Travel and tourism comes to the mall

The ITC team in Botany Town Centre

ITC staff and students had a fantastic day promoting the college and the airline, travel and tourism industry at Botany Town Centre.

The college had a promotional stand at the mall and attracted a great deal of attention.

“We all had fun chatting to the numerous friendly shoppers about the amazing courses we offer,” says Natasha Allen, Campus Manager Botany. “People were really interested to hear about the thrilling famil trip and the work experience week, which literally gives our students a foot in the door of our dynamic industry.”

The ITC stand featured photo books and cardboard cut-outs of an AJ Hackett tour guide and an ITC flight attendant.

“The cut-outs had holes so that people could put their own faces through and pose as the tour guide or flight attendant. It attracted so many people, young and old; it helped to fire people’s imagination about what it might be like to be in those roles.”

“This event really highlighted to everyone we met that travel and tourism is a fun, vibrant career option and ITC is definitely the place to start your journey,” says Natasha.

Keep an eye out for ITC’s promo guys and girls dressed in our funky white Kia Ora t-shirts in January and February. They will be in Botany Town Centre and at Maraetai, Cockle Bay and Eastern Beach shouting out that ITC is the place to study in 2014.

ITC Botany is proud to announce that we will be running our Level 5 Diploma in Travel & Tourism Management next year. There are only a handful of spaces left, and the first class is in March – so get in quick!

ITC Voted Leading Travel Training Institution

The team at ITC are thrilled to be winners again!!

The International Travel College of New Zealand (ITC) has been voted New Zealand’s Leading Travel Training Institution in the Travel Digest Travel Industry Awards 2013.

“What makes this award such an honour is that it is voted for by members of the industry,” says ITC’s Marketing Director Claire Huxley.

“We have such a strong focus on making sure our graduates are genuinely prepared for work in travel, tourism and airlines, and this award acknowledges that we are getting it right.”

Travel Digest also lists ITC’s achievement of Category One status in the NZQA EER audit (the highest education rating) and its membership of internationally recognised quality brand Quality Education as contributing factors to its success.

“It’s important to us that our quality is made visible through NZQA audits and through our connections with associations like Quality Education,” says Claire.

“It’s critical that our students have confidence in us, and it inspires all of us at the college to keep contributing to this industry that we love.”

ITC’s students certainly reap the benefits of the college’s strong industry reputation. Numerous opportunities to explore the industry first hand through trips and hands-on work experience and job placements all add to the college’s high job placement rate.

“This is an industry where the strength of your contacts is crucial. Our students constantly make us proud by showing employers their commitment and passion for this sector. And employers repay that by providing employment and training opportunities for our students.”

“We are grateful to Travel Digest for running these awards that showcase the best of our industry, and we would like to thank the people and organisations who voted for us.”

“An Excellent Match” – ITC’s new partnership with Sterling Business College

The International Travel College of New Zealand (ITC) has forged a partnership with Sterling Business College in Perth, Western Australia. The partnership will see students pathway from Sterling’s Level II – IV certificates to higher study at ITC.

“We are thrilled to be working with Sterling Business College,” says ITC Marketing Director Claire Huxley. “They offer one of Australia’s best travel and tourism programmes, and we have a lot in common in terms of the aims we have for our students.”

Sterling’s Principal Janelle Dawson agrees: “This partnership is an excellent match, as both colleges provide quality training and have great student outcomes.”

Both ITC and Sterling pride themselves on their personal investment in each student.

“People know each other at ITC,” says Claire. “Students study and work closely with each other, and the tutors know each of the students and what their dreams are. It’s a very personalised approach. Sterling has the same philosophy of working with each of the students to help them realise their goals.”

Both colleges encourage international students and Claire sees the possibility for ITC students to also spend time at Sterling.

“This partnership opens the door to opportunities for ITC students in Western Australia. This industry is all about making connections across the globe and we are thrilled to have made this connection with Sterling Business College.”

Janelle also sees the positive impact this will have on her students.

