Seeking a new career, a travel consultant turns to a short course

Enrolling in a short course is working well for Rebecca Mullaney, after her travel consultancy business was wiped out by COVID-19.

Studying a short online course is working well for Rebecca Mullaney, after her travel consultancy business was wiped out by COVID-19.

Business was growing nicely at Rebecca Mullaney’s travel consultancy at the start of the year, with her income supplemented by the family’s Airbnb property which had been consistently booked out over the 18 months since they bought it.

Ms Mullaney was three years into her Port Stephens-based business venture, juggling corporate clients and forming the kinds of relationships that boded well for its future.

Today she is not sure the travel business will ever be as it was before the coronavirus crisis hit.

“For me, at the moment, it isn’t a viable career,” Ms Mullaney said. “There’s no business at all and no clear indications that there will be any time. There are no clear stepping stones and I think when travel does return it’s going to look really different.

“I used to do a lot of business travel. For me this time has meant that those companies have been able to use platforms like Zoom which has become a really successful way of communicating with people and they have embraced it.”

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Work dried up as soon as the travel restrictions were announced.

“Everything stopped — no conversations, no inquiries, just a big hole basically. And there has been such a knock-on effect. Not only do I work in travel but I live in an area where we (usually) have bus- loads of people and all of a sudden the roads are just dead.”

As she adjusted to her new circumstances, which included supervising her school-aged children’s online classes, she cast about for a new direction. TAFE was her first thought, but she already had the skills on offer there.

“At first I was really scared because I didn’t think I would find anything I could connect with.”

When she heard about the government-subsidised short courses she went on the hunt again, and came across Western Sydney University’s undergraduate certificate in counselling and mental health, one of 12 on offer there, across fields as diverse as interpreting and translation, aged care and primary science education.

“I have always an interest in mental health. And with the current climate being this way it seemed completely relevant to every part of my life at the moment because I have been through such changes — it just spoke to me.”

Three weeks in it’s going well, and has been good for her own mental health.

“I guess navigating being at home with children was a little bit difficult but, having said that, there are not many things you can do at the moment to get into a head space beyond your home. To be part of something else for a while was really good. I feel really optimistic.”

She intends to do further study in the area. “I’m not sure of the next steps but I definitely want to continue,” she says.