Social enterprise Women in Travel (CIC) is extending its training and mentoring initiatives to provide free guidance for women whose jobs are affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
From July to September, the community interest company will offer 90 women who live in Greater London and have lost entry level or supervisory jobs mentoring, training and access to entry-level employment opportunities in hospitality and tourism.
Online workshops will be hosted as part of Women in Travel’s Female Employability Action Supported by Travel and Tourism (FEAST) initiative to boost the employability skills of women keen to work within the UK’s hospitality, travel and tourism industries.
Women in Travel has also partnered with The Global Travel & Tourism Partnership (GTTP) to offer FEAST attendees access to the GTTP’s 10-week online course Introduction to Travel & Tourism: Passport to the World.
Throughout the summer, Women in Travel will also host online mentoring circles for women who are small business owners, self-employed or at risk of losing their jobs in the travel, tourism or hospitality industry due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
They are a continuation of sessions launched in March and will now run until early September thanks to a grant from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). Three mentoring circles will consist of up to 12 women each and provide opportunities to network, share and learn from like-minded women from the global travel industry.
Alessandra Alonso, founder of Women in Travel said: “We know how tough it can be for unemployed women to return to work in the best of times, and the Covid-19 pandemic has made the process even harder.
“The travel, tourism and hospitality industries have been impacted enormously during the first six months of this year, so for those women who may have been made redundant or are at risk of losing income, it is great that we are able to continue offering our training and mentoring initiatives to help them, and boost the confidence and success rate of those looking to get back to work as soon as possible.”