Are you ready to fly high?

ITC distance learning students attending workshops, helping them achieve their goals

The International Travel College of New Zealand (ITC) offers travel, tourism, and airline courses, and we work hard to get our graduates jobs in those industries. We want them all to fly high with their career, life and goals!

ITC offers its courses on campus and by distance online learning. If you are at home with young children, live too far from a campus, or you work and cannot attend daily classes, then distance online learning would be an ideal option for you.

These courses include all the learning resources, tutorial support, online communication and assessments you will need. You will be part of a class with fellow distance learning students from all around the country.

There are only two workshops to attend: Orientation Day, where you will get to meet your classmates, and the Customer Service workshop later in the course. Both workshops are at our Auckland campuses. This is what one of our graduates has to say about studying with ITC: “I want to say thank you to ITC for helping me get to my dream job.  Doing the ITC course has really paid off and now I wake up every morning excited about going to work. Words cannot express my gratitude.”

ITC has been a premium supplier in the airline, airport and travel and tourism industries for over 16 years. The college has strong connections in those industries and focuses on making its training relevant to employers. We also offer a job placement service to assist you in finding a job in travel, tourism or aviation!

Find out how you can launch your career by phoning the ITC team now on 0800 868 747, or check our website www.itc.co.nz and enquiry online.

Top IATA Performer again at ITC

International Travel College (ITC) student Hayley Miles has received a special commendation from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for being the top performer in New Zealand in their September exams.

The IATA is an international trade body that represents some 230 airlines comprising 93% of scheduled international air traffic.

The International Travel College is an IATA Authorized Training Center (ATC), which allows it to teach the IATA Travel and Tourism and Aviation training programmes.

As well as achieving the top performer award for the exams, Hayley also passed the IATA Foundation Diploma with Distinction.

Hayley started with ITC in January 2012 after graduating from Massey High School. She completed both the Certificate in Travel and Tourism and the Certificate in International Travel and Tourism, passing both with Distinction.

She is currently studying ITC’s Diploma in Travel and Tourism Management, which finishes in March 2014.

In October Hayley started a part-time role as a junior travel consultant at United Travel Westgate and upon completion of her studies next year will take up a full-time position there.

This is the third time that an ITC student has been the top IATA student, and Marketing Director Claire Huxley says it is a great endorsement of the staff at ITC.

“We know our tutors and staff love this industry and have a huge amount of experience to pass on. But they go the extra mile by offering such fantastic support and guidance for their students – they work hard to see them get the experience they need to succeed and to give them the confidence they need to really go for it.

“Our tutor Steve Burke in particular is a marvel at IATA and without his knowledge, dedication and sheer tenacity our students wouldn’t have the opportunity to achieve such greatness.”

“We are so proud of Hayley. She embodies our philosophy of working hard to achieve your dream. This is a well-deserved achievement and we congratulate her on her success.”

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.

A Magical Holiday

The International Travel College’s (ITC) Justine Glackin, in charge of accounts, celebrated her 10-year anniversary with the college earlier this year. To thank her for her hard work and dedication, ITC rewarded Justine with a trip to the value of $10,000.

Justine initially worked in ITC’s student services. After two years she took time off for maternity leave. She returned in 2006, went on maternity leave again in 2007 and returned again the following year.

Managing Director Kerry Priestley says they were always thrilled to have her return. “Justine has a fantastic sense of humour; she’s a good team player and is just great to work with.”

Justine recently came back from her trip and here she shares with us what she did on her dream holiday.

You have $10,000 to spend on travel, where would you go? It’s a bit like asking what you would do if you won Lotto. You just have to narrow down the choices! Having been lucky enough to go to Disneyland as a five year old I wanted to be able to take my own kids so when I was given the opportunity to choose a holiday thanks to ITC it was actually a fairly easy decision to make.

