As part of National Employability Month, employees from across our business visited Burton and South Derbyshire College to provide career guidance and support to the next generation of travel professionals.
Burton and South Derbyshire College, which is one of the local institutions to our Derby office, requested our support as experts in the field.
Co-ordinated by Marie Toone, who previously worked as a Team Manager at Agiito, she explained how it benefits the students’ learning: “We look to organise progression events at this time of year as many aren’t aware of all the opportunities in business travel.
Everyone is on a different journey. Some have had little or no work experience so to have Agiito with us today as an industry expert is amazing to support them.
By running a national employability week, with assessment days like these, it is a safe space to show our students the standard they need to get to, improve their employability, ask questions and get them started on their journey for a future in travel.”
Agiito colleagues, ranging from Operations, Business Support, Marketing and Learning and Development, ran mock interview sessions for 46 students working across different levels of Business, as well as Travel and Tourism courses as part of a wider assessment day the college was running. Some students were at the start of their learning journeys, and others were set to graduate later this year and head into the world of work.
The quick-fire interviews were held simultaneously alongside a CV assessment, providing feedback to build confidence and strengthen their CV-writing skills. Students also benefitted from discussion which provided awareness of their communication preferences and personality traits.
"Following a successful careers event last year, we’ve formed a collaborative partnership with South Derbyshire and Burton College. Workshops like these help the students gain industry insight and ensure they are fit for work, but we also get to benefit by taking on their feedback which can help determine our induction training.
“This is just one of three projects we are working on with the college. It helps spread the word of business travel and I’m excited for where it can take us going forward,” said Andy Pearce, Head of Internal Experience.
The other projects include student input into industry knowledge e-learning for new starters coming into business travel, and team building activities for students.