The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) Diploma System…

Is an education program aimed to meet the needs of coffee professionals everywhere and at every level. It is a controlled and certified system with a curriculum written and updated by the best and brightest minds in the coffee industry. Certifications through the SCA Diploma System are recognized worldwide.

The Coffee Diploma System (CDS) is built on modules, each with foundation, intermediate, and professional levels, that earn credits or points toward the SCA Coffee Diploma. The modules are (click on the image to learn more about each course):

Coffee Quality Institute Courses

Patrick O’Malley is a licensed Q Arabica Grader, which means he has gone through the Coffee Quality Institute’s (CQI) rigorous training on how to evaluate the quality of green coffee. This is a highly beneficial skill in the coffee industry. He is also a licensed Quality Evaluation Assistant Instructor. IBCA offers both the CQI Q Cupping Essentials course and the Q Arabica Grader course. These two courses do not contribute points to the SCA Coffee Diploma, but they do contribute additional knowledge and experience to your coffee journey.

IBCA Specialty Courses

There is so much more to running a coffee business, so IBCA offers additional courses on useful subjects that do not count toward the SCA Coffee Diploma:

Taking SCA Coffee Diploma courses with IBCA ensures that you get an educational experience above and beyond the SCA requirements. IBCA Founder, Patrick O’Malley, was directly involved in creating the SCA Coffee Diploma curriculum, making IBCA the very first SCA authorized coffee academy in the Americas. We know there are other places to get certified, even online, but choosing IBCA means that you are choosing the most experienced instructors, benefiting from all of their real-life coffee and business experience, and learning hands-on in a SCA certified coffee laboratory (or have IBCA’s expert staff come to you).