Professional Bartending Schools of America

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Professional Bartending Schools of America - School History

Our first campuses opened and began training bartenders in 1978 as independently owned schools teaching separate programs. In 1995, our schools joined together and began teaching the Professional Bartending Schools of America training program. Since 1995, we have trained over 60,000 bartenders nationwide. In 2005 alone, we trained over 9,000 professional bartenders nationwide. We will train well over 10,000 bartenders nationwide in 2006.

Each independently owned school believes in the concept of teaching bartending as a professional career. We work very hard to help our students meet their goals. We can confidently make two promises to our students.

#1. We will work with every student until they graduate.
#2. We will work with every graduate until they are satisfied with the job they accept.

Roger Oldham and Professional Bartending Schools of America have been featured on many television programs.
Roger has an 31 year career in the food and beverage industry. Roger has worked as a cook, waiter, bartender, assistant manager, manager, general manager, area manager, director of operations and vice-president over his career.

Roger bought his first bartending school in 1991 in Cincinnati, Ohio and managed that one school for four years. In 1995, Roger wrote his own bartending program ane created Professional Bartending Schools of America, Inc. and began selling this bartending program to other schools around the country.

Today Professional Bartending Schools of America consists of 36 independently-owned bartending schools that work closely together to be the leading schools in our industry.
Roger Oldham on stage at the 1994 Quest for the Best Bartender in North America " contest held in Orlando, Florida.
In 1993, Roger began to learn bartending flair to keep his school on the leading edge of the bartending school industry. Roger won the "Best Bartender in Ohio" contest in 1993, '94 and '95.

These contests were a part of Disney's "Quest for the Best Bartender in North America" contest. By winning the Ohio state championship, Roger qualified to compete in the national finals held in Orlando, Florida at Disney's Pleasure Island.

Roger can be seen in the picture on the left on stage at Mannequin's Nightclub in 1994. Roger finished 5th place in North America against the 50 competitors that qualified to compete in the Disney Contest.
Channel Four NBC covered the 1998 "Best Bartender Contest" in Columbus, Ohio. In 1998, Roger won the "Best Bartender in Ohio" contest sponsored by the Ohio Licensed Beverage Association and the International Bartending Institute of Columbus, Ohio (a competing bartending school).

Roger finished in 1st place for his fourth title of "Best Bartender in Ohio". The Professional Bartending School of Cincinnati was awarded the "Home of the Best Bartender in Ohio" award. William Cobbin, Director of our Cleveland schools, finished in 4th place.

Professional Bartending Schools of America is very proud of our reputation for quality schools. In addition to bartending flair, our schools and their directors have been featured on many television shows and news articles. You'll find many of them posted on this website.

Our training program is based on Roger's years of experience in the industry and includes input from our school directors and instructors from around the country. Our program is revised each year to reflect current trends and drink recipes. We believe it is one of the most current and thorough training programs available in the nation.

Our graduates work in the nation's finest bars and restaurants right out of school with no prior bartending experience. One of our most often-heard reasons for attending our schools is that the students just wanted a high paying job that they could enjoy and count on. Our schools train men and women of all ages and backgrounds in the nation's best cities. We are very proud of our reputation as the "Nation's Premier Chain of State-Licensed Bartending Schools".

Copyright 2005 Professional Bartending Schools of America