You are worth it! The ITC and Study From Home team shares wisdom and inspiration

The entire team at ITC and Study From Home supports you and believes in you. Today we’re sharing our top inspirational quotes and knowledge to help you in your journey!

One of the many special parts about being a student with ITC or Study From Home is that the tutors, advisors, employment consultants – the entire team – truly cares about your journey.

We often interview graduates to share their stories, and that often happens because we’re keeping in touch anyway. This is a college where the team regularly goes above and beyond to help you through your studies, support you in your job search, and celebrate with you in your successes.

So to remind you of just how much you’re worth it, the team got together to share their incredible wisdom, things they have learned from their careers, and favourite inspirational quotes. (more…)

Adventures after Disney: Meet Amina Tipuna

Hear from our latest graduate in our ‘Adventures after Disney’ series!

The August intake for the Disney Exchange Program is fast approaching as we continue our ‘Adventures after Disney’ series, where we chat to ITC graduates who were part of the program to see what they’re up to now.

This week, we heard from Amina Tipuna, the graduate who feels that the experience changed her a lot, helping her gain independence and preparing her for adulthood.

Here’s more about Amina’s amazing story in her own words!

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Catching up with student-turned-tutor Laura, who is also a Disney Alumni!

Laura Osbourn has had quite the journey, starting as a student, earning a place in the Disney Exchange Program, and now a tutor!

Back in 2018, we spoke to a graduate who had returned to ITC to complete her level 5 Diploma with the intention of joining the Disney Exchange Program.

She made it to Disney, but the pandemic threw a spanner in the works and she had to return to New Zealand – so we interviewed her again in 2020!

However, that wasn’t the end of her story. After many ups and downs and a lot of hard work, Laura Osbourn returned to ITC again, but this time as a tutor.

As we continue with our ongoing ‘Adventures after Disney’ series, we felt it was a great opportunity to interview someone who has not just successfully applied for the Disney Program, but someone who will also be helping current students prepare for their applications as well.

With that said, here’s the latest updates on graduate, Disney alumni, and tutor Laura Osbourn!

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Meet the graduate who landed the career of her dreams and loves her job every day

Graduate Lillie dreamed of being a flight attendant – and is now flying high in her dream job!

Many ITC and Study From Home students begin study with us with the goal of working as a flight attendant.

Botany graduate Lillie Robinson is a great example. She began studying with us with flight attending in mind, and while her tutors ensured she knew about the many other great options in the industry, they also supported her in her work to become a flight attendant.

Today, we’re excited to see Lillie succeed, as she graduated from ITC and went on to land a flight attending role with Qantas – and is now loving her job!

Read on to learn more about Lillie’s time with us and her new dream job.

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How the Disney Cultural Exchange helped this graduate find her confidence and her future career

Taylor Still had an unforgettable time with the Disney Exchange Program.

Recently, we’ve been catching up with ITC graduates who were accepted into the Disney Cultural Exchange Program.

This is a fantastic opportunity where students can head overseas and work in various roles for this world-renowned brand, earning valuable work experience, meeting people from around the world, and enjoying a huge international adventure all at once.

But what happens next?

In the lead-up to the next Disney intake, we’ve been checking in with graduates who took up this opportunity in a series we’re calling ‘Adventures after Disney’.

Today, we’re sharing our interview with Taylor Still, who was part of the 2018 program. Read on to learn more about her story, and what she’s been up to since! (more…)

Your insider’s guide to: Working in a senior HR role at a leading hotel

We hear from Carol Mendes (centre), Assistant Director of Human Resources for Cordis Hotel, about her career and what it’s like working in HR.

Travel and tourism is an incredibly broad industry, with many different pathways to take.

To help highlight the range of options available to our graduates, we’re getting in touch with some of our industry connections to learn a little more about the different jobs and what it’s like to work in them.

We’ve heard about what it’s like to work in bungy jumping, and this time we’re taking a completely different perspective. We’re chatting to Carol Mendes, the Assistant Director of Human Resources for Cordis Hotel.

Read on to learn about her story, and what she looks for in new employees. (more…)

Catching up with a 2018 Disney Exchange Program alumni

Aunima went to work at Disney in the 2018 Exchange Program. Learn what she has been up to since!

