Shaun Ricketts, webmaster, Ayscough Travel
Age: 26.
Education: nine O levels, 2 A levels, BSc in Business Informatics atManchester Metropolitan University.
First travel job: this one
Career path: after finishing college in 1992, Shaun worked for Greenwich Council Housing Benefits before deciding that a career in Information Technology would suit him and so he started a university course in business informatics. During this course he gained valuable experience and knowledge of Web development and design from summer placements, especially during work at Future Internet Technologies which involved working on sites such as Emap. Shaun joined Ayscough Travel in 1998 to help the business travel management company develop and maintain its Web and intranet sites. Shaun is constantly revising and updating these sites to ensure that Ayscough Travel clients have access to the most up-to-date information at all times. Shaun is also using Ayscough Travel as a case study for his university dissertation, which is looking at how intranets can be used as a tool for education within a company.
His advice to people looking to work in the travel trade: “You must have an interest in world geography and travel. Although I do not deal with the travellers day in day out, they do refer to the Web pages and intranets I design, so knowledge of the subject is as important as the technological know how.”