THE LAST couple of years has seen a marked increase in the number of travel and tourism students who are interested in following a career in a corporate agency.
However, employers have found that many are woefully unprepared for the job ahead of them.
Much of the blame has been attributed to the educational establishments whose travel and tourism courses are geared only towards the leisureindustry.
Business travel agents say there is a need for properly trained recruits who have the right qualities to do the job now more than ever.
BTI UK international commercial director Mike Platt said: “There has always been a shortage of skilled staff coming into business travel and the requirement for quality is getting greater.
“You would think that with the emergence of greater technology, you could get away with less qualified staff but it is the opposite in my view.
“Technology takes away the simple, mundane stuff that people have to do. If you are left with the difficult and interesting stuff, then you have to have people with the skill to tackle these sort of tasks.”
It is not just those moving into the industry who need to be correctly trained.
P&O Travel managing director Tony Hughes recently put all his staff on a two-day customer service programme and then asked for feedback.
“We found that we had actually spent the majority of our time on technology training and we had almost neglected the human side of the business,” he said. “The business travel profession is changing so much that we have to redefine as an industry what we are looking for in members of staff.
“It may be that some of the skills we looked for historically may not have been the ones of the future.”
Going Places Business Travel general manager Adam White set up a one-year course for college leavers who have already studied a travel and tourism course and who want training specially geared towards business travel.
The first 23 recruits were taken on last summer to work at Going Places business centres around the UK and will qualify for their National Vocational Qualification level two in Business Travel Services in June.
White said:”There are simply not enough experienced travel people in the market place. We have to fill the shortage by a number of means, one of which is this.
“If they pass the course and perform well within the business travel centre then clearly they are in an extremely employable position.”
To help attract more people into business travel and make sure they are properly trained, the Guild of Business Travel Agents has stepped up its four-stage training programme which gives students a City and Guilds qualification at various levels.
GBTA manager Mike Riddle said:”The City and Guilds qualifications give people recognition for the jobs they are doing.
“The scheme provides a career ladder for people who come into the business from college at an introductory level and can then follow through each level as they move onwards and upwards.”
The introductory level aimed at school-leavers is currently run at 12 colleges in the UK and the GBTA is talking to other colleges about starting the course next year.
Later this year, the GBTA will offer the next stage of the qualification, the consultant-level course, as a self-study option for people who want to move over from retail travel or who have been working in another area of business such as administration or accountancy.
The syllabus will cover all the areas a business travel agent is expected to know about, including ticketing, itinerary planning and geography. The GBTA’s programme intake this year for its highest-level qualification, the management level, is just about to start.
Since its inception five years ago, 100 people have been awarded the management certificate in business travel and are authorised to have the letters MCBT after their name.
n See Business Travel feature,page 57
GBTA training programmes
There are four levels of training in conjunction with City and Guilds.
Introductory: specifically designed for school-leavers and run at local colleges. Twelve colleges currently offer the programme. More will be signed up to run the course next year.
Consultant: designed for people who are already employed in business travel, or who want to cross over from another field. Students are assessed by examination based on their day-to-day work experience.
Supervisory: nine-month course which starts in September each year. Candidates have to complete an assignment and a written exam at the end of the course.
Management: this is an 18-month course which is divided into three modules cover ing the broad aspects of the business including people skills, finance and sales and marketing. Candidates take an exam for each module. Most of the course is self-study supported by tutor-led two-day courses.
Business travel agency training courses:
Carlson Wagonlit Travel: offers work placements to travel and tourism students and full-time job opportunities for successful candidates. Has just launched a programme for managers. Staff work in teams and are set a business problem which they must find a solution to. Their answers are fed through a computer which analyses their suggestions and then provides a report on how these will benefit the company.
BTI UK: its own training programme, called Upgrade, is designed to help retail agents switch to business travel. The six-month course is split into eight modules. Candidates finish with a vocational qualification level two in travel services and experience in a BTI UK branch. BTI UK is also close to forming an agreement with colleges to run its own business travel training programme.
Rosenbluth International: works with several colleges to offer vocational qualification training to new entrants to the industry. Also offers cross-over training in-house to people who come from other agencies and want to move into business travel.