Jordan Valdes, Buckswood Lions

Tell us about your role, your journey to this position, and how your work contributes to your organisation’s success

My background actually started in education. I was an English teacher and later Head of English in Colombia before moving to the UK and entering the international education and educational travel sector.

At Buckswood Lions, my role has developed into a combination of sales, programme coordination, client relationships and business development. I work with schools, agencies and partners from different countries, from the first enquiry through to building a programme that works for their students.

I think my teaching background helps a lot because I don’t only look at a programme from a sales perspective. I naturally ask what the students are actually going to gain from it and why a school or family should see value in sending them.

What has been the most rewarding experience or achievement in your career so far?

The transition itself. Moving from Colombia to the UK and going from teaching into international education has forced me to learn a completely different side of the industry.

One of the most rewarding parts now is seeing something that started as an email or an enquiry eventually become a real group arriving in the UK. It is even better when they return the following year, because that tells you that the relationship and the programme worked.

If you weren’t working in this industry, what other profession might you have pursued, and why?

If I weren’t working in international education, I probably would have pursued a career in sports management, particularly in basketball.

I’ve always been interested in what happens around the game as much as the game itself — how teams and organisations are built, how talent is developed, how people are managed, and how the commercial and strategic sides of sport come together. That combination of people, strategy and growth is something I naturally enjoy, and it also connects quite closely with the way I approach my work today.

In your view, what are the biggest challenges, threats, and opportunities facing youth, student, and educational travel in the coming years, and how is your business preparing to meet them?

Cost is obviously a major challenge. Flights, accommodation, visas and programmes have all become significant decisions for families. Visa requirements and wider global uncertainty can also make international travel more complicated.

But I think the biggest opportunity comes from the same question: if a family is going to make that investment, how much value can we create from it?

Educational travel has the opportunity to become much more than language learning or tourism. Done properly, students can develop confidence, independence, communication skills, cultural awareness and relationships with people they would probably never meet otherwise.

For organisations like ours, I think the answer is to keep listening, remain flexible and make sure there is a genuine educational purpose behind the experience.