Travel Consultant Apprenticeship (Level 3)
Damar’s travel consultant apprentices develop the skills needed to take on highly responsible roles, providing outstanding customer service, and delivering a range of often complex travel arrangements, accommodation bookings and ancillary services which help to ensure their travellers benefit from journeys and time at their destination that is positive and aims to exceed their expectations.
Benefits to your business
There are many ways in which travel apprenticeship create lasting value. For example, apprentices can:
- Create a team with excellent customer service skills, as well as travel knowledge
- Bring ambition, a fresh perspective and an entrepreneurial spirit
- Build a diverse talent pipeline and bring new skills
- Increase admin support, freeing up time for managers and other senior members of the team.
The Damar Difference
We have many years experience of working with travel businesses to upskill their existing staff and recruit fresh talent. Some key features of our travel apprenticeships include:
- Coaching: Structured and engaging coaching visits and sessions – tailored to apprentices’ roles and organisations, so that apprentices can apply learning and enhance workplace performance.
- Partnerships: Proud partner of ABTA.
- Our people: An experienced team to support and empower you and your apprentice, to ensure they achieve the qualification and have an impact on your organisation.
- Our processes: Our one-team approach offers a seamless enrolment and onboarding process, which leads into carefully planned, manageable chunks of learning.
- Our systems: Our accessible and engaging systems include OneFile, Profiler, Damar OpenLearning, and our apprentice forums.
“Apprenticeships develop people so they are better at doing their job. They become more robust and efficient, elevating the overall productivity of the business. Apprentices not only embed themselves as valuable members of the team but also mature into role models for the next generation.”
Neil Wainwright-Farrar
Head of Learning and Development
Clarity Business Travel
Apprenticeship delivery
- Pre-work: Reading or video content relating to the module.
- Group coaching session: Apprentices ask questions, discuss their learning with peers and prepare themselves for the individual activity.
- Individual learning activity: Apprentices work through the activity brief, building their evidence to support the portfolio and end-point assessment. This allows the apprentice to embed and contextualise their learning.
- Main learning: Self-directed, interactive content on our online learning platform.
- 1:1 Coaching visit: Every six weeks the coach and apprentice meet to review progress, discuss personal development and sign-off completed modules.
- Review meeting: Every 12 weeks the coach, apprentice and line manager meet to review progress.
The travel apprenticeship takes 15 months (including preparation for end-point assessment).
Travel apprenticeships formed of nine carefully planned and sequenced 6-week modules that help apprentices learn and apply the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for each of the core occupational duties undertaken by travel consultants.
- Module 1: personal development, geography
- Module 2: the customer, products and services, sales
- Module 3: the business, external factors, sustainability
- Module 4: travel options, transport & accommodation
- Module 5: legal & compliance, equality & diversity
- Module 6: interpersonal skills, communication, influencing skills
- Module 7: customer experience, feedback, team and personal performance
- Module 8: dealing with conflict and challenge, travel information
- Module 9: industry technology, industry practice
- Knowledge test. A 60-question multiple choice test, with both knowledge recall and scenario-based questions, covering knowledge and analytical and technical skills in key elements of the standard such as geography (55% weighting).
- Professional discussion. A 1- to 2-hour structured meeting led by the independent end assessor, involving the apprentice and employer (e.g. line manager). The meeting will reference the apprentice’s “My Journey” log and will focus on how they have performed during the apprenticeship and their overall achievement of the knowledge, skills and behaviours in the standard (45% weighting).
All travel apprenticeships embed the functional use of maths and English as well as personal development topics in areas such as equality and diversity and British Values. Apprentices unable to evidence maths and English at GCSE level 4 or above may need to take functional skills exams as part of the apprenticeship. Additional training is provided if necessary.
People of all ages and educational backgrounds can undertake travel apprenticeships, but there are some restrictions, the most important of which are:
- The employer and the training provider must ascertain that the apprenticeship will allow the individual to gain substantive new skills. The training therefore needs to be materially different from any prior qualification or previous apprenticeship.
- The apprenticeship must align with the skills needs of the apprentice’s role.
- The apprentice must be employed, usually for 30+ hours a week, and work more than 50% of their time in England.
- All apprenticeships must take at least 12 months with apprentices spending a minimum of 6 hours per week in off-the-job training. All Damar apprenticeships plan for more than the legal minimum. There is more on how we maximise the benefits of off-the-job training here: https://damartraining.com/news/2023/so-what-is-off-the-job-training/.
If your annual UK wage bill is over £3 million, the cost of training can be funded via the Apprenticeship Levy. We can help you navigate your Apprenticeship Service account to access this funding.
If your annual UK wage bill is below £3 million, the government covers 95-100% of the training costs.
For apprentices aged up to 21, the apprenticeship is fully government-funded*. For apprentices aged 22 and over, the apprenticeship is 95% government-funded*. These new funding rules are applicable to apprentices starting from 1 April 2024.
*Please note: Some apprenticeships have accreditation costs which are not eligible for government funding
Travel apprenticeships are a springboard for progression to more senior roles in the travel industry or positions outside travel that require high level customer service skills. Damar travel consultant apprentices have progressed to other apprenticeships, most commonly team leader or supervisor.
We have regular start dates throughout the year for our apprenticeships. Please get in touch for more information.
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