We had three full days in Anaheim, two of those at Disneyland and California Disney. Both these parks are amazing and we arrived on opening and didn’t leave until closing time, about 10 hours later. Particular highlights were Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, The Mattahorn, It’s A Small World, Carsland Racing, the Hollywood Tower of Terror and California Screamin’. Having photos with Mickey, Pluto, Donald and Buzz Light Year (to name a few) has resulted in some fantastic family pictures.

After the excitement of Disney we headed to Santa Monica. We were within walking distance of some amazing shopping and the beach. An open topped double decker bus tour was a fantastic way to see more of L.A. and we took in the sights of Rodeo Drive (no shopping there though!) plus the La Brea Tar Pits, The Farmers Market for a yummy lunch, Beverly Hills and Hollywood for the stars on the footpath plus various weird and wonderful characters trying to make it big in show biz.

It was a fabulous place for relaxing as well as exploring. We hired bikes and rode to Venice Beach, and Muscle Beach where you can work out under the Californian sunshine while homeless people sleep under trees in the parks. We caught a bus to Malibu and wandered along the beach and pier, watched people surfing and paddle boarding and also saw some amazing looking homes right on the beach front.

All in all an absolutely magic family holiday that still makes me smile and one that makes us want to go back and explore some more.

A Tahitian Welcome

Lesley Brough, ITC’s International Marketing Manager, went to Papeete in September on a work trip with Christine Lynch from NZIE. She shares some of her memorable moments.

Tahiti knows how to welcome people like no place else! As we arrived from our Air Tahiti Nui flight, we were treated to Tahitian singing and dancing. There was an even better surprise outside, with one of our wonderful International Travel College (ITC) graduates Christelle Ho and Ariitea waiting for me with a lovely frangipani flower lei. Now that’s a nice welcome!   ITC has three graduates who currently live in Tahiti, and I was lucky enough to catch up with them all. Tiffany Harry, now working at Easy Tahiti travel agency in Papeete, was a superb tour guide on our day off. Together we caught the ferry, which in just 35 minutes took us to beautiful Moorea, where Tiffany’s sister Vaima met us.  Vaima, her husband Patrick, and nephew Rahiti had planned a wonderful day for us, which included taking the family boat out.   This was to become one of my most memorable days ever! The outer reef shelters a lot of the coast of Moorea, and the water is incredibly calm, clear and a gorgeous aqua colour. Patrick drove the boat along the coast past over-water bungalow resorts (the likes of which I had only seen in magazines before) until we arrived at a very special spot. Here we had the opportunity to swim with blacktip reef sharks and stingrays. The water was chest high and while the sharks got close, they were still about a metre away (and thankfully harmless!). The stingrays were also harmless but incredibly friendly. They swam right up to us and swept across our arms, legs and even our chest. Did you know that they eat not only through their mouth, but also through two holes at the top of their heads? That was pretty neat to watch and to feel their soft, spongy bodies.   From here we journeyed to an island for a picnic, where the picnic table and chairs were put straight into the metre-deep water on a sand bank. Now this was fun!  Vaima had packed a beautiful lunch for us all, which included lots of fresh fish in coconut milk and other Tahitian dishes. We were very spoilt. After lunch I snorkelled with the numerous tropical fish.   As we were heading back to the house on the boat, we came across two humpback whales (a mother and baby) in the harbour. Apparently no one had seen whales inside the reef for many years, so it was quite amazing. With the words “You only live once!” Tiffany jumped in to swim with them. Patrick and I agreed and jumped in too. The water was very deep here (between 50 to 100 feet deep). It was scary, but this was definitely something I didn’t want to miss out on. These whales were HUGE! We could only see a small part of their bodies from the boat, so looking at them in the water with goggles was amazing.

To finish of this amazing day Patrick took us for a 4WD experience up the back of their property to view their pineapple plantation.

On another day I was able to visit Christelle at her work at Deep Nature Spa located at the Intercontinental Hotel. The spa was stunning and the hotel has its very own seawater lagoon that guests can swim in with the tropical fish.

