Travel Uni has produced a new training programme to encourage more agents to use the coronavirus lockdown to improve their product knowledge.
Train and Gain offers updated training levels for completing its 49 courses and downloadable badges and certificates for agents to use to promote their qualifications.
New courses on the site include the Abu Dhabi Specialist programme, live on abudhabispecialist.com and on Travel Uni, which includes training modules, agent selling tools and competitions. Equator Learning, which owns online training website Travel Uni, created the dedicated site for the Abu Dhabi programme.
The online training website has emailed its database of 60,000 users in the UK, the majority of which are frontline travel agents, with details of Train and Gain.
The launch follows a spike of around 35% more users in the last three weeks compared with the same time last year.
Train and Gain offers five renamed levels to work through: member; undergraduate; graduate; postgraduate and master. The qualifying process for each has also been updated so members can graduate slightly quicker than in the past. Previously the levels started with apprentice and progressed through to master.
Ian Dockreay, managing director of Equator Learning, which owns Travel Uni, said Train and Gain was designed to make training more straightforward and help travel professionals make the best use of their spare time, so they come out of the lockdown with even more knowledge.
He said: “We have streamlined it so you can get to graduate level quicker. It is more dynamic and gives travel professionals more recognition.
“The good thing is while people are at home, even if they have been furloughed, they can train. When the good times return they will have a better knowledge of the industry and be more familiar with the different products.”
After achieving each level, users receive a badge and certificate to download for their email signature and website in recognition of their training.
In the past, agents only received certificates from suppliers, tourist boards or hotels providing courses, rather than from Travel Uni. “We wanted them to have something to reflect their achievement,” added Dockreay.