New tourism and travel school takes fresh approach

Caption for photo: Charlie Ives, Juliet Chilton, Karen Friedberg, and Ian Douthwaite have combined their tourism, travel and training expertise to open Going Places Education in Christchurch.

New tourism and travel school takes fresh approach

People contemplating a career in tourism can get ready to take off with Going Places Education, a new tourism and travel training school that opened in Christchurch last week.

The school has lower fees as a key priority. “Tourism and travel training schools should be doing more to keep fees down,” maintains Director, Juliet Chilton, who says high costs cannot be blamed upon competition. The government subsidises tourism and travel students by about $5000 per annum.

The four directors including Juliet, Karen Friedberg, Charlie Ives and Ian Douthwaite have combined their expertise from companies including House of Travel, Air New Zealand and Contiki Tours, to change the face of training. Their aim is to provide contemporary teaching with a technology edge whilst maintaining an affordable levels of fees.

Students are able to choose from three main career tracks in New Zealand’s fastest growing industry, including courses aimed at jobs in the New Zealand tourism and travel industry, in technical or support roles, as well as travel agencies.

An innovative reservations course came about when Ian Douthwaite recognized the trend for booking holidays through the Internet or telephone-based customer centres. “We’ve incorporated an IT option, and one which combines call centre skills with industry knowledge.”

The courses, with a cyber-savvy focus, have been designed after extensive consultation with the industry to ensure that material is relevant and up-to-date. After all, the recently-released tourism strategy predicts that in 10 years, one in eight New Zealand jobs will be related to the tourism and travel industry.

Air New Zealand’s manager of Air Points and Koru Club Services, Brent McConchie agrees about the potential. He reinforces the growing need for suitably-skilled staff, including in their own call centre. “We provide very good career opportunities for people who have relevant skills and have a talent for looking after customers,” he says.

Director Karen Friedberg says that Going Places also intends to “provide a fun, friendly and relaxed atmosphere, where the students come first and the training is cutting edge. Students will receive a practical grasp of industry application and portable lifeskills”.

“Successful competition is all about delivering high-quality courses at competitive rates,” says Juliet Chilton. “Private providers have to offer real value in order to survive. Of course, we still have to maintain high quality teaching,” she adds, “but we think our fees will set a new standard of affordability for this kind of training, and we’re proud of that”.

Going Places’ first intake is in July. With the prediction that increasing numbers of New Zealanders will in future be employed within travel and tourism, Going Places Education looks destined to ensure they do so as cost effectively as possible.

Contact Juliet Chilton on 03 365 1650

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