The new Future You Foundation has launched a crowdfunding campaign and is seeking contributions from individuals across the travel sector and offering sponsorship opportunities to travel businesses.

Industry professionals Claire Steiner, Danny Waine and Paul Cowley will lead the foundation – which is aiming to raise £50,000 in funding to raise the profile of travel industry careers and amplify initiatives to attract new talent into the sector.

The ITT’s Future You scheme currently hosts an annual conference and events across England offering career resources and advice to schools, colleges and universities, although all events are organised by a team of industry volunteers.

The Future You Foundation will look to forge greater collaborate on the issue of recruitment and retention and directly create job roles for graduates, apprentices and internships for students. 

An expansion of events into Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and the creation of a global advisory board of industry stakeholders is also planned.

A new online talent platform to showcase students and graduates actively looking for jobs within travel and tourism businesses, a mentoring scheme and industry masterclasses aimed at the next generation of travel industry professionals are also in the pipeline for the 2022/23 academic year.

Speaking at the launch of the Future You Foundation at the ITT Conference in Istanbul on Thursday (16 June), Steiner said: “The Future You Foundation is a collaborative industry initiative, bringing together the travel, tourism, hospitality and aviation industries to champion what a great sector this is to work in. 

“All parts of the sector are struggling to attract, recruit and retain talent, so we’re asking the industry to get behind the Future You Foundation and to work together to shout about the opportunities that we offer.”

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Waine said: “We’re immensely proud of what we’ve achieved since launching Future You back in 2008. All our volunteers give their spare time, evenings and weekends to bring our events to life, inspiring students and graduates along the way. The Future You Foundation is an opportunity for travel companies to get their brand in front of individuals who want to work in our fantastic sector. 

“There has been a lot of talk about talent struggles lately and we have been working over the past 14 years to connect talent, education and industry. We now want to take that to the next level.”

Cowley added: “The industry needs to be proactive and engage the next generation to help fill talent gaps. The students and graduates that we meet at our Future You events are actively seeking employment in our sector and we have the most diverse audience in the travel industry. The flexible job roles offered by travel businesses also increases accessibility opportunities for all.”

To support the Future You Foundation crowdfunding, visit: crowdfunder.co.uk/p/future-you-foundation