Lancashire school travel firm bounces back with recruitment drive

Next Generation Travel, has seen demand bounce back from when all school trips were cancelled during the lockdowns, and is seeking to recruit new members of staff in a number of roles in customer service and support teams in all of its UK office locations.

The move follows what it said was a challenging time for the school travel industry, which had seen some competitors fail.

Following the easing of pandemic travel restrictions, NGT said it had seen a significant increase in interest from teachers and group leaders eager to book overseas school tours again.

During the pandemic, Whitehills-based NGT said it had invested in the wellbeing of employees as it recognised the stress facing all staff, whether working or on furlough.

This focus was rewarded in December 2021, when NGT received the Investors in People Gold Award and again passed the industry’s annual Customer Service Excellence assessment last year.

Sian Belfield, people and customer experience director, said: “We’ve placed great emphasis on ensuring that our team has felt valued and supported throughout the last two years.

"We recognise how important our staff have always been to the ongoing development of the culture and growth of the business and it’s their talent and experience which enables us to deliver exceptional service to our customers.

“NGT is the only educational travel company to hold IIP Gold and the CSE accreditation and to achieve these during a pandemic was amazing!

"As one of our commitments to growth, we delivered a company-wide rebrand during the pandemic, which brought our specialist brands and teams together under the banner of Next Generation Travel Group.

“To support our customers both present and future, we developed a Covid Promise so that they could plan and book their tour with confidence, knowing that their money was safe and travel plans would be handled with our full support. We also introduced our new Covid insurance policy for all new bookings.

“The best news is that many of our tours that were postponed in 2020 and 2021 have finally managed to go and are travelling out this year around the UK, Europe and beyond.”