Jamie Maxwell a former student at SRC’s Newry campus successfully completed the Foundation Degree in International Travel and Tourism at the College, while also winning ‘NI Travel Student of the Year’ in 2012. On completion of his Foundation Degree at SRC, Jamie progressed to Ulster University to undertake the final year of the degree, graduating with a first-class honours. Since graduating, Jamie has travelled the world working, using the theory and experience he gained at College to secure senior positions.

On completion of his A-Levels, Jamie was initially disappointed to not get the grades he needed to move straight to university at 18. While exploring his options, Jamie attended an information session at Southern Regional College where he first learned about the foundation degree. Jamie says that this “opened up a new world of opportunities”.

As a student, Jamie found SRC to be extremely supportive, allowing him to reach his full potential which was recognised when he won the ‘NI Travel Student of the Year’ award.

Following graduation from his degree at UU, Jamie initially worked as a holiday rep before becoming a grounds operation manager for EasyJet in Gatwick, where he was responsible for the servicing of aircraft, flight paperwork, catering, fuelling of planes and much more. At Gatwick Jamie oversaw on average 240 flights per day with roughly 100,000 passengers going through the airports boarding gates. Jamie also worked at Dublin airport for 5 years as a service delivery manager representing 23 airlines who were externally based.

Jamie has returned to the College on multiple occasions to speak to current students about the travel and tourism industry and has also been appointed more recently as a part-time lecturer, imparting his knowledge and experience of the travel industry with likeminded students.

Jamie enjoys bringing theory to life and making it relatable for students. His main aim is to inspire future generations to join the tourism sector as in his words “there’s a whole world out there to experience”. As a young person Jamie always wanted to be a travel representative and he is extremely grateful to the College for helping him take that first step.

Jamie says: