11th February 2022

South Devon College are pleased to welcome Angela Blackler who has recently been recruited to the position of Programme Coordinator for Tourism, Hospitality and Catering.

In this role Angela will assist in the day to day management of the section, overseeing the Travel and Tourism courses in Further Education.

Angela has a long and rich background in the tourism industry. She started as Travel Advisor in Going Places in Paignton, back in the early 90s. Her career has taken her into management roles in Torquay and Newton Abbot, working for TUI plc and Thomas Cook. Her relentless focus on customer satisfaction and her passion for the travel sector helped her to win many wards along the way.

In 2014 Angela progressed to Senior Retail Store Manager, TUI – Plymouth where she went on to opening the first Digital Holiday Design Concept Store for TUI in the South West Region and successfully merged two teams to achieve ‘Regional Team of the Year’ after just one year of trading.

Some more of her achievements:

• Successfully delivered year on year growth in passenger numbers and profit targets leading to her store being recognised as the largest TUI high street store in the UK and Ireland. Improved company customer service rating from 20% to 91%
• Worked directly with Tour Operators to improve product knowledge in key information of new destinations and new initiatives
• Regularly held workshops and promotion events inviting regular customers with over 100 customers attending these events generating an increase in sales revenue for operators and the store

Lynn Stephens, Head of Tourism, Hospitality and Catering at South Devon College said: “we are absolutely delighted that Angela has moved into this new role. This reflects her hard work at the college as a teacher and personal tutor at the college over the last two years. We are extremely excited to be working on career training for our young people who want to work in the Tourism and Hospitality industry, and Ange is bringing a fantastic level of professionalism and experience to the developments.

“Angela has been all over the world and her experiences are such an inspiration to our students. She’s already making changes to the programmes and is creating a brand new Cabin Crew course for 16-18 year olds ready for September; a response to the industry reopening and the growth and developments in the travel sector. It is such a good time to be getting into training.”

If you’re looking to become part of one of the biggest local growth sectors, visit southdevon.ac.uk to discover a range of courses that will help get you there. If you have any questions, email [email protected].