A £50,000 crowdfunding campaign is being launched to help create an initiative to help manage staff recruitment and retention challenges.
The Future You Foundation is seeking contributions until July 14 from individuals across the industry and offering sponsorship opportunities to travel businesses.
It has been developed as part of the ITT’s Future You scheme.
Travel industry figures Claire Steiner, Danny Waine and Paul Cowley will lead the Future You Foundation, which is aiming to raise an initial £50,000 in seed-funding from industry.
The sum will help raise the profile of careers in travel and amplify industry initiatives to attract talent into the sector.
The Future You Foundation will bring industry together to collaborate on talent challenges, directly create job roles for graduates, apprentices and internships for students, expanding its reach across the UK to include events in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales as well as creating a global advisory board of industry stakeholders.
The Future You Foundation will create an online talent platform to showcase students and graduates actively looking for jobs within travel and tourism businesses, start a mentoring scheme and host industry masterclasses aimed at the next generation of travel industry professionals.
Steiner said: “The Future You Foundation is a collaborative industry initiative, bringing together the travel, tourism, hospitality and aviation industries to champion what a great sector this is to work in.
“All parts of the sector are struggling to attract, recruit and retain talent, so we’re asking the industry to get behind the Future You Foundation and to work together to shout about the opportunities that we offer.”
Waine added: “We’re immensely proud of what we’ve achieved since launching Future You back in 2008.
“All our volunteers give their spare time, evenings and weekends to bring our events to life, inspiring students and graduates along the way.
“The Future You Foundation is an opportunity for travel companies to get their brand in front of individuals who want to work in our fantastic sector. There has been a lot of talk about talent struggles lately and we have been working over the last 14 years to connect talent, education and industry. We now want to take that to the next level.”
Cowley said: “The industry needs to be proactive and engage the next generation to help fill talent gaps.
“The students and graduates that we meet at our Future You events are actively seeking employment in our sector and we have the most diverse audience in the travel industry. The flexible job roles offered by travel businesses also increases accessibility opportunities for all.”
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “Travel is a fascinating industry and every day brings exciting new challenges. It’s important that we share our passion for the sector with the next generation, show how varied the range of job roles is and the rewarding career paths it offers.
“ITT’s Future You Foundation will focus on exactly this and, alongside initiatives such as Abtas regional student representatives programme, will excite and inspire young people to join our sector.”
Travel Counsellors’ UK managing director Kirsten Hughes said: “We all know that the recruitment and retention of talent within our industry has often been an inherent challenge, however together as an industry we need to break this cycle and dispel the myth that roles within travel and tourism are often seen as a steppingstone or interim role.
“Now is the time to act. As our industry recovers from the past 24 months, we need to capitalise on the amazing talent available; be it school leavers, graduates, or those that due to the pandemic and through no fault of their own, have struggled to find suitable placements.”
The Future You Foundation crowdfunder page is now live for contributions for an initial four-week period at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/future-you-foundation