ITC Offers Exciting Futures for Year 12 and 13 Students

ITC Account Manager Ceri Jenkins made a recent presentation to Kelston Girls’ Careers Academy. The event also included presentations from other tertiary partners of the academy and highlighted potential pathways for the students’ future training and employment.

2013 was the first year of ITC’s involvement with Kelston Girls’ Careers Academy. This exciting project enables students at years 12 and 13 to gain standalone travel and tourism qualifications at level 2 and 3. These can also be used towards their level 2 and 3 NCEA qualifications. These students then have clear pathways into tertiary courses at ITC if they choose to take them. (more…)

ITC Gives Northland Students a Taste of the Action

A new initiative from International Travel College (ITC) gives students from outside the main centres the chance to experience the opportunities available in the airline, travel and tourism industries.

“We are very aware that there are high school students around the country who simply don’t have the access to training opportunities that students in the larger cities have,” says ITC’s Marketing Director Claire Huxley.

“It’s not just a lack of training institutions in those areas, but there are few chances for students to even explore whether they are interested in pursuing a particular field of study.”

To combat this, ITC recently provided its two-day Flight Attending Short Course to students in Northland.

“We contacted all the high school careers advisors in the area,” says Claire, “and they were absolutely thrilled to be able to offer this to their students. We also have a great relationship with Fullers and we contacted them to see if they could help us out.”

Fullers Great Sites offered its vessel ‘Tongariro’, to stand in for the aircraft cabin for the full two days of the course.

ITC’s Short Course Tutor Mel Verwijmeren ran the course. She provided students with practical role-play experience using onboard equipment, and taught them skills related to in-flight service, safety demonstrations, evacuations and how to deal with passengers’ specific needs.

An added bonus of running the course onboard a ship, says Mel, was how transferable those skills are from airline travel to the open ocean.

“The students learnt about the entry level roles onboard these vessels, giving them a greater understanding of what further education was needed to step into such roles.”

“And thanks to Barry, the Operations Manager of Fullers Great Sites, our students got a real taste of what the travel and tourism industry has to offer, as we visited local tourist attractions the R-Tucker Sail Boat, Dolphin Explorer, Overnight Cruise Ipipiri and the Exciter, which is equipped with not one but four V8 engines!”

This first step in ITC’s new initiative has been incredibly successful, and several of the students have already enrolled with ITC for 2014, and a number were even offered work experience onboard one of the Fullers Great Site vessels.

“Mel worked incredibly hard to provide these students with the same experience students from Auckland schools get with our short courses,” says Claire. “And the feedback from teachers and students has been excellent. These students now have another option available to them, and that takes them one step closer to their dream job.”

ITC will be continuing to offer its short courses to high school students outside Auckland, with the next course to be run in Gisborne.

Giving it a shot – ITC’s Short Course Competition

The International Travel College of New Zealand (ITC) has recently had such an abundance of talented and passionate students attending its short courses that the college decided to give them an opportunity to get creative and show what they are made of, says ITC’s Short Course Tutor Mel Verwijmeren.

Named “Be in to win”, the competition was open to past and present short course students. Entrants were asked to create a video blog to showcase their experience at ITC, with a focus on what the course did for them personally and how it influenced them in making decisions about their future.

“We had 13 amazing entries from a variety of secondary schools,” says Mel. “It was a tough decision to make, but the top three students were chosen for their creativity, attitude, and determination along with the excellent content they submitted.”

The three major prizewinners took away a bungy and full bridge Climb with Auckland Bridge Climb and a bungy and jet boat experience with Auckland Adventure Jet Boat.

The other 10 students who entered did not walk away empty handed, either, says Mel. “It took a lot of courage and determination to enter this competition, so we awarded these students a small gift pack to congratulate them on showing they can achieve anything if they just put their mind to it.”

“Sometimes it’s as easy as putting yourself out there and giving things a shot, regardless of the outcome or whether you take away the ‘big’ prize,” says Mel. “For the entrants, the satisfaction of completing something and taking charge of their future was a prize in itself, and as all our students know, this attitude is highly sought after in the travel and tourism industry.”

ITC’s Short Courses – providing a world of experience

ITC’s Short Courses aim to give high school students a taste of the travel and tourism industry. But as Short Course Tutor Mel Verwijmeren found out the courses do a lot more than that!

“Just some of the wonderful feedback our students have given us is that they miss the college and that they learnt so much in such a small space of time. They miss the warm atmosphere and the friendly faces, and most of all the new friends they have made along the way. Students also gain a real sense of what it is like to study out of high school,” says Mel.

“Being immersed in an airport environment and learning in a plane instead of a boring classroom makes it a much more fun experience,” said a student from Macleans College. “Even though there is book work to complete you do not even notice it; it is really straight forward, as Mel teaches you the stuff you need to know, stuff that I had no idea was involved in being a flight attendant!”

ITC tutors are committed to using fun and engaging methods to teach their students, and the Short Courses are no exception. 

“We use group exercises, role play, competitions and creative design,” says Mel. “We get the students using their imagination and taking learning to a new level to give them the tools to deal with experiences they may meet in the industry.”

A Mt Albert Grammar student said: “Mel was a great tutor and made me feel comfortable and not embarrassed to do the role plays. I loved how we would learn something and then be assessed on it straight away so it was fresh in our minds.”

“Mel encouraged everyone that it’s alright to step out of your comfort level,” said a student from Aorere College. “Also mistakes are there to be made so we learn from them.”

The Short Course students have also gained NCEA credits ranging from two level 2 credits on ITC’s Big Day Out Course to nine credits on the five-day travel course.

But it’s the hands-on training that gives students a real sense of what working in the industry is all about that they value most.

“This course was very beneficial and informative and I definitely would recommend it to people who are even the least bit interested in flight attending, as it really opened my eyes to the realities of the job,” said one student from Macleans College. “There was a good ratio of theory and practical, which showed us the realities of flight attending and the environment.”

“This course was amazing – after coming here I know what I want to do,” said a student from Mount Albert Grammar. “I loved being downstairs and working in the airport. I can’t wait to come to ITC next year!”

Junior Teofilo – a lucky choice

For Junior Teofilo, signing up for a few NCEA credits gave him a whole new career to look forward to.

Junior Teofilo says that he had never considered travel and tourism as a future career until his careers advisor at St Paul’s College signed him up for an ITC short course.

“It was just a week-long course to gain a few credits,” says Junior, “but spending that one week with the staff here at ITC, I fell in love with travel.”


Junior is now studying full time for his Level 3 Certificate in Travel and Tourism at ITC. 

He has enjoyed overcoming the challenges he has faced to be here.

“Coming from an all boys school, which was dominated by Pacific Islanders, it was a hard transition to get used to an environment where there are a lot of different ethnicities and the majority of the students are female,” says Junior, whose family is Samoan.

“But the staff and tutors are so friendly and easy to talk to and they made it much easier with team-building activities.”

“Not only do they help you fit in, they also make it easier for you to understand the work,” he says.

Junior now has plenty of new friends at ITC, and says he recommends the college not only to those who want a future in travel and tourism, but to those who aren’t quite sure what they want from a future career.

After all, he just came for a few credits and stayed to get a qualification.