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GTMC CONFERENCE: Martin Ferguson reports from Marrakech 4
Leisure and business sectors develop new travel consultant apprenticeship
The business and leisure travel industries are working together to develop a new travel consultant apprenticeship in England for school-leavers. The Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC) had hoped a business travel-specific apprenticeship would be part of the second phase of the government’s Trailblazer project to modernise training across industries. However, regulators felt the sector did
not warrant its own scheme. Instead, business travel modules developed by the GTMC will form part of a broader travel qualification. The project is being driven by the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Liz Carter, director of human
resources at Hillgate Travel and chairman of the GTMC’s People Strategy Group, told Travel Weekly the apprenticeships would go some way to alleviating a serious skills shortage in corporate travel.
Speaking at the GTMC conference in Marrakech
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this week, she said: “Only 7% of employees in business travel are under 24 years of age. “Initially, we tried to get a scheme purely for
“It will be up to the GTMC to make sure the scheme is fit for purpose”
business travel because we are a different service. “However, the leisure sector is good at bringing people into the industry. “It will be up to the GTMC and its members to make sure the business travel element is fit for purpose and attractive to young workers.” Carter said the economic recovery was driving growing demand from TMCs for young workers. The GTMC is creating marketing collateral to raise awarness of business travel among students and young adults. The apprenticeship schemes are scheduled to go live in 2015. ❯ More GTMC news, page 63
Liz Carter: ‘The leisure sector is good at bringing people into the industry’
EasyJet ‘would consider Heathrow’
EasyJet would consider flying from Heathrow if the airport were given the green light to build a third runway.
Addressing delegates at the Guild of Travel
Management Companies (GTMC) annual overseas conference in Marrakech, chief executive Carolyn McCall (pictured) quashed a perception that the low-cost carrier would never move to the London hub. “We fly out of lots of hubs
already,” she said. “We have 10 aircraft at Charles de Gaulle and we’re the second-biggest carrier at Schiphol airport. “But Heathrow is an expensive airport so it would be about getting the right price.” She revealed easyJet had seriously considered
Heathrow for its recently launched Moscow service. Although easyJet is the biggest carrier at Gatwick,
McCall refused to endorse the airport’s proposal to build a second runway. She said: “I don’t know how
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travelweekly.co.uk — 5 June 2014
a second runway would impact us yet. I haven’t seen any economics or a business case yet, so until we see the numbers we will reserve judgment.” McCall did confirm, however, that easyJet had no intention of operating any long-haul services, saying to do so would “distract” it from its core short-haul offering across Europe. She also said she was not concerned
by fresh competition for business travellers, in light of Ryanair’s announcement earlier this year that it was going after corporate travel business and would start selling through global distribution systems and travel management companies. “It [Ryanair] only flies to a few primary airports, but not many,” she said. “If it’s going to be relevant to the business
traveller it would need a change of network strategy. “All our surveys confirm that business travellers
want primary airports, convenience and speed. “They don’t want to have a one-and-a-half-hour transfer to Paris or Vienna.”
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