Sophie Lanigan, Hospitality and Tourism Management with Marketing graduate, has been shortlisted for the ‘Tourism Student of the Year’ Award by Women in Tourism Scotland (WITScotland). This award recognises and celebrates students who are bringing fresh and exciting ideas to the forefront, and who are demonstrating a passion to progress in the tourism sector.
As part of our ongoing partnership between the Scottish Events Campus (SEC) and Strathclyde Business School’s Hospitality and Tourism Management Pathway, during her final undergraduate year, Sophie completed a 12 week internship with the Customer Experience Team at SEC in Glasgow. The internship involved a large project to help improve accessibility for customers with disabilities attending events. Supervised by Tom Bourkel, Teaching Fellow in Work, Employment and Organisation, and with the continuous support of the SEC, Sophie finalised the project as her Honours' dissertation.
Paula Millen, People Partner at the SEC said, “Sophie worked both independently, researching best practice in other similar venues, and as part of the overall Customer Experience and wider SEC teams, working with Digital Marketing, Ticketing, Operations and our service partners to entirely re-write the accessibility pages on both venue websites (www.sec.co.uk and www.thessehydro.com). Both of these pages are live on our websites and will continue to be used by the business going forward.
“Not only has Sophie brought us to within a few weeks of achieving an upgraded access award from a nationally and industry recognised charity, she has helped to formalise and build a legacy of good practice in the venue. We will continue to work on this and help improve access for all visitors to the amazing events we hold here, regardless of impairment or disability.”
Sophie’s achievement is an excellent example of successfully blending teaching with practical experience through industry involvement, galvanising Strathclyde’s ethos as the place of useful learning.
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