In 2018, Aunima Haque was one of a number of ITC graduates who was accepted into the prestigious Disney Exchange Program.

This exchange invites young graduates to work in a number of roles at Disney, where they earn valuable skills and experience. Many students use this time as a launching pad for a career in tourism in travel, which is why we have been catching up with some of them.

We’re looking forward to the next Disney intake this year, and leading up to it with a campaign called ‘Adventures after Disney’. Last week we spoke to Emma Morris, and this week we have a new graduate to interview!

This week, we chatted to the lovely Aunima Haque. Here’s what she had to say about her time at ITC and Disney, and what she’s been up to since!

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Meet Vi Tran, our newest City Campus Tutor

Vi Tran is our wonderful new City Campus Tutor.

There can’t be many people in the world who have studied tourism in Vietnam, earned a scholarship to continue studying in France, worked in world-renowned hotels, opened their own hostels and a resort, lectured at Hoa Sen University, and travelled all over the world.

In fact, there might only be one – which is why we consider ourselves to be incredibly lucky to welcome the multi-talented and highly experienced Vi Tran to the team. Vi’s passion for travel and the tourism industry is evident in her history, and we’re excited for her to share her skills and experience as a tutor at our City Campus. 

Learn more about Vi’s incredible story. (more…)

Meet the graduate who used her ITC education and the Disney Exchange as a springboard for her business career!

Emma Morris had an incredible time during her Disney Exchange.

We are once again full steam ahead preparing our graduates with their applications for the next Disney Exchange Program opportunity happening in August this year. 

Our level 4 & 5 graduates are all so excited to meet the Disney representative who will soon visit to discuss this life changing experience.

To celebrate this amazing opportunity we reached out to a number of ITC graduates who were lucky enough to be a part of the Disney Cultural Exchange. We’re calling this project ‘Adventures after Disney’, and will be following up with where the graduates are now, and how they feel that the exchange impacted their lives and careers.

ITC takes pride in supporting and communicating with graduates over the 26+ years we’ve been in business, this is so exciting for us to once more re-visit our students’ adventures. 

To start, we spoke to graduate Emma Morris.

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Meet Vanessa Barnett: Our wonderful new Course Advisor at the City Campus!

Meet Vanessa, our new Course Advisor at the City Campus.

The team at ITC and Study From Home is filled with incredible people who have worked all over the world, in all kinds of fascinating travel and tourism roles.

A perfect example is our newest Course Advisor at the City Campus, Vanessa Barnett. Bitten early by the travel bug, Vanessa went on to earn an Advanced Diploma in Travel and Tourism with ITC before spending many years working in wholesale travel, exploring some of the most far-flung destinations in the world as part of her work.

Needless to say, her stories and passion are sure to inspire many students and graduates. Here’s a little more about her story and just what she has to offer ITC and Study From Home.

How did you begin your passion for the tourism industry?

I’d always wanted to travel since I was a kid. So as soon as I could, I left home on the traditional Kiwi OE where I spent 4 years living in Dublin and London, but there was still so much of the world I wanted to see.

So WAAAYYY back in 2002 I enrolled at ITC and got my ‘Advanced Diploma in Travel and Tourism’, so after nearly 20yrs in the industry I have truly come full circle!

What does your travel industry history look like?

After graduating ITC, the employment services team got my foot in the door at Go Holidays, where I was able to learn about the role that wholesale plays within the travel industry – and is a sector I remained in for my entire travel career.

After learning the ropes at Go, an opportunity came for me to move to Adventure World, starting in the finals and documentation department before quickly moving into wholesale reservations, where I specialised in Africa and South & Central America – and in fact, I remained a travel specialist in these areas throughout my travel career.

That’s the fantastic thing about working in wholesale – a travel agent needs to know a little bit about a lot of destinations; so being able to go work with a wholesale team who specialise in one destination and knows it really well is invaluable for their clients. And of course, to know a destination, you need to travel there. My first famil was to Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, where I was lucky enough to spend 4 days on the Amazon onboard the Desafio, a classic schooner ship where I caught and ate a piranha, made friends with a 5ft anaconda and watched a pod of pink Amazonian dolphins play around the boat as the sun rose.

