Florida Alcohol Certification Online

Florida does not issue a bartender license or mandatory statewide alcohol server permit. However, many employers require responsible beverage service training, especially businesses participating in Florida’s Responsible Vendor Program. Completing alcohol server training can help workers understand Florida alcohol laws, reduce liability risks, and improve job opportunities.

To get your Responsible Vendor certificate in Florida, you must first complete an alcohol seller-server course and pass the final exam. Once you do, you’ll get your certificate of completion immediately. You can give this to your employer to verify your training. Enroll in our Florida alcohol server training course today to get started!

At this time, there are no specific approved providers in Florida, so you should be able to take any training course as long as it covers the required topics listed in the Responsible Vendor Act—which the training from Learn2Serve by 360training does.

The laws in Florida don’t require you to take alcohol training; however, if your employer is trying to qualify as a Responsible Vendor, they may require that you complete a training course.

That’s because in order to participate in the Responsible Vendor Program in Florida, licensees must ensure that managers and employees have completed an alcohol server training course, such as the one provided by Learn2Serve by 360training.

It’s a voluntary program implemented to encourage employers to sell and serve alcohol responsibly, prevent underage drinking, and get drunk drivers off the roads. Employers who participate may also be eligible for insurance benefits. Plus, they may get reduced penalties for violations.

To qualify for the Responsible Vendor Program, licensees must:

• Provide employees and managers with training that covers specific topics related to selling alcoholic beverages, as well as dealing with controlled substances.
• Require employees who serve alcoholic beverages to complete the training within 30 days of employment. 
• Require managers to take training within 15 days of employment.
• Require all employees to attend one informal meeting every 4 months to review policies and procedures.
• Require each employee, as a condition of employment, to complete a questionnaire to determine if the employee is prohibited by law from serving or selling alcohol.
• Establish a written policy that states that any employee who engages in the illegal use of controlled substances on the licensed premises will be immediately dismissed from employment and require each employee to acknowledge the policy in writing.
• Maintain records for each employee that contain their applications, acknowledgments, and training, as well as documents of the vendor’s enforcement of policies requiring dismissal.
• Post signs informing customers about the policies against serving alcoholic beverages to underaged persons and the consequences of violating these policies.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation does not state when the training expires. However, we recommend retaking the course every three years to ensure the information is fresh on your mind.

There are many different kinds of jobs that can benefit from alcohol server-seller training, including any position that involves serving or selling alcohol for on-premises or off-premises consumption. That means: 

• Bars / Pubs / Taverns 
• Restaurants 
• ABC stores 
• Grocery Stores 
• Convenience stores 
• Caterers 
• And more 

If you’re curious about how much money you can expect to make, here is some basic wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for bartenders and barbacks in Florida.  

However, if you are in the top 90th percentile of bartenders, you can make much more money: $20.98 an hour.

In addition to protecting yourself and your employer from the financial liabilities, your server education can help you keep your patrons and the general public safe. Florida has a slightly higher rate of drunk driving fatalities than the national average; a total of 8,476 people were killed in crashes involving a drunk driver in Florida from 2003 to 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

You can find more regulatory and compliance resources on the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s website.

If you are looking for more course-specific information from us check out our Florida alcohol server training.