At Flight Centre Travel Group, our number one philosophy is our people. We care about our people and their personal and professional development. This philosophy forms the foundation of our graduate programme: Fast Track.
Unlike other graduate programmes, which tend to consist of short, fixed rotations, our Fast Track programme creates bespoke experiences for our new recruits, which are tailored specifically to each individual through career management and senior leader mentoring.
We understand that training and development is very important, which is why our Fast Track programme ensures no one is pigeon-holed in the early stages of their career. We achieve this by exposing our graduates to all aspects of our business. With the support and guidance of their mentor, each candidate is encouraged to be open minded with their learning and to ‘take a leap of faith' with their career goals.
Being one of the world’s largest travel companies, our workforce is diverse. Our teams are not only comprised of sales professionals but also include a vast number of roles across a range of disciplines including finance, marketing, technology, project management and communications to name but a few. This means endless opportunities for our graduates as they learn and grow in environments best suited to their unique talents. The purpose of our Fast Track programme is not to supersede the variety of skills our graduates have acquired in their studies, but rather enhance them through hands-on learning, effectively acting as an extension of their education.
Attributing to FCTG’s success over the past forty years, is our flat and transparent structure that is unlike any other corporation. Despite being a company with over 12,000 staff globally, our business model operates like a small business, meaning that even the most senior leaders are extremely visible and accessible at all levels. This is reflected in our Fast Track programme, with all mentors being either executive team members or members of the senior leadership team in Europe.
“Through Fast Track, I've interacted with many Managing Directors and Corporate CEOs. My current mentor is the Head of Sales for FCM in Europe. It’s really exciting to be able to meet people who are so high up in the company despite not having been here very long,” says Sophie Challonder, Fast Track Programme participant.
Mentorship through the Fast Track Programme and more specifically the divergence of life experience, not only benefits our graduates in terms of their career progression and learning, but also challenges the thinking of our senior leaders.
Liz Matthews, who started in the Fast Track program almost 10 years ago, is now the General Manager of Flight Centre Brand. Speaking of her time in the programme she says: “For me, being a mentee in the program was an amazing opportunity to learn from a mentor who was, at the time, the Managing Director of the company.
“More recently, I've had the immense privilege of becoming a mentor myself, which has given me the ability to interact with all sorts of different people across the organisation. Not only have I given them something to help develop their careers, but also it has really helped me challenge my own thoughts and opinions as a leader."
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For those recent graduates looking to try their hand at a variety of roles whilst benefiting from the perks of working for a large corporation, our Fast Track programme might be the perfect next step in your career journey.
“I'd recommend the Fast Track programme to others because it really gives a true alternative to that traditional stage graduate programme you hear a lot about in that last year of university. You learn so much through the application process and then if you do get onto the programme, there is so much waiting for you,” says Eve Smith, Fast Track Programme participant.
“If you're ambitious and you have a passion about the travel industry, this is a really good pathway to go down. Everyone has really interesting stories about travelling so you will find yourself in a really cool culture of people that love the industry,” says Becca Gormley, Fast Track participant.
For more information on our Fast Track programme and to hear first-hand from our recent Fast Track graduates, watch our video below.
We're on the lookout for our 2023 intake now. If you're a recent graduate or set to graduate in the next academic year and looking to kick off your dream career in an exciting global company that gets work done while having fun, express your interest here.
If you're interested in Fast Track but ready to take the first step towards your dream career today, we are always looking for professional development opportunities for our people internally and run a similar programme for our Flighties already in the business. View our current opportunities and apply today to get started.
*Please note, currently our Fast Track Graduate Program is only available for graduates located in the UK.
