There are many reasons to have a personal licence, but I am going to highlight the five key points.

First before we get started what is a personal licence? For those of you that don’t know, a personal licence is a card similar in appearance to a drivers licence that entitles the holder after sitting a personal licence course to sell or authorise the sale of alcohol. Every sale of alcohol on licensed premises in the UK must be made or authorised by a personal licence holder.

So back onto the 5 reasons to have a personal licence Course.

1. You can apply for up to 50 temporary events notices – having your personal licence gives you the ability to apply for an extra 45 temporary events notices, this will come in handy if you like to organise live music events. Just like the retail sale of alcohol you will need a temporary events notice for regulated entertainment where there is no premises licence in force so if your destiny is to take on Glastonbury or just a series of village fetes a personal licence can put you on the right path.

2. A personal licence can be used anywhere in England and Wales, so if you like to travel or are moving to a new town you can take your personal licence with you, and continue to authorise the sale of alcohol in any venue you work in (with accordance to the premises licence)

3. A personal licence in England and Wales lasts forever – that’s right once you have one of these licenses they last indefinitely (unless surrendered or revoked) so no matter what stage of life you’re at you will always have a qualification that allows you to come back to bar work, and as its a photo card ID you will have the same picture from the day you passed, so if it’s like me and over ten years ago you will have great pride showing your licence.

4. Feel safe while working – know you have had the correct training and you know the correct procedures to follow in case of emergencies. There is a lot that can go wrong on licensed premises go to work each shift knowing that you can deal with all the problems that arise and can in fact stop most instances before they occur. I learned so much from my personal licence training so if you work in a pub, bar, restaurant, hotel or off licence get trained and know you are selling it right.

5. A DPS must have a personal licence – If a DPS or Designated Premises Supervisor must have a personal licence that means only people with a personal licence can apply for the DPS job (Designated Premises Supervisor is the long title for Manager) so if you have your licence you are already standing out from the crowd and able to apply for those top manager jobs.