TRAVEL Management Company Portman Travel, welcomed eight new full-time employees this week and there’s more jobs on the way for the town to bring a total of 24 new positions in two years by early 2017.
The new employees graduated from their in-house Academy training programme at their European Centre of Excellence in Monavalley, Tralee, where they were on a Jobbridge scheme.
Portman’s Academy was created and designed in conjunction with JobBridge, to develop new talent for careers in the business travel industry. The graduates represent Portman’s second Academy training programme, and the company has announced its plans for a third intake of trainees in July 2016.
The eight graduates were presented with certificates to mark the successful completion of their training by Steve Allen, CEO of Portman Travel at Fels Point Hotel on Tuesday night.
It was also an occasion to announce a multi-million euro contract with Primark and six employees at the centre will be dealing with the retail giant’s requirements.
CEO Steve Allen said: “I am delighted to be here today to congratulate our eight newest Academy graduates, and to welcome them on board as Portman Travel employees. Our Academy programme, in conjunction with JobBridge, has proven a real success for all concerned. It allows us to source excellent staff in the local area, who we train using our award-winning reservation technology PortmanOne”.
Portman has been operating in Tralee from Monavalley Business Park since 1999, under a local management team. The company manages the corporate travel requirements of a growing number of well-known Irish, British and European companies.
Portman Travel is one of the UK’s largest independent travel management companies, and started 2016 in winning style with two major awards at the recent Business Travel Awards, the industry Oscars held in London for Best Travel Management Company and Best Technology Product for their proprietary PortmanOne online booking tool.