In addition to the mentoring option Mike pursues, he has been requested to speak at OxBrookes on topics such as personal branding and leadership at both under and post graduate level. He also involved Lance’s consultancy skills in setting up a real time case study for the 2023 remote MBA program and both he and Lance took on guest panel roles for the Entrepreneurial elective’s 2023 “Dragons Den “event.
Further, Mike was appointed as Visiting Industrial Fellow at the Oxford Brookes Business School in June 2024, and expanding on his own work to date, THP’s focus on this aspect is now gaining traction and we are keen to engage with more establishments to increase awareness and potential for future employment across the sector.
Mike Pooley
One work stream now added to the activities of The Hayward Partnership has been our focus to develop stronger ties and support specific initiatives in the academic space.
We are dedicating time and engaging regularly with leaders and students to introduce the travel services sector as a real option for the future workforce generation. Talented, enterprising and ambitious students can now get first hand insight and knowledge of a sector that we identified was not fully understood, or appreciated by student bodies in terms of its global reach, and its constant demand for employable graduates well-schooled in ways to improve excellence in service delivery.
Our partner Mike Pooley has taken the lead on this topic and with 30 years sector experience he has a wealth of knowledge of the industry’s demands, and opportunities. This background has already presented him with a number of invitations to collaborate in order to discuss career development and educate student cohorts in how the sector aims to improve passenger experience, offer the latest enhancements in technology and digitalisation, and support a more sustainable way of working from design through sourcing to the logistics of delivery on a global scale.
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The importance of sharing and referencing this entirely global perspective cannot be underestimated and in the last 10 years Mike has mentored over 20 international students from the School of Hospitality & Tourism at Oxford Brookes University to encourage them to consider more service options in the travel and events industry than, as is more common, fulfilling their ambitions by taking more traditional roles in the well referenced hospitality space.
The Hayward Partnership are very open to take up a discussion with interested sponsors and partners that can lead to opportunities and educational advancement for industry and academia alike and we welcome input on one or a number of ways to progress these initiatives such as:-
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Mentoring programs facilitated by THP
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Discussing potential and value of internships
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Exploring Graduate schemes with organisations in the sector
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Development of planned visit schedules both student field trips and company meet and greet on campus (especially presence at Open Days, Career Fairs etc.)
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Organising key note speakers to address student groups
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Resources supporting research and analysis to accelerate project work and strategy development