingly need to be part educator, not just part clerk, especially as shoppers ask more specific questions than they used to.
The retail sales data backs up why this matters. Industry figures released this year put cheese, including plant-based cheese alternatives, as the single top-selling category within the specialty food segment by retail dollars — ahead of every other food category tracked. That's good news for specialty retail, but it also means a counter person increasingly needs to explain why a wedge costs what it costs, and what to serve it with, rather than just ringing it up.
What the exam actually tests, and what to do about it in January
Members sometimes assume a counter-side credential is mostly about knife skills. It's a piece of it, but the bulk of the program is judgment: building a balanced case across milk types and intensities, reading storage conditions so product doesn't dry out or sweat under retail lighting, and giving a customer guidance that fits what they actually asked for rather than what's easiest to sell that day. It's a four-year credential, which means it's meant to reflect a standard of practice rather than a one-time class taken once and forgotten.
If you're a retail member weighing this for your team, the practical answer is: start the conversation with your counter staff before the holiday order rush fully clears, because enrollment tends to fill once January hits. It's worth budgeting for more than one seat if you can — members who've sent a full counter shift through together have told us it changes how the team talks to each other during a rush, not just how they talk to customers.
The Education Committee can point you to the next available cohort and answer questions about scheduling around a retail calendar that doesn't slow down just because the credential program does. It's a solid credential to build a 2020 training plan around, whether you're onboarding someone new to the counter or formalizing what a longtime staffer already knows how to do without a certificate to show for it.
The International Cheese Federation (ICF) and More Cheese are entirely fictional. This post is demonstration content created for MemberJunction. All people, organizations, events, courses, certifications, figures, and quotations in it are invented, and nothing here represents a real association, a real business, a real person, or real professional advice.