Aged just 17, Amy Parry owns up to being “quite shy”. Not the sort of person who would stand up in front of 400 people and ask for help getting a job.
But that’s exactly what she did at the Aspire conference in March – a move that resulted in a “brilliant” two months’ paid work experience for herself and placements for three friends.
“I’m usually quite shy. What I did at the conference blew me away. I don’t know what was wrong with me that day. But it’s given me a lot more confidence,” she said.
Amy’s initiative led Bales Worldwide managing director Mandy Nickerson to offer her a two-month placement, allowing Parry to “get my hands on everything”. She worked in the company’s marketing department and helped produce the operator’s 2006 Inspirational Journeys brochure, checked mailing lists, answered phones and uploaded information on to the operator’s website.
Amy was also invited on a company team-building day out and spent the two months living with customer services manager Belinda and her family due to the fact Amy lives in Margate and Bales is based in Dorking, Surrey.
“I’ll be sad to be leaving. It’s gone really well,” said Parry.
“I got on with everyone who worked there and they made me feel really welcome from the start.” Sales director Iain Fenton said: “Amy was absolutely brilliant and became quite outgoing by the end of two months. We couldn’t have asked for a better student.”
Fenton said Bales Worldwide had recently taken on a tourism management university graduate for a year’s placement, and urged other companies to do the same.
“It’s a chicken-and-egg situation. How do you get into the industry if you can’t get any work experience?”
Speaking to Travel Weekly during her last week at Bales, Amy said more students should “speak out” if they find they’re not being offered work experience. “Everywhere I went for an interview, I’d be asked whether I had any work experience, which I didn’t, so I’d end up getting knocked back. I just put my hand up at the conference and Mandy Nickerson was on the stage at that time.
“If people are looking for work experience, they should also think about going to the companies in person and asking them if they are prepared to take them on.”
Since her two months at Bales, Amy has applied for various permanent jobs within the travel business, but says her dream has always been to work for Virgin Alantic at Gatwick Airport.
“But if a tour operator offered me a job, I wouldn’t turn it down,” she added.
Eighteen-year-old Leanne Jarvis, above right, was spending a day doing work experience at London City Airport on July 7, the day London was under seige from terrorist bombings.
LEANNE’S TIPS
“Dive straight in and get as much out of it as you can. Ask as many questions as you can. The person showing us around had to go and do something so, for an hour, I asked the pilots as many questions as I could. It’s the only way you are going to get the information you need.”
While the airport didn’t close, it was on high alert — buses were stopped from entering and leaving and armed guards were stepped up.
Despite the experience being “unnerving”, Leanne said it didn’t put her off her dream of becoming a pilot, saying: “Nothing can stop me”.
Leanne — a BTEC travel operations student at Thanet College in Kent — was offered a day’s work experience at City Airport with airline VLM, a week at Thomas Cook’s branch in Chatham, Kent, and two days at Gatwick Airport with Excel Airways.
“The City Airport day was cut short due to the bombings, but we were shown around, given the history of the airline and I spoke to all the team. They kept asking me what career I wanted to do and gave me loads of advice.”
At Gatwick Airport, Leanne spent two days with Excel Airways, where she was able to grill the airline’s experienced pilots for advice.
“That day was brilliant. They showed me all the work they do before a flight can leave, but it hasn’t put me off — I still want to be a pilot. They told me to look at aviation schools, but when training costs around £65,000, I think I‘ll have to see if any of them can sponsor me.”
Before training to become a pilot, Leanne plans to get a full-time job in the travel industry, and then go for the medical assessment needed to become a pilot.
But she hasn’t got her heart set on British Airways, or even the trendy Virgin Atlantic.
“VLM and Excel are both really good airlines; small and personal. I’d work for either of them.”
Attracted by the life of an air hostess, Hannah Tiley wrote off to as many airlines as possible after her work experience at Excel Airways.
HANNAH’S TIPS
“Be open-minded, and don’t say you can’t do something. Try everything as you won’t have the opportunity again.”
She has enrolled on a year-long air cabin crew course at Thanet College in Kent, which starts in September, and been invited to apply for training at Excel Airways.
Despite her age – at only 17 Hannah is too young to start training to work as cabin crew – Excel Airways has offered to train her while she does her course.
Along with Leanne and Elizabeth, Hannah did work experience at Thomas Cook’s Kent branch, spent a day at London City Airport and two days at Gatwick with Excel Airways.
While friend Leanne wanted to get her wings, Hannah was more interested in the cabin crew.
“There’s a lot more to being an air hostess than I originally thought,” she told Travel Weekly.
“It’s quite a challenge and they have to know all about health and safety, and have back-up plans. I used to think it was just a matter of walking up and down the aisle and smiling, but there’s more to it than that.”
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Leanne’s work experience diary
We asked Leanne Jarvis to keep a diary of her work experience. Here’s what she told us:
1: Thomas Cook, Chatham
Friday June 10
We went to Thomas Cook’s branch in Chatham, Kent to introduce ourselves to the staff. We were told this branch was the centre of excellence but I felt like we weren’t really wanted. The staff asked us how we ended up there and if we would like to go to another branch. They were extremely busy and we were the last thing they needed, but I tried to keep my opinions open until I met the rest of the team.
Monday June 27 – My first day
Although the morning was a little slow today I really enjoyed it. My first impressions were totally wrong. I got to watch and see how the staff deal with customers and I helped with administration and brochures.
Tuesday June 28
Today was a little quieter and there wasn’t a lot to do so I spent the day observing. I got to see how to interact with different types of customers.
Wednesday June 29
I observed again and even when there weren’t any customers, just watching how the team work with each other was enlightening. They seem to have a good relationship and get on so well.
2: VLM, City Airport
July 7
We were taken around the airport and shown departure and arrivals, check-in, airport operations and air-traffic control. We were then taken to VLM, where we were told all about the airline, its history and its destinations. They gave us some great advice on how to get where we want when we’ve finished our studies. They were really great people and a fantastic airline.
3: Excel Airways, Gatwick Airport
July 11
Today was the most amazing day of my entire life. I sat in the flight deck being shown all the work the pilots do before a flight. I had the chance to talk to all the pilots and ask them questions; my brain was on overload. We then watched as passengers boarded and stood by as they taxied to the runways. I only wish I could have been flying it instead of watching.
July 12
Today we sat in on senior cabin-crew training. They have three days of training, which seemed to be extremely hard. A lot of people think you just need to be pretty and not very intelligent to be cabin crew, but that’s not true. They had to do a lot of work, but seemed to love what they were doing.
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