Time Management | Health/Wellness | Working from Home | Relaxation/Vacation

Relaxation/Vacation

Feeding the travel bug

The wide blue yonder. Who hasn't wanted to pack a bag and take off for parts unknown? Of course, there's the practical matter of jobs and family so the bag remains unpacked and the wide blue yonder less crowded.

DAVID CHILTON

[ 2006-11-08 ]

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As part of their fourth semester in Centennial's travel and tourism program, students have to spend 15 weeks - unpaid - in a work placement for such retail treavel firms as Sunquest, Thomas Cook and American Express.

Still, there is a way to satisfy your wanderlust if you can't do in person: live vicariously and send others off to distant horizons as a travel and tourism counsellor.

A good number of schools in the GTA offer travel and tourism training including Centennial College and Seneca College in Toronto, Sheridan College in Oakville and the many campuses of CDI College in the city and its suburbs.

Shyam Ranganathan, acting dean of the School of Business at Centennial, says his college's travel and tourism program is full time and takes two years to complete. As part of their fourth semester, Ranganathan says students have to spend 15 weeks -- unpaid -- in a work placement for such retail travel firms as Sunquest, Thomas Cook and American Express.

Bob McElman, program co-ordinator at Sheridan, says his school requires students to complete a work placement, too, spending at least 100 hours -- again for no pay -- with a company of the student's choosing at the approval of the college. The work placement ante goes up a bit at Seneca: David Wright, curriculum co-ordinator, says students have to do 150 hours minimum.

Educational requirements for these schools and others tend to be broadly similar -- a high school diploma with a Grade 12 credit in English. The requirements for mature students vary, depending on the school. The bulk of the applicants for any of the three public colleges comes directly from high school, with Ranganathan putting Centennial's intake at 60% to 65%. He says the rest are mostly mature students with few career changers in the mix. At Seneca, Wright says, mature students make up 5% to 10% of his classes. Tuition at the public colleges is about $1,900.

Both Sheridan and Seneca offer two intakes a year. At Sheridan the college takes up to 90 students in September and at least 20 in January, McElman says. At Seneca, the school accepted 140 students this September and is looking at another 70 in January. For the first time, a third intake of 35 is planned for next May. At Centennial there's just one intake of 55 students in September.

Ranganathan says, "There has been tremendous change in the travel industry because of the Internet. Our students have to be taught to compete with the web. A travel counsellor is able to explain to the client (their options), but the web will give you the cheapest price."

Another change in the industry reflects continuing security concerns, whether it's shuffling off to Buffalo for a day or flying down to Rio. "The style of travel has changed," Ranganathan says. "Students need to know these things."

At Sheridan, McElman says his program hasn't changed because of what's happening externally, but "we keep students aware that (security) situations are not static," and students for one course are required to bring to class three or four current newspaper articles about security concerns relevant to the travel industry.

Ranganathan thinks there will be a job boom for travel counsellors in Canada, but also says entry-level salaries are in the $24,000 to $28,000 range. Of course, commission and service charges will push those figures higher, and senior level opportunities open up quickly. Both are appealing, but they also mean staying put to earn them. It seems for the travel counsellor living through others is their best hope of getting away.