Jet2holidays is doubling the funding for its ‘Appoint an Apprentice’ initiative to help independent travel agents develop their workforces.
The operator has committing to a levy spend of more than £1.2million in 2024-25 – more than double last year’s figure of almost £650,000.
Last year’s apprenticeship funding supported independent agents in developing the next generation of talent in their stores and in the travel industry.
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The move to invest more funds into the scheme this year comes in response to the “overwhelmingly positive” feedback received.
The operator approved apprenticeship levy funds totalling almost £500,000 to 50 different companies, enabling them to recruit 72 new apprentices in total in 2023-24.
Many of the independent agency partners were classed as small businesses and had never recruited apprentices before.
Jet2holidays also provided £150,000 to help fund the salaries of new apprentices for one year in independent travel agencies across the UK.
Jet2holidays travel agent relationships director Alan Cross said: “Since launching our Appoint an Apprentice scheme, we have been truly amazed by the response from our independent travel agency partners and the feedback we have had from them has been fantastic.
“As part of our commitment to investing directly into our independent travel agency partners to help them grow their business, we are making the scheme even bigger and better this year, with over double the amount of funding available.
“Apprentices are integral to the future growth and success of Jet2holidays, and we recognise the importance they play, both within our own business as well as the wider industry.
“That is why this year we are helping support even more independent travel agent partners, many of whom are small businesses, to develop their talent pipeline through apprenticeships.”
Blue Bay Travel is one of the independent agencies supported by the scheme and recently recruited two apprentices into the business.
Learning and development manager Bethany Brown said: “The Jet2holidays team deserve so much credit for this brilliant idea which has given us the opportunity to bring on more apprentices within our team. Our two new additions wouldn’t have been possible this year without the levy transfer funding from Jet2holidays, so we really appreciate it.”