Following the Government decision last year to defund travel and tourism post-16 courses in England, it was clear that action needed to be taken to address this issue. Recognising this fact, ABTA set up the Tourism Industry Skills Working Group, bringing together organisations from across the travel sector, as well as education representatives and travel and tourism course leaders and awarding organisations.

The aim was to discuss and formulate alternative training options to attract young people to the industry and give them the chance to gain tourism qualifications.

Following a series of workshops we held around the country late last year, we have now put together a survey seeking further input from industry experts such as HR and education and training leads, to advise on the design of these courses. You can complete the survey here. Please also share the survey far and wide, as all input is valuable and welcome.

There has been a huge amount of work put in by the working group to get to this point. It is a shining example of effective collaboration, on such an important issue for the future of our industry.

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive