We’re delighted to be a part of a proactive initiative which has delivered focus and purpose to many within the travel sector over the past few months…
We all know that the travel industry has been one of the hardest hit by the Covid-19 global pandemic. With airlines and cruise ships grinding to a halt in March, big names in the travel industry going bankrupt, and on-going concerns over the safety of socially-distanced travelling, it’s not surprising that some are suggesting that the landscape of the travel industry has changed forever. It’s pretty clear; times are tough. Recovery is also something that may not happen as smoothly as we’d like, with airbridges and safe countries being opened and retracted with ever increasing swiftness. Certainly, for those working within the travel industry it’s not simply the case of missing out on a summer holiday abroad this year; the impact has been devastating.
That’s why Insights has been delighted to support the Expedia Group’s complimentary education journey for the travel industry over the past few weeks and months. This five-month learning and development programme was launched in July and was designed as a way to support and give back to an industry going through a particularly difficult time. The core goal of the Expedia Group Academy was to provide participants with knowledge, networks and resources to support their return to the travel industry – and to cultivate a vibrant community for workers in the travel industry as they navigate these challenging months.
The platform provides a number of fantastic learning and development resources for learners, with a focus on a different theme each month. These monthly topics include things like professional development, enhancing business skills, and leadership foundations – all core learning that will support people across a wide variety of business areas within the sector, and at any stage of their career. The other brilliant thing to note about the complimentary programme is that it’s open to all travel industry employees. That’s right, it’s not something that’s only accessible to Expedia Group employees, it’s totally inclusive and open to all employees within the travel industry, located globally, who have found themselves to be displaced or furloughed during this period.
That focus on connection and community was certainly something that really chimed with Insights’ values. As an organisation that has itself been working hard throughout the pandemic to keep our employees and customers around the world connected and communicating effectively over the past six months, we were delighted to be part of such a worthwhile initiative. We know how important the people stuff is, and that the human skills developed through increased self-awareness can be the ones that give you an edge as an employee and a prospective job candidate. We also know that a time of disruption – as challenging as it may be – also provides a rare opportunity for individuals to take time to re-focus on themselves, their skills and development.
Insights have supported learners on the programme with a variety of content, including job aids, eLearning modules, videos, infographics, and access to our new digital learning tool Insights Explore – a lighter touch version of the popular Insights Discovery profile. It’s through these materials that we aim to enhance essential business skills such communication, teamwork, problem solving, and resilience. We want to support people to understand themselves and their own communication preferences better, to enable them to get the most out of themselves and their relationships with others.
We’ve been delighted to hear that these solutions have really resonated with the learners. As the only learning and development organisation to have been given our own dedicated learning track within the academy, our content has the highest number of views and the highest engagement out of any of the platform. The programme now has over 2000 global learners who share and engage with the content as part of the programme. Notably, this includes both individual contributors and senior leaders in the industry – so not just one demographic.
We’re so pleased that our solution has been able to support so many people as part of the Expedia Group Academy over these past months. In these disrupted times, with many negative headlines surrounding the industry and a flip-flopping recovery that looks like it may be much slower than originally anticipated, it could be easy to become disheartened. This programme has proactively delivered focus, purpose and employability-enhancing business skills to many within the travel sector, and it’s something that we at Insights are pleased and proud to be a part of.
If you’re a travel industry employee and you’d like to sign-up for the Expedia Group Academy then you can do so here.
