Jet2holidays has announced that its Appoint an Apprentice scheme, which helps independent travel agent partners to develop their workforces, will be rolled out for a second year and will be bigger and better than ever before.
Last year, the UK’s largest tour operator provided almost £650,000 of apprenticeship funding to support independent travel agent partners in developing the next generation of talent in their stores and in the travel industry. Following a phenomenal response to the initiative, Jet2holidays has increased its total apprenticeship funding for this financial year, with the company committing to a levy spend of over £1.2million in 2024/25 – more than double last year’s amount!
The move to invest even more money into the scheme this year comes in response to the overwhelmingly positive feedback that Jet2holidays has received since rolling out the initiative in 2023.
In 2023/24, the huge response from partners saw the tour operator approve apprenticeship levy funds totalling almost £500,000 to 50 different companies, enabling them to recruit 72 new apprentices in total. Many of the independent agency partners were classed as small businesses and had never recruited apprentices before.
In addition, as part of its Appoint an Apprentice scheme, Jet2holidays also provided £150,000 to help fund the salaries of new apprentices for one year in independent travel agency partners across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Blue Bay Travel is one of the independent travel agencies who benefited from the scheme and has recently recruited two apprentices into the business.
Bethany Brown, Learning & Development Manager at Blue Bay Travel, said: “The Jet2holidays team deserve so much credit for this brilliant idea which has given us the opportunity to bring on more apprentices within our team. Our two new additions wouldn’t have been possible this year without the levy transfer funding from Jet2holidays, so we really appreciate it.”
Today’s announcement is the latest demonstration of Jet2holidays’ continued commitment to investing in independent travel agents through its Partners2Success strategy.
As well as ensuring that agency partners have all the tools they need to increase sales and grow their businesses, whether that be through bespoke marketing campaigns or training programmes, this huge investment into its Appoint an Apprentice scheme demonstrates Jet2holidays’ dedication to supporting independent travel agents so that they can recruit and develop talent to drive their growth too.
Alan Cross, Director of Travel Agent Relationships at Jet2holidays, said: “Since launching our Appoint an Apprentice scheme, we have been truly amazed by the response from our independent travel agency partners and the feedback we have had from them has been fantastic. As part of our commitment to investing directly into our independent travel agency partners to help them grow their business, we are making the scheme even bigger and better this year, with over double the amount of funding available. Apprentices are integral to the future growth and success of Jet2holidays, and we recognise the importance they play, both within our own business as well as the wider industry. That is why this year we are helping support even more independent travel agent partners, many of whom are small businesses, to develop their talent pipeline through apprenticeships.”
Independent travel agents can visit: trade.jet2holidays.com
