A NORTH-EAST college is opening an on-campus travel agency to help its students gain practical experience of the industry.

Gateshead College’s Baltic campus will be home to BQ Travel, which will offer a full range of holidays.

The agency will give the college’s travel and tourism and business administration students the chance to experience a real working environment.

BQ Travel will be managed by Helen Sykes, who comes to the college from Hays Travel after more than 34 years in the travel industry.

Ms Sykes studied towards her training qualifications at Gateshead College in 1999.

She said: “BQ Travel will operate as a professional travel agency allowing leisure and business travellers to book worldwide trips. We’ll also be able to offer Gateshead College students a unique experience to gain the skills needed to work in the travel industry.

“I’m really excited about taking this new post as I’ll not only be doing the job I love but be involved in the training side too.”

Dave Jackson, head of business and information technology at Gateshead College said: “With initiatives like this, we can ensure that our students are able to leave college with the skills they need to be successful in their chosen career.”