Over the past five years, Take Off in Travel has interviewed a host of people starting out in their travel careers. Here we catch up with four of them


Where are they now? Emily Borthwick


The 23-year-old joined Midcounties Co-operative in 2014 as a trainee travel consultant and a year later started an NVQ Level 2 in Travel Services


I finished my NVQ Level 2, then in July 2017 became a travel consultant after completing the NVQ Level 3. It was a real sense of achievement, as when I was doing the NVQ Level 2, I also had to retake my English and Maths GCSEs, as I moved secondary school halfway through and there was no record of my results! I was working full-time all the time I was studying Level 3 and it felt really good when I completed it. My manager was great and gave me a huge amount of support whenever I needed it. My colleagues who had previously completed Level 3 were also fantastic and gave me lots of advice. Work continues to be very busy and interesting. Earlier this year, I went on a Jet2holidays fam to the Costa Brava. Then I was lucky enough to win a trip to Sri Lanka, which I’m going on later this year.


Alex Jowett


Alex embarked on a cadetship, the nautical equivalent of an apprenticeship, with Carnival UK after leaving university and became second officer on board P&O Cruises’ Britannia


I returned to college to gain my Master Mariner qualification, the merchant-navy deck qualification that allows you to command a vessel. I returned to P&O’s Oriana in 2016 for my first trip as first officer and moved to Azura this year. I’m in charge of all voyage planning and managing the bridge team, which brings enormous responsibility, and I work closely with the captain. The company was supportive, both financially and from a rotation perspective, when I returned to college. In 2016, my wife gave birth to our first child, and the company not only facilitated my request to move to a family- friendly ship, but also granted me extra time at home after she was born. My plan is to keep getting more experience, so in another two years, I might even be safety officer – and my family might have got bigger.


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