BARRHEAD Travel is placing an emphasis on equal opportunities at its new Glasgow training academy.

That is the message coming from chief executive Sharon Munro who now oversees a firm which seemingly bucks a major modern-day business trend by having more women board members than men.

Of the 10 employees on Barrhead Travel's board of directors, eight are female – a statistic the company has attributed to "nurturing our talent" as staff start to settle into the new Bothwell Street training facility.

Munro is committed to ensuring that all of the firm's employees are given the same opportunities to work their way up the business' promotion ladder.

"We want our people to grow and help us shape the future direction of the business," she said.

"Irrespective of age, gender or experience, each employee has a structured development path to ensure they reach their career potential at Barrhead Travel.

"We firmly believe in nurturing our talent and providing a flexible working environment to ensure that every member of our growing team has the opportunity to meet and exceed their career ambitions.

"Our training programme initiatives are a benchmark for the industry."

The announcement comes just months after the first Women Travel Empowerment Index figures revealed that although there has been an increase in the proportion of female board members at UK travel companies, the number remains low.

Women made up 12 per cent of board members in 2005 but a decade on and that figure rose to just 26 per cent.

After joining Barrhead Travel aged 16, Munro – the daughter of company founder Bill – is not of the opinion that women are forced to work harder than men to rise to the top at Barrhead Travel.

She said: "For many industries, travel included, over the past few years there have been some really positive shifts towards gender diversity in the workplace.

"Rewind 10 years and you wouldn't see as many women on boards, no matter what industry it was. It’s great to see multiple women chief executives, managing directors, finance directors and board members and I’d like to see this trend continue.

"We never stand still though, and through good employee engagement, we continue to explore pioneering and engaging ways to educate and train our people.

"With this in mind we have developed a new 12-month management programme which enables our staff to meet their professional development aspirations and play a key role in the growth of Barrhead Travel."