One evening Christelle and I met with another ITC graduate, Alexandra Lion. We had a special night that included dinner at Christelle’s family roulotte (food truck) and ate her mother’s famous mahi mahi grilled fish.   It was a lovely surprise to be invited out to dinner by the parents of Mani, one of our current students. Daniel, Mahinateata and I had a lovely meal at The Royal Tahitian Hotel and we spotted the Brazilian beach soccer team who were staying there for the FIFA world beach soccer tournament. The opening night of the tournament was a great spectacle that included shutting down the main road, four stages of live music and a huge firework show. Papeete was the place to be on that night!   On our last day in Tahiti we went to a half-day student fair and spent the afternoon being driven around Tahiti (which takes 2-3 hours) by the lovely Poe Bessert and her wonderful mother LANI.

We saw the only white sand beach in Tahiti (all the others have black sand), fern grottos, waterfalls, a blowhole and the beautiful east coast. On the way we also met up with Danilo and Cecile who gave us each a stunning handmade poster of French Polynesia, drawn by Danilo. The drive ended at sunset at the spot where James Cook landed at Tahiti.   When it was time to say leave it was wonderful to have Christelle, Ariitea and Alex all come to the airport to say goodbye and give me a shell necklace (a tradition in Tahiti when someone leaves).

I would love to say a big thank you to Christelle, Ariitea, Tiffany, Alex, Vaima, Patrick, Rahiti, Poe, LANI, Mary, Daniel, Mahinateata, Danilo and Cecile; and of course to Christine and Chris (my fellow travel buddies). Tahiti was a stunning place to visit and you all made my trip truly amazing.

Students and employers meet at ITC Botany

ITC’s Botany Campus held its industry expo on 3 September. As always the campus and students were looking immaculate.

Another excellent group of speakers , with guests from American Express Travel, AVSEC, Auckland Bridge Climb and Bungy, Explore NZ, Harvey World Travel and Intercity.

Each presenter was assigned two students to help them set up and to keep a steady stream of tea and coffee flowing. As many excited students had arrived early, a number of presenters had to walk through the crowd by the entrance to the college, with one commenting that it was like being a film star on the red carpet!

The students were very impressed with each of the presentations, but the array of prohibited items confiscated by AVSEC at the airport caused the most interest – it is amazing to see what people think they can legitimately bring through security at our airports!  The goodies from American Express were also a big hit, especially the flasks.

Employers certainly view the ITC expo as a recruitment tool and are always on the lookout for their next super star. The presenters discussed the students, particularly those who asked questions throughout the presentations – those students did their employment chances no harm at all. Every year there are a number of students at each campus who gain part-time or full-time employment due to first the impression they make in the presenters during the expo.

The day finished with staff and presenters sharing a well-earned lunch, which allows ITC staff to interact with the industry representatives in an informal setting with a lot of information gathering and sharing on both sides.

The students got a great deal out of the day and their feedback was overwhelming positive:

“Helped by explaining different options that I hadn’t thought about before.”

“The day helped me to broaden my career thoughts and expand my knowledge on companies that I never would have though of as a career choice.”

“Gave me options to think about. Positive thoughts gained.”

“Made me realise there is more to life than flight attending.”

“Described the things we needed to have to be able to apply for their jobs.”

“Presenter spoke clearly and had valuable info about the company.”

“Very organised, was a good speaker and the content was interesting.”

“Explained more about what we should know about the job and also the qualification and requirements that they needed.”

“They made me want to apply for their job, presented it well.”

ITC Students meet the Industry!

ITC’s City Campus held its industry expo on 27 August.

Presenters from seven companies came to speak to the students and we are very grateful to AVSEC, American Express Travel, Auckland Bridge Climb and Bungy, Eco Zip, Intercity, Renaissance Tours, and Stray for their presentations.

