Travel

With the continued changes in travel restrictions, I thought that it would useful to open up a bit about the travel industry. As through practice, I find that people either look at becoming a pilot or cabin crew, and miss some other very important job roles.

Starting with the most obvious (but opening it up more) are travel agents. However, I see more and more independent travel agents or coaches advertising their service. They have links and broad knowledge of a large number of travel companies. So, it isn't just the big high street stores.

Another extremely important job role, is air traffic controller. But how can you get into this role? Through there being a lot of controls and standards in place across the world, it is important to be aware of this. NATS ( National Air Traffic Services) offer a huge range of training courses that meet European and/or International Civil Aviation Standards. Although the main 3 areas are; air traffic control ; engineering; and human performance. But each area have quite a number of specialist training qualifications within them, and here are some examples:

Area	Course
Engineering	ATSEP Data Processing Qualification
Engineering	Communications Service Monitor
Human Performance	Incident Investigation
Hunan Performance	Visual Planning in the Operational Management
Air Traffic Control	Air Traffic Control (ATC)
Air Traffic Control	ATC Service

Alternatively, a large number of airline companies are still offering a wide range of specialist courses, which sometimes includes flying courses and some, more specific to the airport.

However, the FE courses available that can be called Travel and Tourism or aviation are a bit more generic, but can be some great basic knowledge for working in a lot of roles in the airport, travel agents and cabin crew job roles. It is the more specialist roles that require more specialist qualifications.

A point to note, is that some high street travel agents offer apprenticeships every year, and some of the airports, in a variety of roles.

Unfortunately, I am unable to share the latest information on the changes in the travel industry, as ONS have not released any recent data. However, booking.com have done a survey of 20,934 people, and 42% of them want to travel more in the future. Which gives us some optimism, for the future of the travel industry.

I am certainly looking forward to getting back on a plane, and going on some new adventures.