Last year i completed an NQ Retail Travel (Higher) at Motherwell College in Scotland.

This year i am back at the new £70 million college doing my HNC Travel in the hope of becoming a travel agent in the near future.

The course covers a range of topics as follows

Communication - Analysing and Presenting Complex Communication - this class requires you to identify and extract pieces of information relevant to a certain type of person. It includes delving further into a text and identifying factors which may not be obvious at first glance.

Creating a Culture of Customer Care- learning how to identify customer needs and dealing with complaints in a professional manner.

Retail Travel Practice - extracting information from holiday brochures in order to process a booking according to customers requirements.

Structure of the Travel and Tourism Industry - identifying how the travel industry is built up through researching various roles.

Spanish for Work - higher level of Spanish covering various subjects.

Information Technology - computer based, learning various packages including powerpoint and spreadsheets.

International Tourist Destinations - researching popular tourist destinations abroad and identifying legal requirements and activities to do whilst on holiday.

Developing Skills for Personal Effectiveness - this class required us to pick 2 goals and detail our sucesses in the form of a diary and portfolio and completing a review and presentation towards the end.

Air travel - learning about airline policies, requirements and how to do airline bookings.

Applying Marketing Principles - not completed as yet

There is also a travel graded unit that carries over 2 terms. The project for the past 2 years has been to plan a wedding abroad with a difference. This project involves alot of research and takes up alot of time.

A fulltime course is 1yr and part time is 2yrs. The course allows you to progress to second level HND at university or at another college.

My opinion

I have enjoyed the course so far though it is so much more work compared to last year and i am struggling to keep up due to being absent with my son being ill on a regular basis. The course requires commitment and determination. At Motherwell college, you have the opportunity to go on a study visit abroad. This year we are going to Barcelona for 3days in March.