The expo had a professional feel, as ITC wanted the students to experience a real industry event. The presenters had banners and posters promoting their businesses and the students all arrived looking very professional.

The students were organised into seven groups and each presenter gave a 20-minute presentation to each of the groups throughout the morning.

The main purpose of each presentation was to enlighten our students about the company, the sector of travel and tourism in which the company specialises, the speaker’s story of how they got to where they are today and some useful recruitment information. The presenters do amazingly well to fit all this into 20 minutes!

Most of the presenters brought an ITC graduate who is now working with them. This gave the current students are real sense that the careers they were discussing were achievable, as the students could identify with the graduate as someone like themselves.

The day went without a hitch, with students moving quickly between sessions and quiet reigning over the whole college during the presentations.

The expo was also open to our Distance Learning students and it was great to see a number of them there on the day, with one even organising her own work experience with one of the presenters.

The day went extremely well with extremely positive feedback from students:

“They were very informative and I enjoyed the vibe in the room while they were presenting.”

“He was passionate, had great knowledge and sold it as a fun way to work or experience.”

“He was very outgoing and easy to understand, he was funny and had good body language, which gave us a good impression.”

“She was really passionate about her job and shared her experiences with us.”

“They were lively, and made the audience participate in their presentation to help remember their information.”

”Made me think that anything is possible and there is so much you can put into travel and tourism.”

“Opened my eyes to many career paths.”

“Eco-tourism is a new product that has just come into the tourism industry and it really sparked my interest to start a career.”

Guest blog – Blogger at Large – Cruise questions?

In this blog, we again, would like to introduce you to Megan Singleton who has been travel writing for 1 years and blogging for 7. It’s been a fantastic ride (as you can probably guess). She has over 400 posts here where you’ll find reviews, tips, itinerary ideas, recommendations for places to stay and things to do and all sorts of tidbits from her travels.

She has been chuffed to receive the US Travel Association Travel Writers Award in 2009 and 2011 and she is on the list of NZs Top 50 Tweeters.

Thinking about taking your first cruise but have an armful of questions?

Here are some of the most common cruising questions and her answers as best she can.

Check out this blog from ‘Blogger at Large’
http://www.bloggeratlarge.com/cruising/7-common-cruise-questions/

Are you ready to fly high?

Since 1996 the International Travel College of New Zealand (ITC) has been focused on providing training that gets students jobs in the airline, airport, travel and tourism industries.

With two Airport Training Centres at its City and Botany Campuses, ITC students get experience with the technology, the practical processes and the customer service skills they will need in their future careers.

The huge Airport Training Centres simulate real-world airports, including check in, customs, gate lounges, and planes where students are trained in all aspects of in-flight service. Training also incorporates the Ready to Check in online check in system, currently used by many airlines worldwide.

ITC is also committed to getting on-site experience for its students. This entails students helping out behind the scenes at industry events, and an increasing number of agreements with local industry employers, who are keen to give ITC students part-time work opportunities while they study.

“We’ve got great relationships with the industries we work with, and the practical nature of our courses means that our graduates are ready to work in their chosen fields,” says ITC’s Marketing Director Claire Huxley. “That translates into great job placement rates and a willingness from our industry partners to provide our students with work experience.”

“This whole experience has really shown me that what the tutors say to us at ITC is true – they push and encourage students to go for their dreams and never give up. My training at ITC has definitely helped me with my confidence and knowledge of the travel and tourism industry and thanks to them and my hard work it has all paid off, now I am in going to Dubai to embark on an exciting career as flight attendant for Emirates!” said graduate Lisi Kaihau.

Both ITC’s Botany and City Campuses have a few spaces on their last 2 courses in 2013, so it’s not too late to enrol now! Find out how you can launch your career in the airline, airport, and travel and tourism industries by phoning the ITC Team now 0800 868747 or (09) 373 5510 for more information, or check our website www.itc.co.nz

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.”