For every 100 recruits posted overseas to work as holiday reps, 30 will leave before the end of the season. For a huge company like Airtours, which takes on around 550 overseas staff a year, this means that up to 180 resort vacancies could be created during one season.
Looking at these figures, it is not hard to see why Airtours decided it was time to take a different approach to recruitment – one that would help target candidates with more staying power and therefore reduce staff turnover.
Last year it formed links with seven further education colleges, all of which run the BTEC Advanced Certificate in Overseas Representation. The operator worked with tutors to tailor the course to its needs as an employer. In return, it guaranteed students an interview at the end of the six-month course. The project was a success and last spring 75 students (98% of the total number participating in the pilot scheme) were taken on by Airtours as overseas reps for summer 1999.
Recruitment and development officer Vicky Spray said: “We are looking for people who are committed and anyone prepared to work full time and study for two nights a week for six months, as most students did, must be pretty committed.”
Indeed, the turnover rate among the reps who completed the course was just 15% compared with the average of 30%.
Spray added: “The feedback from managers in resort has been excellent. They say the students are a lot more prepared than recruits who have not done the course.”
Of course, Airtours is still recruiting the majority of overseas reps in the traditional way but it has already joined up with a further 13 colleges this year and plans to increase its student intake to 200 for this summer. There are also plans to expand the concept and link up with drama and hospitality courses to give students a chance to apply for jobs as entertainment or chalet staff.
The beauty of the project from Airtours’ point of view is that it has been able to work with the college administrators to make sure the course really does prepare students for a job as an Airtours rep.
“We have put more emphasis on the customer care role to make the course more practical. We have also had discussions with BTEC to reduce the amount of time spent on theoretical teaching, such as the structure of the travel industry and legal issues, so that more time is spent on the real issues reps are likely to face,” said Spray.
But it is not just the operator that benefits. The colleges gain from the association with a big name like Airtours, and the students themselves have the security of a guaranteed interview with a major operator at the end of the course.
Liza Brice, 21, was posted to Spain last summer after completing a course at North Lincolnshire college, one of the seven pilot colleges.
“Some people just don’t know what to expect or don’t understand what is involved but I felt prepared. The course involves a lot of role play, which really helped, especially with the welcome meetings,” said Brice, who worked in a bank while studying two nights a week for the BTEC certificate.
Brice added:”There will always be tough parts of the job, such as trying to keep holidaymakers happy and informed during long flight delays, but going on the course has helped me deal with situations like these.
“I find I refer back to the course a lot of the time without even realising it,” she said.
For more information, contact Airtours on 01706 909027.