Today, on A-level results day, The Advantage Travel Partnership has announced it will be striving to invest in bringing new talent into the UK travel industry with a bold and ambitious target of introducing 50 new apprenticeships across the Partnership in the next 12 months.

The programme will be available to all members across the Partnership, operating under both the leisure travel and business travel models.

At its annual conference in May, the Partnership announced a new agreement with apprenticeship provider A S Training to offer Advantage’s travel agency partners and travel management centres access to a range of apprenticeship courses. Ofsted has recently awarded A S Training a Grade 2 good rating.

One of the biggest issues faced by the UK travel industry currently is the lack of new and diverse talent coming into the sector, and the government’s announcement of funding cuts to level three tourism courses is a further blow to recruitment.

Julia Lo Bue-Said, CEO of The Advantage Travel Partnership, said “With the announcement that the government will be cutting funding to level three tourism courses, and the impact that this will have on new recruits coming into the industry, we want to help our members create apprenticeship opportunities to attract new talent into our economic sector across the UK. We have engaged with A S Training who will be supporting apprentices in their training and understanding of the travel industry, and as a business, we will be actively involved with their development through webinars and briefings from the Partnership’s management team.”

Since launching its partnership with A S Training, Advantage has successfully placed apprentices with Polka Dot Travel, Destination Travel, Sunlounger Travel, Beverley Travel, Arrange My Escape, TravelTime World and Oakhurst Travel.

Lo Bue-Said added that inspiring young talent at a grassroots level is crucial for the industry and that she and her leadership team will also be looking to work with local colleges and universities as well as the wider industry, presenting to students the merits of a career in the UK Outbound travel industry.

For any Advantage members who are keen to find out more about how they can get involved with this apprenticeship scheme, they should contact the Advantage Business Development team at [email protected].