Flybe, Europe's largest and most successful regional airline, is honoured to have been invited to share centre stage today at the annual British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) Skills Summit with Ed Balls, the Minister for Education at The Royal Opera House in London.

Such influential recognition has come just nine months after Exeter-based Flybe was named one of only three companies in the UK to achieve the high standards required to become an Awarding Body for its own approved national qualifications. It was an achievement reached in record time following Flybe being the only airline out of 153 companies to commit to and sign the Government's Skills Pledge in June 2007.  

Martin Couzins, managing editor

Martin Couzins, managing editor

The survey included some employer case studies on training.

Martin Couzins, managing editor

Holiday Extras are recruiting via Youtube. Nice way to put faces to a company and have a peek at the working environment

 [to get Talent email the People 1st marketing team]

Here is the aricle: 

Representatives of the travel and tourism industry met with People 1st last month to discuss the potential of establishing a National Skills Academy.

The meeting was attended by senior industry representatives from Hoseasons, Thomas Cook, TUI , Advantage Travel, Co-op Travel and Holiday Breaks as well as the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) and the Institute of Travel and Tourism.

The aim was to identify some of the key challenges facing employers and areas where a new academy could make a real impact. Areas of importance indentified included energy prices,
eco-tourism, on-line trading, sustainability and financial modelling to withstand volatile economics.

I'll come back to this, but here are some of the observations from the session - a mix of news and live blog posts.

• Greg Dyke tells agents to embrace change  
• A short quote about management
• Anyone can have ideas
• The importance of the backroom staff
• Capturing and using ideas

Martin Couzins, managing editor

The key now will be for all front line staff to match the company's desired levels of customer service.

Martin Couzins, managing editor

Brian and I had a great chat about skills development in the travel industry. He expalined how his early focus at People 1st had been on the hospitality industry and now his foicus was on travel.

He said the government provided £50m for skills and training in travel and tourism BUT he doubted that many in the sector were aware of this. The industry has never been very good at organising itself on such industry-wide matters, so no surprises that this funding is litlle known about.

The good news is that he is working with employers, the ITT (thanks Claire Steiner - ITT's education guru - for a good chat on Monday) and others to focus the industry on using this money effectively.

Brian has penned a column to this effect which we will be publishing shortly.

Also representing the UK is professor Rob Davidson, from the University of Westminster. he will be talking about the war for talent in travel and tourism.

Great to see UK travel and tourism sharing knowledge at such events. John has said he will do us a report . . . we loook forward to it.

Martin Couzins, managing editor

The guide provides a comprehensive overview of diplomas and the benefits for employers, as well as practical advice how to get involved in delivery.

The launch will be supported by national press and radio advertising.

As well as sharing experiences there are a lot of job offers flying around.

It will be interesting to see how the recruitment agencies responsd to this.

I guess XL execs might well be looking for jobs on Linkedin and other networking sites

Martin Couzins, managing editor