I remained at Adventure World for 11 years, and during that time, I had the opportunity to travel to a lot of diverse countries, including Borneo (both Sabah and Sarawak—where I attended a music festival in the jungle, visited an Orangutan sanctuary, and released baby turtles), Chile, Peru (visiting the spectacular Machu Picchu), Bolivia (crossing Lake Titicaca and eating guinea pig), South Africa (where I travelled overland from Johannesburg to Cape Town), China (visiting the amazing Terracotta Warriors) and Hong Kong (shopping, anyone?). 

My next opportunity arose in the wholesale adventure department at House of Travel, again specialising in Africa and South & Central America, plus we looked after overland tour bookings with companies such as Intrepid, Explore Worldwide and GAdventures.

I still have a huge passion in these areas and I could talk for hours about the amazing cultural sites in Peru, how wonderful the steak and red wine is in Argentina, the diversity of flora and fauna within South Africa and the best places to see wild dogs in Botswana.

How will your experience help support students?

Having been a student here at ITC myself (albeit before some of our current students were even born) I can share with the students how invaluable this experience was for me and where it can take them.

Also, I think a lot of students come to us with knowledge about the more “well-known” aspects of working in the tourism industry – being a flight attendant, a travel agent or tour guide – but few, if any, know about the wholesale sector and the ability to specialise in an area they’re passionate about.

I can’t wait to tell them all about the amazing famils I’ve been able to go on – places I probably would never have had the opportunity to go to otherwise! 

What do you think are the most important skills to have in the tourism industry?

Passion! If you have a passion for travel, or for a particular area of the world, or even for showcasing the amazing things we have on offer here in Aotearoa, then that will take you far in the industry.

Depending on where you end up, you’ll also need flexibility and a willingness to adapt. There are so many different roles, areas and aspects to the travel industry, you’ll truly never know where you could end up! 

Having empathy for your clients is essential too – I know that in the roles I have had, I always tried to keep at the forefront of my mind that although this is just another day in the office for me; the itinerary I’m putting together is someone’s dream holiday – they may have spent years putting money aside for their trip of a lifetime – so no matter if it’s your 10^th booking that week, it could well be that clients first time out of the country!!

What’s next for the tourism industry?

Covid dealt such a blow to the entire industry worldwide, but it’s back better and brighter than before. People have become so much more environmentally, socially and culturally conscious, and have had the past three years to really think about the impact we have had on our planet, and what kind of impact we want to have in the future; which has had a really positive effect on tourism.

Gone are the days where animals and people are used as tourist commodities and exploited. Instead indigenous cultures are being empowered to tell their own story to visitors, rather than being show-cased as a tourist “attraction” and animals and their native environment are being protected. Sustainable tourism, wildlife conversation projects and community projects are now a huge growth area for tourism – which is a fantastic thing to see!
 
What is your best advice for those getting into the industry now?

They couldn’t have picked a better time with so many sectors of the industry crying out for dedicated and passionate newcomers to fill their ranks now that our borders are back open and travellers are ready to get back out there! Because the industry is so varied – just because you start at a particular point doesn’t mean that you won’t end up somewhere totally different.

Experience within the industry is really important – and whatever you learn you will take with you – your skills will be transferrable. You may start out at the airport check-in and end up being a tour guide in Europe – you just never know! Honestly, the options are endless, you never know where Travel & Tourism will take you.

Study with ITC or Study From Home

Vanessa’s incredible international experiences, time at ITC, and passion for the industry as a whole make her the perfect person to become a Course Advisor for our students. We know she will not just inspire students and graduates, but help them to find the best journeys for them as well.

At ITC and Study From Home, our entire team is filled with professionals just like Vanessa. Everyone has experience in the travel and tourism industry in some way, with endless dedication to helping students and graduates get the most out of their careers.

Take a look at the courses we offer and where they might take you, or get in touch with any questions today.

Campus Study – college@itc.co.nz 0800 TOURISM (0800 868747) or https://www.itc.co.nz/contact-us/