Pauline Park

Teacher in Glasgow, United Kingdom

Pauline Park

Teacher in Glasgow, United Kingdom

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Hi I'm Pauline and it's great to meet you! So, you want to know a bit more about me? After a few years working in the travel industry and completing an MSc in Tourism Studies from the University of Strathclyde I became a lecturer in Tourism at a Glasgow College. I love teaching and I've been teaching students for 27 years now (wait, what- how did that happen?!).

14 years ago now, my fellow lecturer- and husband!- Kenneth decided to start our own company- Mondrago My Travel Teacher- as we were frustrated that the skills that students were being taught in college were not necessarily the skills travel employers were looking for and we decided to fill this gap!

Our very first product was a simulator of a tour operators reservation system, so students could learn how to make package holiday bookings without being on a live system!

This was followed by an airline check-in and boarding simulator, then a hotel Property Management System simulator.

We then created online courses on cabin crew, cabin crew recruitment and working as a holiday rep.

We then spent all of 2019 updating all of our courses and put them all under the one banner- the Travel Training Academy.

We were one week away from launching when the pandemic hit! So, we purchased 2,000 licences and offered them free to colleges all over the UK, to help them whilst working remotely. Both Kenneth and I felt very proud to be able to support the FE sector in this way.

There are two things we are absolutely passionate about here at the Travel Training Academy- ensuring our courses are realistic and that they have digital skills embedded within them.

So, how do we get our courses so realistic? Easy! We work with people who are actually doing the jobs so we include the many scenarios they encounter into our training to make it as true to life as possible!

And why are digital skills so important? Well, because employers are crying out for digital skills. In June 2020, we held our very first conference- Classroom after Covid. The one message they rang out loud and clear from every single one of our guest speakers- and there were some very eminent travel professionals on the line-up- was the desire for students to have excellent digital skills. They rightly pointed out, that the vast majority of travel training is now online and many of the job roles they highlighted requires students to have a high level of digital skills.

So, here at the Travel Training Academy, digitial skills are at the heart of what we do!

  • Education
    • University of Strathclyde
    • University of Dundee