ITC Students Graduate in Style

The International Travel College of New Zealand (ITC) celebrated its 2011 graduation in style at the Langham Hotel, Auckland.

Graduates, their family and friends, ITC staff and representatives from the travel and tourism industry enjoyed an evening with drinks and nibbles in the Langham’s luxurious Grand Ballroom. 

ITC Managing Director Kerry Priestly opened the evening, welcoming the guests to the special occasion, and Campus Managers Carla Sutton, Kirsten Leith and Michelle Chatfield also spoke throughout the evening.

The keynote speaker for the evening was Kate McCardle, the Membership Travel Services Manager for American Express. Kate began by asking the audience to close their eyes and imagine themselves packing to go on a trip, arriving at the airport and feeling a sense of excitement and anticipation. Kate said this is how she feels about the travel industry, highlighting the freedom and opportunity to meet with new people and experience new cultures.

Kate, who originally enrolled in a Bachelor of Science at university in Australia, was bitten by the travel bug when she spent several months travelling in East Africa.  On her return she left university and studied travel and tourism in Sydney. She is now in charge of over 40 staff at the American Express call centre in Auckland. Kate has just returned from a visit to American Express in Sweden to perform a benchmarking exercise on their systems and processes. American Express customers recently voted Sweden first for customer service; New Zealand was second and Kate wanted to find out where they could improve.

“That level of commitment to being the best, and being excited about being the best was so inspirational for our graduates. The fact that Kate got to travel to Sweden and back via a conference in Monte Carlo and a trip to the UK also helped!” says ITC Marketing Director Claire Huxley.

As well as the graduation certificates, the following awards were given for special achievements:
Outstanding Academic Achievement: Harpreet Kaur (Distance Learning)
Outstanding All Round Achievement: Samantha Hunt (Botany) and Jayne Whitford (City)
Personal Achievement: Barbara Davis (Distance Learning) and Brooke Chapman (Botany)
Academic Excellence: Juanita Matila (Botany) and Ashleigh Beaufoy (City)
College Life: Sera Naitoko (Botany) and Robert Koto (City)
Student of the Year: Ruth Barlett from (Botany) and Cristina Traczinski (City)

ITC provided two professional photographers for the evening who busily snapped the graduates with their families and receiving their certificates. Graduates will all receive a free DVD containing photos from the evening.

Congratulations to all this year’s graduates, and a very big thank you to ITC’s Student Services Advisor Toni Waterhouse, who organised this wonderful event.

A special thank you to the Langham Hotel, the major sponsor for the evening, and to all our other sponsors: Thrifty , Intercity, Nomads , Rainbows End, Fullers , Citylife/Heritage , YHA , AJ Hackett ,  Explore NZ  and Stray .

The International Travel College of New Zealand has campuses in Botany and central Auckland, as well as offering courses by distance and online learning. They have been the premium supplier of full-time and part-time training programmes for the airline, travel and tourism industries since 1996.

Cristina a Top Performer at ITC

On Friday 22 July, International Travel College of New Zealand student Cristina Traczinski received some wonderful news. She had just been named as the student with the best performance in the country for the IATA Foundation and EBT Course.

The course is administered by the IATA Training and Development Institute (ITDI), the training arm of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – an international trade body that represents some 230 airlines comprising 93% of scheduled international air traffic.

The International Travel College of New Zealand is an IATA Authorized Training Center (ATC), which allows it to teach the IATA Travel and Tourism and Aviation training programmes. Cristina completed the ITDI course as part of International Diploma in Tourism Management.

“We’re so proud of Cristina,” says ITC’s Managing Director Kerry Priestley. “This is an exceptional achievement and will stand her in good stead in her career.”

The letter telling Cristina of her achievement came from Ismail Albaidhani, Head of Distance Learning at IATA in Canada. It congratulates her on her performance and tells her that she may use the letter as a reference for any future job application.

Not that she needs it just yet; Cristina has just also found out that she is to start her first role in the travel and tourism industry on 1 August at travel consultancy BTI.

“What a success story!” says Kerry. “Cristina is a stand-out example of the kind of momentum that builds once people really set their sights on a dream. We work hard to give our students the training, the experience and the industry contacts to realise their dream, but in the end they have to give it their best shot – and that is exactly what Cristina has done.”

Congratulations to Cristina from all her classmates and the staff at ITC.

ITC has been a premium supplier of full-time and part-time training programmes for the airline, travel and tourism industries since 1996, and has campuses in Botany and central Auckland.