Tui Group has launched a company-wide initiative to recruit more staff without traditional tourism qualifications as part of a strategy to overcome the sector’s skill shortage.
The ‘lateral entrants’ initiative also aims to make career opportunities within the company more open to employees.
More lateral entrants will work in customer-orientated areas such as travel agencies or call centres, and more applicants without a traditional education in tourism will be recruited to Tui’s head offices around Europe.
The focus in the head office roles will be on finance and technology, among other areas. “Career changers” will be supported with targeted qualification offers “to ensure Tui’s quality standards”.
By 2030, a quarter of all advertised positions in Germany and across the group are to be filled by lateral entrants. Tui currently has 1,100 vacancies worldwide.
Frank Jakobi, chairman of Tui’s Group Works Council, said: “With the lateral entry initiative, we are opening up Tui to applicants who share our enthusiasm for tourism, bring new skills with them and thus provide fresh perspectives to our company.
“At the same time, we actively support those employees who want to pursue new career paths at Tui.”
As well as the qualification programmes, the initiative will include special recruitment campaigns, the strengthening of existing mentoring programmes and deeper cooperation with educational institutions and universities.
People with restrictions or disabilities are also to be encouraged to join Tui to a greater extent than in the past.
Sybille Reiss, chief people officer of Tui Group, said: “The initiative will make Tui an interesting employer for applicants who have hardly considered us for their professional career so far.
“For us, skills, motivation and a willingness to learn are more important than a degree that someone obtained many years ago.
“We are making ourselves fit for a future of the labour market in which personalised qualification and technological support perfectly complement the successful combination of tourism training and experiential knowledge.”