Celebrating Irena’s Remarkable Journey at ITC

Irena Wilson – Academic & Quality Manager

What do you say about someone who has shaped a decade of quality, inspired a team of educators, and impacted countless learners, all with humility and heart?

As International Travel College of New Zealand (ITC) prepares to farewell our dear Irena Wilson (formerly Irena Wysoczanski) into retirement, we do feel incredibly grateful. We are so lucky she chose us and that we chose her.

Many of you will remember Irena from when we first introduced her to the ITC whānau. Before joining ITC, she built an impressive career with Air New Zealand, beginning as a flight attendant and progressing to Training Manager, where she updated and wrote training programmes that helped shape the airline’s people and service standards. That depth of real-world experience became a gift to our learners and our team.

As she steps into retirement, we asked Irena to reflect on her journey.

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Meeting Demand, Supporting Northland: A Second Tourism Intake for Whangārei

ITC’s Mel with her Whangarei Academy

The strength of any industry lies in its people — and right now, New Zealand’s tourism and aviation sectors are thriving. With that growth comes opportunity, optimism, and an urgent need for skilled, job-ready professionals who are ready to step into exciting careers.

At the International Travel College (ITC) Whangārei Campus, we’re proud to share some exciting news: a second full-time Tourism intake will launch in July 2026, following overwhelming demand for our February start, which filled earlier than expected.

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Meet John Armstrong, our Tutor who brings inspiration and sunshine to the classroom

ITC Tutor John Armstrong has been an important part of the ITC whanau, since 2005!

Known for his friendly nature and great sense of humour, John has been a tutor at ITC since 2005. He loves helping students discover the magic of a career in travel and tourism. John shares his journey and passion for the industry.

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Meet Esther, our dedicated Schools Coordinator

ITC leads in delivering Tourism Resources, Experiences, Short Courses and so much more.  Seniors can experience tourism or aviation and make an informed choice for a potential tourism or airline career. We have a team of dedicated people, we like to call the ‘Schools Team’. 

We consistently receive amazing feedback about our quick turn around of our schools products and services.  When you reach out to our dedicated schools team for support you’ll have the pleasure of emailing our Schools Coordinator, Esther.  Esther takes pride in all she does to help schools receive all they need in a timely fashion.  Read more to learn a little more about our amazing Esther Johnston.

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Get to know Botany tutor, Kirsten Leith

We’re excited to have Kirsten as our Botany Tutor.

Kirsten Leith is no stranger to ITC.

Kirsten has been a Course Advisor & Employment Consultant for our Botany Campus, and now we are lucky to have her in the role as our Botany Tutor.  Her incredible expertise in the industry will prepare any graduate for an exciting career in our tourism or airline industry.

Not only that, but she also has supported our busy Short Course team with our popular Business of Tourism Academy in South Auckland. 

We reached out to Kirsten to hear all about her story to date. 

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Meet our Academic & Quality Coordinator Star – Allison Jones

Meet Toni our fantastic Study From Home Tutor

Meet Toni Young – Study From Home Tutor

Toni Young joined the Study From Home team in early 2021. Before that, she lived in Australia and the UK, and worked as a travel agent, a teacher, and for an airline and event management company.

No two days are the same for Toni. She might be working in Teams Assessment with a group of students, on a Zoom meeting with a student overseas, marking students’ work, or working on developing new course content. She sees her role as encouraging, motivating, facilitating, and counselling students.

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Meet Lynelle our amazing Study From Home Tutor

Lynelle Panton is our wonderful Study From Home Tutor

Lynelle’s background is all about travel. She has worked in leisure travel, in hotels, for rental car companies, and even as a corporate travel consultant at American Express. That’s when she joined the ITC team as a campus tutor, before moving across to the Study From Home team where she is also a tutor.

As a part-timer, Lynelle juggles her work with SFH with her home life, where she’s full-on with three kids. She loves that she can spend time with her children after school and help with their activities, while still working in an industry she loves so much and knows so well.

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Apply now for your chance to win an ITC Scholarship!

Apply for an ITC Scholarship

ITC and Study From Home have just opened up applications for some amazing scholarship opportunities!

As the New Zealand tourism industry has got back into the swing of things, businesses are seeking new and qualified staff such as graduates from ITC and Study From Home.

“New Zealand continues to be one of the world’s top tourism destinations, and with the borders open, international visitors are returning. We need to support our sector to rebuild a more resilient future that leaves people, communities and the environment better off than before,” Peeni Henare said.

We are doing our bit to support our industry, ITC is helping people with a passion for joining the Travel & Tourism industry gain first-class skills and knowledge. We want to help even more by giving away multiple scholarships for full-time students, which are worth up to $5,600 per student. Not only that, it’s also on top of the Fees Free program, so you could have the first part of your study covered by Fees Free, and the second part partially paid for by a scholarship!

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ITC connecting graduates to the exciting cruise ship industry

ITC Students working with the cruise industry

This summer season in New Zealand has been the most exciting for the travel and tourism industry in the country in years. For a group of ITC students and graduates, it has been an extra special time thanks to ITC and the cruise ship industry.

That’s because we recently set up a number of students with a fantastic opportunity to gain work experience in the industry.

Read on to learn more about how it happened (and how you could get valuable work experience when you study with ITC, too).

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