Travel companies should remove academic qualifications from their requirements when they recruit if they are to foster some of the best talent, the chief executive of Attraction World told a forum.
Olly Nicholls implored travel companies to focus on applicants’ skills rather than on their qualifications, saying “this industry is about people, not a piece of paper”.
Smith spoke in a discussion titled The Big Neurodiversity Question at this year’s International Women in Travel and Tourism Forum (IWTTF), where he shared his experience of being diagnosed with ADHD.
More: Women in Travel conference to feature area for neurodivergent guests
He urged travel companies to drop qualifications when they recruit, saying neurodivergent people might struggle academically but could still be a good fit for the role.
“To any companies that are here today, I am telling you to take qualifications off your job specifications,” he told delegates.
“I was once headhunted for a role where they put me down to the final two and then told me I couldn’t get the job because I didn’t have the right qualifications, even though they clearly thought I was capable and they had come to me.
“This industry is all about people, what they can do and their skill set, not what they have on a piece of paper and we need to wake up to that.
“Job specifications without qualifications on will lead to a far more interesting and diverse collection of applicants.”