As part of an ongoing drive to place the customer at the heart of everything it does, First Choice and Thomson are set to launch a unique initiative that will see overseas staff enrolled on an official course focusing on Customer Relations. Resort representatives working in the Canaries, Balearics and Mainland Spain will be enrolled on the National Vocational Qualification course in Customer Service (up to Level 2), with an emphasis on customer interfacing skills. This initiative will then be rolled out across all resort staff for next year if the trial proves successful.

National Vocational Qualifications are work-related, competence-based qualifications, and over 350 First Choice and Thomson overseas representatives will participate in the scheme during their resort training this summer. The NVQ is part of Thomson and First Choice’s Learning and Development framework aimed at not only providing opportunities for staff to develop their talents, but also provide levels of customer service that exceed our customers’ expectations.

“This nationally recognised qualification provides a structured environment for self development at no cost to staff,” says Helen Mitchell, Overseas Training Manager. “With a small amount of extra work involved, the successful completion of the course will not only increase chances of progression within the company, but also improve our overseas employees’ overall customer service skills”.

The Learning & Development team are committed to providing a blend of learning and development opportunities that develop great leaders who drive high performance and also enable Thomson and First Choice staff to do a great job and deliver high performance. Aligned to the HR strategy, the department’s role is to lay the foundations for a customer service oriented business by ensuring that employees know that they work for an organisation that is both committed to providing them with the opportunities to develop and to be the best that they can in their day-to-day role.

The NVQ scheme will be overseen by TFT (Training for Travel) assessors, who will administer exams under the NVQ Code of Practice and be responsible and accountable for:

Managing the system of assessment from assessment planning through to making and recording assessment decisions as required by the awarding body

Assessing evidence of candidate competence against the national standards of occupational competence within the qualification

Ensuring the validity, authenticity and sufficiency of evidence produced by the candidates

Maintaining accurate and verifiable candidate assessment and achievement records as required by the awarding body