With an excellent team committed to "setting the standard" at the Durham Tourism Skills Centre much has already been achieved through the development of successful partnership activity. Many benefits are on offer when employers join the partnership including the opportunity to join in networking events. These can be anything from informal lunch and learn workshops to the highly successful Supper Club evenings. On March 17th, yet another successful evening was held at Oldfields in Durham, bringing together business partners from the Durham Tourism Skills Partnership. The conversations were varied and informal, giving like-minded people from the tourism industry the opportunity to network and share their views and ideas. The free Supper Club event is just one of the many benefits of the partnership scheme. The evening brought together individuals from both private and public sector backgrounds to discuss a variety of ways in which skills, career and professional development can be achieved within tourism throughout the County. Included in the guest list were Martin Boulton, Head of Tourism for Durham City, Oldfield's General Manager, Peter Wood, Chief Executive for Audiences North East, Elaine Wilson, Inform North's Managing Director Mike Storey, Thorpe Farm Owner, Paul Barkes and Angus and Louise Johnston from Low Urpeth Farm. Throughout the evening attendees were able to introduce their business, research new ideas and establish new partnerships and contacts in a very relaxed manner. The Durham City based team at the Durham Tourism Skills Centre was delighted with the evening. * To Join the partnership and become involved in this exciting new approach to up skill staff and improve the visitor experience, please contact Barbara Elder or Julie Sloan on 0191 3741271 NETWORKING DIARY DATES 2005: April 20th, May 18th, June 22nd, July 20th, Aug 17th, Sept 14th, Oct 12th, Nov 9th, Dec 7th New benefits of the partnership include specialist training workshops and lunch and learn sessions Two businesswomen that have recently joined the Durham Tourism Skills Partnership are Julie McLoughlin, owner of Durham's Mable and Isaac Gallery and Miriam Harte, Director of Beamish. Both women share the aims of the partnership and want to work with the team to up-skill their workforce, with the ultimate aim of improving the tourism experience and exceeding visitor expectations. Beamish Joins Partnership Being one of the biggest employers within the tourism industry in the region demands dedicated staff who can provide customers with excellent service - a subject which Beamish Director, Miriam Harte feels passionately about. Already committed to supporting and training staff, Miriam believes that joining The Durham Tourism Skills Partnership will complement further the ongoing training programme for both full-time and seasonal staff. "We are a region of wonderful people. At Beamish we are proud of our staff and I believe a part of our success is due to the training we give every member of our team to continuously improve what Beamish delivers to its' customers." "It is great that we now have such a wonderful resource on our doorstep to tap into that is as customer focused as we are," says Miriam when discussing the partnership. "Apart from the training programme, it will also be great to meet other members of the partnership who are equally as supportive and committed to tourism." Miriam Harte believes that the aims of the Durham Tourism Skills Partnership are forward thinking and exciting. "It is wonderful for a training body to have such great aspirations for the provision of a skilled workforce in Durham County. I support fully that jobs within tourism be taken seriously." "We have up to 3000 customers coming through our doors every day and we are proud of what we do. This could not be achieved unless we support and train our staff." Like the Durham Tourism Skills Centre Miriam firmly believes that a career within tourism is both fulfilling and should be highly valued. With awards such as Visitor Attraction of the Year 2004 under her belt and Beamish shortlisted to win the Visit Britain England for Excellence award this is a lady who is quite clearly getting it right! Entrepreneur recognises benefits Even with a city centre location and a career in finance under her belt, Julie Mc Loughlin was drawn to the benefits of joining the Durham Tourism Skills Partnership. "The team working at the partnership are incredibly approachable and professional and I recognised that they would be able to help me achieve my business goals," said Julie. As a new business they have so much to offer that can help. Apart from the Supper Clubs that will help me meet like-minded people in business I also get the opportunity to develop my training needs in sales and marketing, customer service and in a number of other areas." What makes it even better for Julie is that the training can be brought to her through on-site training or online. "That's one of the services that really swung it for me" enthuses Julie. "I am not in a position to close my shop to go on training courses so it's an ideal way for me to develop without losing any business. There are a lot of training enterprises around, but not all are as forward thinking as this one." The guest speakers were also regarded as another reason to join. " The Durham Tourism Skills Centre are planning many speakers that will impact on tourism in many different ways and that is something I want to be a part of " said Julie. On a final note, Julie points out that it's great to work with a team of people that are positive about the future of tourism within the county. Not only that, she also believes that their ability to remain informed and impartial is paramount to their success to-date. | 
