Ian Gregory

Sales Manager Ian Gregory is the first BAA candidate to complete successfully a qualification under the government’s
Train to Gain initiative. Ian works at the Travelex centre based at Heathrow Airport.
“When Train to Gain was launched at BAA, my manager asked me who I might like to nominate from my team to take part in the scheme,” says Ian. “My immediate response was – why not me? I’d previously missed out on the opportunity to gain an NVQ at work to assist me in my career, as prior to Train to Gain I was outside the age restrictions for funding. This was my chance, and I grabbed it!

About Apprenticeships


Apprenticeships are nationally designed training programmes. They offer employees the opportunity to enhance their skills through a combination of work-based learning and training.

There are two levels of Apprenticeship available:

  • Apprenticeship (Level 2)
  • Advance Apprenticeship (Level 3)

Both programmes lead to a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ), a Key Skills Qualification and in certain areas, a Technical Certificate Award.

Market Sectors

Covered Working in partnership with Learning and Skills Councils (LSC), BAA Retail Academy together with VT Training provide Government funded Apprenticeships in the following sectors:

  • Retail
  • Customer Service

It’s been a while since I’ve done any qualifications as it’s some years since I left school, but once I got going on the programme it was a lot easier to return to study than I thought. As I worked my way through, it was easy to see how the work that I do in my job relates to the individual units of the qualification. Sometimes there is a crossover between different units, where you can use the same knowledge in different ways and this helped me to progress further.


My qualification is Level 2 Customer Service. I’m passionate about good customer service anyway, but working on a formal qualification put new ideas and priorities to the front of my mind, helping me to improve all the time. Customer Service is a particularly useful qualification because it can relate to any profession.

Doing my NVQ has given me a real impetus to move ahead in my career. I might well go on to take further qualifications and I’m also thinking more about the kinds of career moves I can make in financial services to go on to the next level.”

Ian has been an exceptional candidate, completing his qualification in half the time allocated to him. His vocational coach at VT Training, Emma Lawrence, said: “Ian’s work has been of an tremendously high standard and his case study work was extremely detailed. His work on his NVQ has really proved his potential and he’s set to progress in leaps and bounds in his career.”