While the job market has been tough for graduates over the last 12 months, TUI UK & Ireland (TUI UK), the parent company of Thomson and First Choice is bucking the trend by launching a new graduate development scheme starting in October 2010. The graduate leadership programme will look to give the graduates exposure to the whole of the business, and develop future leaders for TUI UK.

TUI UK will be looking for ten ambitious graduates to work across the business over the course of 15 months. The graduates will spend time in each of the four, core areas of the business: Airline, the Distribution division, which looks after retail and e-commerce, the Customer division (encompassing overseas and marketing) and the Commercial division (which covers yield, product and cruise).

Although historically both Thomson and First Choice had individual graduate schemes, this is the first graduate scheme to be launched since the merger between Thomson and First Choice in 2007. The leadership programme follows TUI UK’s successful student placement programme, which takes ten students, during their sandwich year, to work in the commercial division. The programme has recently been short listed for two categories in the National Council Work Experience Awards.

Sue Chatfield Head HR services says; “This programme brings something unique to the graduate job market. It’s a leadership programme, where the graduates will get solid business experience but in the travel sector rather than in finance or law.  The travel industry is fast paced and exciting, and through rotating around different areas of the business both in the UK and overseas the graduates will be able to experience that.”

David Burling Commercial Director for TUI UK says; “I started out as a grad at Thomson twenty years ago, and spent time in different divisions where I really got to grips with the business. While for the majority of my career I have been in the commercial side of things, spending time overseas and in different parts of the business has given me a much greater understanding of what we as a company are trying to achieve. I’ve enjoyed a swift career progression at Thomson and I look forward to welcoming the new grads into the commercial division.”