Meet your Study From Home team
Study From Home’s friendly team
When you earn your travel and tourism qualifications with Study From Home, you’ll spend your time in front of your laptop at home.
However, you’ll still enjoy the support and guidance of our Study From Home tutors, just like you would if you were studying in person. This close-knit team works hard to support our students as they move through their coursework, and will be there for advice, help, and motivation every step of the way.
Interested in learning more about your Study From Home tutors and team? Here’s a brief introduction!
Toni Young
Toni Young is the newest member of the Study From Home team, joining the crew in early 2021. Before that, she lived in Australia and the UK, and worked as a travel agent, a teacher, and for an airline and event management company.
No two days are the same for Toni. She might be working in Teams Assessment with a group of students, on a Zoom meeting with a student overseas, marking students’ work, or working on developing new course content. She sees her role as encouraging, motivating, facilitating, and counselling students.
“Their success is our success and we have lots of processes in place to help make this happen,” she explains.
Her favourite part of the job is seeing students achieve their qualifications and start their dream jobs in the industry, and her advice to students considering studying for a career in tourism and travel is to simply do it.
“There is no better time to be studying towards your travel and tourism qualifications. The industry needs qualified and motivated students and with this qualification you will be ideally placed to enter the exciting world of travel and tourism.”
When Toni isn’t helping and motivating students for Study From Home, she can often be found on the ski fields near her home town in Christchurch.
Joy Carter
Before becoming a Study From Home tutor, Joy spent almost 10 years teaching at the ITC Botany campus, so she has extensive experience with travel, tourism, and aviation courses. Prior to her work with ITC, she spent more than 10 years selling travel holidays.
Her days are always busy; doing roleplays with students, marking student coursework, responding to queries, and checking in on student progress. She helps to update and improve resources as well, but no matter how busy she is, “we are never too busy to have a chat with our students,” she says.
She knows that some students may need a hand with technical issues, and loves to help explain tricky terminology or clarify certain questions whenever students get stuck. But her favourite part of the job is getting to know the students, sharing their journeys, and celebrating their successes.
She says that for students considering studying online with SFH, the trick is to have plenty of support.
“Let family members and friends know that you are studying and the hours you have committed to. They probably don’t realise, and you may need them to help out if you encounter challenges along the way, such as a change of routine or sickness,” she said.
Joy’s no stranger to travel herself. She has been to many places over the years, but on one particularly memorable trip to Papua New Guinea, she and her husband and young daughter experienced a real culture shock. They were advised to lock themselves in at night, and on New Year’s Eve, the police came through their backyard chasing a “rascally”!
Lynelle Panton
Lynelle’s background is all about travel. She has worked in leisure travel, in hotels, for rental car companies, and even as a corporate travel consultant at American Express. That’s when she joined the ITC team as a campus tutor, before moving across to the Study From Home team where she is also a tutor.
As a part-timer, Lynelle juggles her work with SFH with her home life, where she’s full-on with three kids. She loves that she can spend time with her children after school and help with their activities, while still working in an industry she loves so much and knows so well.
When asked what she does to go the extra mile for her students, Lynelle explained that going the extra mile simply goes hand in hand with the travel and tourism industry, so it’s important to do that from the start. This can mean doing roleplays outside of normal hours, meeting students to help with assessments, and working with students one-on-one. She loves the work, and especially so when she sees the results and added confidence in the students.
“You can see them blossom after they have had that little bit of extra help,” she says.
For anyone considering signing up with Study From Home, she says that if it’s something you really want to do, then don’t let anything stop you. She recommends using the tutors who are there specifically to help – and they want to help.
Her favourite part of the job? Seeing students grow.
“A lot of students don’t realise how much they change from the start of the course to the end. It’s not just a knowledge thing – when you have learned something you gain confidence… and obviously I love to see them get their qualification and start working in the industry!”
And if you ever have a moment, be sure to ask Lynelle about her time working at a winery. She did the usual tasks such as wine tastings, but she would also occasionally jump in the ute with the dog in the back, then drive up and down the rows of vines banging the car door and getting the dog to bark like mad to scare away the birds.
Andrew Houston
Andrew began as a tutor for the Botany Campus five years ago, but he has since worked as the Tutorial Team Leader, and is now the Botany Campus Manager and Study From Home Manager. His work with Study From Home is backed by a long career in tourism and travel, where he worked in aviation security, and for Air New Zealand and Flight Centre.
His role is incredibly diverse. He supports the tutorial, recruitment, and student services teams for the Botany Campus, and the entire Study From Home Team. He even still teaches some diploma subjects and plays an important role in developing new course materials and resources.
Recently, he has been heavily involved with creating new interactive activities, video lessons, and enhanced subject guides for Study From Home students. Andrew, and the entire team, consistently work to make improvements for a better learning experience for everyone.
“I also empower the team to look for creative solutions to assist students who are facing personal challenges whilst studying,” he adds.
His favourite part of the job is seeing students start working in the world’s most exciting industry, and his advice for anyone considering study is to check out the Study From Home Free Trial, which gives you an idea of the style of learning you can expect as a student.
When he’s not busy with ITC and Study From Home work, Andrew is working on his fitness as he gets ready to run the Queenstown Marathon in November.
Ready to meet the team for real? Get in touch with us to hear more about our distance learning options, to enrol, and to meet your new Study From Home tutors!
Study From Home – college@itc.co.nz 0800 TOURISM (0800 868747) or https://www.studyfromhome.co.nz/contact-us/
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