Dr Andrew Clegg, Subject Leader for Tourism Management at the University of Chichester is celebrating his success in the National Training Awards 2009. In recognition of his work, in partnership with Tourism South East and local businesswoman Sandra Barnes Keywood, Andrew was named as winner of the National Training Award – South East Prize for Providing Education and Training 2009 for delivering training relating to green tourism for small businesses.
As part of his work at the University, Dr Clegg works as a consultant and trainer for Tourism South East. Andrew is the national master trainer for the “Green Advantage” programme, a one-day course looking at sustainable business management. Dr Clegg’s award recognises his work in developing training designed to help businesses recognise the value of being green, and seeking accreditation in the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS). The GTBS is a national programme that awards gold, silver or bronze stars to tourism sector companies based on their environmental practices.The National Training Awards recognise excellence in training and for this award Andrew had to demonstrate the drivers for the training, the nature of the training developed, and how training had impacted on business performance. The feedback from the NTA highlighted the calibre of the training being delivered ‘Judges found that the energy and enthusiasm of the entrant was really infectious...the overall training package has been well modified to engage tourist operations and leads to these companies offering a greener tourist package...the mix of theory vs practice is very good’.
Andrew also provides training in partnership with the Green Training Company, run by Sandra Barnes-Keywood, an award winning green business champion who also runs the Old Chapel Forge B&B in Lagness. Dr Clegg has worked with Sandra to develop a suite of training programmes that support business adoption of green business practices, and in doing so help demonstrate the business case for green tourism not only through savings in cost-efficiency but also how being green can contribute to the overall quality of the visitor experience.
As Dr Clegg points out ‘in the current climate green tourism makes good business sense as it encourages businesses to look critically at how to save money. However, green tourism is not just about energy efficient lightbulbs and the aim of the training courses I have developed is to help businesses recognise the wider social and environmental remit of sustainable tourism. Most importantly it is about getting businesses to recognise that green tourism can have a significant impact on the overall quality of the visitor experience’.
Dr Clegg is keen to acknowledge the help of Sandra Barnes-Keywood – ‘Sandra has helped me to make the training real and without her input I would have not won this award’. Dr Clegg is also grateful to Tourism South East for running the courses he and Sandra have developed. As he explains ‘Tourism South East take an instrumental role in supporting sustainable tourism across the region and I am grateful for the opportunity to deliver this training for them and for the tremendous support they have provided’. Dr Clegg will not however be resting on his laurels. Later this month he will be visiting Malta with Tourism South East to help Malta Tourism develop their own green training programme.
Contact: Dr Andrew Clegg 01243 812017 Email: a.clegg@chi.ac.uk
Posts
