07 Mar
2019

Celebrating ABTA Member apprentices

It’s National Apprenticeship Week (4-8 March) and many of our Members have been celebrating their fantastic apprentice success stories on social media and in the press. We've shared some of our Members' recent highlights and how to meet ABTA's Education Partners who can help you deliver an apprenticeship programme.

ABTA worked closely with Members on developing the Travel Consultant Apprenticeship programme in 2017 and after two years, apprentices have now started graduating and entering their careers as fully trained travel consultants. The new Travel Consultant Apprenticeship covers both leisure and business travel and lasts between 12-24 months depending on previous qualifications and contracts with employers who will give the required on-the-job training.

Apprenticeships make good business sense in terms of productivity, investment in future talent and staff retention. They give companies the chance to train and develop staff, while also ensuring they are getting on the job experience. Research from the National Apprenticeship Service indicates that 80% of companies that invest in apprentices report an increase in staff retention.

Our Members are training a wide range of apprentices both in the business and leisure markets and also in HR, finance, IT, digital marketing, management and engineering to name a few. We’ve highlighted how our ABTA Education Partners have been working with Members to deliver successful apprenticeship programmes.

First apprenticeship programme for commercial airline pilots approved

Recently the standards for the first apprenticeship for commercial airline pilots, developed by a group of leading aviation employers, has been approved for delivery by People 1st. This is a great opportunity to open up this career path to those who may not have had access to it in the past. ABTA Members were key in the development of this apprenticeship programme and the standards were developed over several years with input from across the aviation industry. They really are to be congratulated on their hard work developing these standards.

ABTA Education Partners are proving educational success for ABTA Members

We have three great college Partners and two fantastic training provider Partners including Damar Training and Training Station who are in the middle of examining and awarding certificates. Training station has recently presented Althams Travel in Accrington with certificates in Travel, Customer Service, Team Leading and Management. Damar Training and Training Station can both help you to develop your apprenticeship programme and, in some cases, assist you in finding the apprentice.

A number of ABTA’s Education Partners now offer degree level apprenticeships. Our Education Partner Hertfordshire University recently developed a Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship for TUI. The programme started in September 2018 with 18 apprentices. The University of Hertfordshire staff regularly visit TUI’s head office in Luton to meet with the apprentices and stakeholder managers. The programme is well structured too, with the University of Hertfordshire holding four week-long learning blocks over the year and the apprentices also receive guest lectures from subject experts at TUI as well. 

Upskilling existing staff and meeting with ABTA Education Partners

By working ABTA’s Education Partner Universities, it is a great way to upskill existing staff or offer a structured degree career pathway to both existing and new staff. We often invite our all our Education Partners, including those offering the new degree apprenticeships, to ABTA’s regional business meetings.

Members can explore opportunities with our Partners at these events or look them up on the ABTA Member zone, Partner Services under Education, Training and Recruitment. They are also all listed on www.abta.com/education.

If you would like to get in touch with our Education Partners, please email Vicki Wolf, ABTA’s education partnerships manager vwolf@abta.co.uk