THE Asia Travel Marketing Association has taken its agents’ training scheme in house to give it greater control over the project.
The 10-module programme has been run by the Travel Training Company since its launch four years ago, but Asia TMA’s UK regional marketing director Kim Romanski said it will now be managed by the association.
“By taking the training programme in house we will be able to offer agents greater flexibility,” said Romanski. “Previously there were only two in-takes a year, which meant some agents had to wait months before they could start the programme. Now they will be able to start straight away.”
Agents will also be allowed to progress at their own pace, rather than having to wait until all the trainees finish one module before starting the next.
“This means some agents will be able to finish the training programme in less than 10 months,” said Romanski. “Others can take longer if they wish – we won’t penalise anyone for the time it takes them.”
The scheme, which has attracted 869 trainees, costs £99. Romanski said she hoped that by taking certain cost-cutting steps Asia TMA would be able to bring down the price.
It is also researching the possibility of offering agents the programme on either floppy disk or CD-ROM as an alternative to paper later this year.
“If we can do this without increasing the price to the agent then we will be happy to do it,” she added.
Asia TMA’s top-scoring agents in the training programme are being offered the chance to win one of six places on a Jetset educational if they send in their application by July 31.