Amy Ritchie (19) from Falkirk, is flourishing at Forth Valley College as she studies for a NQ Tourism and Events qualification.
She said: “I chose Forth Valley College as it has many subjects that I’m interested in. I like doing things that involves travel and tourism, and I’ve been interested in working in a hotel or airport since I was a kid. I love communicating to new people and helping them
“Regarding the facilities and the lecturers, in the Stirling Campus it’s a smaller campus it is easy to find all the facilities like toilets, cafeteria and your classroom, since classrooms are in the same corridors and areas. The lecturers really provide good information and guidance towards the subjects we’ve been doing, and they have helped me through the course and have helped me understand the subject. Thanks to the lecturers who have taken their time to help me after class and help me to understand the questions I may have been confused on and help me to pass.
“The College and the course has benefitted me as I have gained new friendships with the whole class. Also in part of the course we carry out ‘roleplays’, which sees us acting like a person who works at a travel agents and so on. This helps me and my classmates to improve our communication skills and confidence to talk in front of the whole class
“These experiences will help me to progress with my communication even more and doing the ‘roleplays’ has shown me how you treat customers and what to say to them to help sell the sale. Learning more information about tourism and travel will help me to gain more knowledge of the roles that I could find a work in when I leave.
I would really love to work in a job where I would be helping customers, perhaps something like a travel agents, cabin crew or receptionist or front of house in a hotel, would be great.
“If anyone likes to travel places and like working in hotels and learning about different cultures of different countries, and helping customers with booking something, then this Travel and Tourism course would be good for you.
“The course has a great deal of information on different countries and about leisure and business, sustainability, and their economies and it offers good information about hotels and amenities. As resort reps we learn about the airport like cabin crew, phonetic alphabet airport uses, as airport reps we learn the airport code like Glasgow International Airport is GLA and Edinburgh Airport is EDI. This course has really good information on these types of roles and the lecturers go into really good detail and it’s really easy to understand the whole course. I have found it to be really interesting and it has good lecturers who will help you through the course.
“I really found the travel agency parts interesting and learning about different types of travel products and explaining what different products mean, explaining the difference between tangible, which is something you can touch, and intangible, which is something you can’t touch. I really loved learning about and doing the ‘roleplays’ which has helped me with communication helping me with what to do and say in the job. I find it really helpful and a good thing to help others with the course and I loved learning more about what the airport job roles do and learning more about working in planes.
“I would recommend it to other potential students because the College has better information on the course that you are interested in, and lecturers would go into detail about the work. It is different from school as the lecturers are less strict in College and they help you anytime you want, and the College times for lunch are less stressful.
“I also enjoyed meeting new friends and going on College trips to Stirling Castle, as well as learning about different subjects on the course, and learning and trying new things. I have also enjoyed helping others with work and doing ‘roleplays’ and having good lecturers.”