Where Butlers of the World Learn Their Trade

March 18, 2017 4:00 am
This Is Where Butlers Go to Learn the Tricks of the Trade
Butlery students stand for inspection once they arrive in the morning at The International Butler Academy China on September 16, 2014 in Chengdu, China. Over the last several years, there has been a surge in demand among China's wealthy for Western-trained butlers, with many academies seeing large portions of their graduating classes hired by Chinese families or companies. To meet this growing demand, The International Butler Academy China began administering classes this week describing themselves as the first permanent, accredited butler school in China offering multi-week courses run by professional butlers. (Taylor Weidman/Getty Images)
This Is Where Butlers Go to Learn the Tricks of the Trade
Butlery students stand for inspection once they arrive in the morning at The International Butler Academy China on September 16, 2014 in Chengdu, China. (Taylor Weidman/Getty Images)

 

Batman gets all the glory, but really, he would be nothing without his butler Alfred Pennyworth.

In real life, those distinguished servants help keep the lives of the world’s ultra-wealthy running smoothly. So how does a butler master the Downton Abbey-esque trade? He goes to school, of course.

“A professional butler is somebody who is loyal, flexible, discreet, hard-working, honest, but most important, it is a person who has the ability to put somebody else’s wishes before [his] own,” says Robert Wennekes, chairman of the International Butler Academy, via Great Big Story.

The academy, located in Simpelveld, Netherlands, has 135 rooms and 80,000 square feet of space for prepping future butlers for service the world over.

The academy enrolls students from all around the world, ranging in age from 18-68, and they take 10-week classes on everything from proper ironing techniques and packing of suitcases to how to set a table properly.

What is the trick to being a world-renowned butler? “Discipline,” says Wennekes.

Watch the full video from Great Big Story below.

—RealClearLife

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