“We are delighted to extend this great opportunity to our students to be able to further their studies in travel and tourism in New Zealand. They now have the opportunity to travel, study and live in two different countries. What could be better for a tourism student?”

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 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 Ten Pin Bowling Day

Over 150 students from ITC descended on the Metrolanes bowling centre in Queen Street for a day of bowling, pool competitions and delicious food on 31 July.

Many of the students attended in fancy dress for the 90s-themed event, and the music and videos at the venue ranged from Spice Girls to MC Hammer. The tutors also dressed up, and Ginger Spice (Amy) and Sporty Spice (Tessa) did a great job of organising the day.

The students split into teams of six and took turns filling the bowling lanes for some friendly competition. When not bowling the students kept themselves entertained with free games of pool, 90s dancing and plenty of pizza, hot chips and drinks.

Four teams went head to head for the final rounds, with movie and bowling tickets up for grabs as the top prizes. The winning team was CAV03. Spot prizes also went to the students with the three highest bowling scores of the day, and to the most enthusiastic dancer.

The event was a great opportunity for the students to interact and get to know each other, strengthening existing friendships and meeting new people. Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to all students who took part. Thanks also to Metrolanes for providing a fun venue that provided plenty of entertainment throughout the day.

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

The Top 8 Qualities of an Awesome ITC Student

We have so many great students; we thought we’d ask our tutors what makes a truly awesome one. (Read carefully – remember they’re the ones who mark your assignments!)

1. PUNCTUAL We know it’s early, we know you haven’t had your coffee yet, we know you just had that one last thing you had to tell your friend before you came in… But an awesome ITC student arrives on time, and even 5 minutes early if possible! It shows respect for your classmates, your tutors and your own studies and future career.

2. POLITE We pride ourselves on being like a family at ITC, but that doesn’t mean you should treat the other students or tutors like you treat your little brother or sister! Be polite, smile, say “hi”. A good mood is like a cold in that it’s incredibly infectious (but in a good way). Try spreading the joy today!

3. PREPARED You wouldn’t go to stay at a friend’s place without bringing your toothbrush, would you? Part of coming to ITC each day is thinking ahead and making sure you have what you need. Bring your own stationery, bring your own lunch or lunch money; heck, bring your own toothbrush if you want!

4. WELL-PRESENTED We’re not saying you have to look like a super model – that’s what the tutors are here for – but you should look like you take yourself and your studies seriously. If you don’t, no one else will either.

5. HARDWORKING (AND PLAYING) This is truly and honestly one of those times in your life where you get out what you put in. We know, we know, it’s a cliché and your parents are always saying it… but this time it’s true! The more you throw yourself into your studies and take advantage of the opportunities ITC offers you, the better you will understand how you work best, what kind of job you want and how you can get there.

And don’t forget to play hard too – ITC’s calendar is jam-packed with activities for students to take part in, like sports days, beach picnics, Mid-winter Carnival, Global Wednesday, Valentine’s week, St Patricks Day, the Easter Bonnet parade, and student Trivial Pursuit challenges! They’re a great way to meet some new folk, have a huge amount of fun and explore your creativity. (CLAIRE YOU MIGHT WANT TO PUT A LINK HERE TO THE EVENTS SCHEDULES?)

6. CONSISTENT You don’t have to be a robot (although it would be cool if you were!), but consistently turning up to class and turning in your assignments on time and to a high standard recommend you as a student and a potential employee. Also, if you always turn in high quality assignments on time, your tutors are much more likely to be sympathetic if you genuinely need us to cut you some slack at some stage.

7. PATIENT We do enjoy reading your assignments (no, really!), but we are only human, so please do be patient with us if we haven’t got them back to you yet. We know that our students put a lot of work into their assignments and we believe they deserve our full considered attention when it comes to marking them – and that takes time.

8. PROFESSIONAL This might seem like a funny word to use to describe a student, but at ITC we are pretty serious about preparing you for a real job in the real world. We spend a great deal of time and energy working out how we can best help you achieve your dreams – but in the end it’s up to you. Treat your studies as a real opportunity to start your professional career in the airline, travel and tourism industries and you will be amazed at how far you can go!