Women in Travel (CIC), the social enterprise dedicated to empowering women through employability and entrepreneurship in the travel industry, has announced the summer extension of its training and mentoring initiatives to provide free guidance for women affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

From July to September 2020, up to 90 women who live within Greater London and have lost their entry level or supervisory jobs can apply to Women in Travel to receive mentoring, training and access to entry-level employment opportunities in the hospitality and tourism sector throughout the capital. The workshops will be hosted as part of Women in Travel’s Female Employability Action Supported by Travel and Tourism (FEAST) initiative, which will boost the employability skills of women keen to work within the UK’s hospitality, travel and tourism industries. The FEAST sessions will initially be hosted online, with the aim to host the sessions in-person once it is safe to do so.

Women in Travel has also partnered with The Global Travel & Tourism Partnership (GTTP) to offer FEAST attendees further education by taking part in GTTP’s online 10-week course, Introduction to Travel & Tourism: Passport to the World. The free course introduces individuals to the structure of the industry and how it operates. Individuals and companies interested in learning more about the FEAST training programme are encouraged to contact Alessandra Alonso at returners@womenintravelcic.com.

Throughout the summer, Women in Travel will also continue to host supportive online mentoring circles for women who are small business owners, self-employed or at risk of losing their jobs in the travel, tourism or hospitality industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally launched in March and open to women across the world, the twice-monthly mentoring circles will now run until early September thanks to a generous grant from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). The three mentoring circles, which will consist of up to 12 women each, will provide women in industry with the opportunity to network, share and learn from like-minded women from the global industry.

Commenting on the summer extension of Women in Travel’s supportive measures, Alessandra Alonso, the Founder of Women in Travel said: “We know how tough it can be for unemployed women to return to work in the best of times, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made the process even harder. The travel, tourism and hospitality industries have been impacted enormously during the first six months of this year, so for those women who may have been made redundant or are at risk of losing income, it is great that we are able to continue offering our training and mentoring initiatives to help them, and boost the confidence and success rate of those looking to get back to work as soon as possible.”