THORNHILL, ON — The CAA Club Group of Companies (CCG) has come up with a new program aimed at alleviating the labour shortage, as it looks for strong candidates to join its teams of travel advisors.

The CAA Club Group of Companies, the parent organization of CAA South Central Ontario (SCO) and CAA Travel, is launching The CCG Travel Academy this spring to help bridge the skills gap.

The CCG Travel Academy is a paid two-month training program to attract, train and licence travel agents.

Catherine Sieniewicz, VP, Travel and Retail, CAA Club Group of Companies, noted that following the pandemic, CAA Travel leaders increasingly noticed a gap in the quality of candidates seeking travel agent positions. This has made it hard to hire qualified people who provide the level of quality and care that CAA expects for its members and customers, she added.

“CAA Travel is growing, and we want to ensure that we can continue to provide the top-quality service and expertise that we are known for,” said Sieniewicz. “As an organization with extensive experience in Associate training, learning, and development, we decided to build a customized, best-in-class program designed to train qualified travel agents from the ground up.”

Every year, CCG’s Learning and Development department delivers hundreds of in-house courses to foster Associate growth, many of which have been customized to fit unique business needs, she added. The CCG Travel Academy is an extension of this longstanding approach to provide Associates with educational support throughout every stage of their career.

The CCG Travel Academy is a paid two-month program that will run twice in 2024 and then quarterly in 2025 onward, and includes a mix of classroom education and on-the-job training. New hires will automatically join the Academy that is scheduled closest to their hire date.

“Participants will gain fundamental industry knowledge, a deep understanding of CAA products and services, and the system and process training that is required to perform successfully in a travel role at CAA,” said Sieniewicz.

The program will include job shadowing and on-the-job practice. Travel licencing (TICO) reimbursement will also be covered. The site with more information is here.