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Standing together – education associations
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Many educational providers that recruit international students have realised the benefits of belonging to an association that provides joint marketing opportunities and a unified voice in the industry. Bethan Norris reports.
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Educational associations, whether defined by location or type of institution, are now common in the international education sector landscape and individual institutions are increasingly relying on such organisations to consolidate their marketing strategies, as well as ensuring they have a voice when it comes to the development of national policies.
Rod Matheson from the Canadian Association of Public Schools (CAPS-I) says, “We have a tremendous networking advantage when we get our members together. This provides an opportunity for collaborative work on standards and market information as well as day-to-day experiences in managing our complex programmes. This often proves to be the most valued aspect of being together with other members.”
The opportunity for greater communication between peers within an education sector is just one of the ways in which membership of an association can be an advantage. Most schools initially join in order to take advantage of the joint marketing opportunities and associations themselves take this side of their activities very seriously. Rex Capil from Education Southland – a collection of secondary schools from Southland, New Zealand, – says that a delegation of members has just returned from a marketing visit to Hong Kong, Seoul, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Chiang Mai and Bangkok where they met with agents, parents and schools. “Seminars were held in all locations,” he says. “The delegation visited a variety of schools to develop school exchange programmes. Also the opportunity was taken to work with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise representatives, Immigration New Zealand representatives and Education New Zealand representatives off shore. This proves to be most beneficial.”
As well as organising delegations of members to meet with interested parties overseas, many education associations attend agent workshops on behalf of their members and promote all the opportunities available at member schools. Matheson says, “We have recently attended two large international agent events in Vancouver and Toronto to share our organisational information and to promote high school and elementary study in Canada with the many agents who attended these events. BMI from South America and ICEF both hosted major agent events and CAPS-I was present to share information with the event attendees.”
Matheson adds that as well as attending agent workshops, the association has also hosted mini agent fairs exclusively for their members. “In January 2010, CAPS-I contracted with a Korean agency to host a CAPS-I mini fair in Seoul. Many of our CAPS-I member institutions attended this event,” he confirms.
When it comes to working directly with agents, associations vary as to how closely they get involved with the business transactions. John Mountford, International Director at the Association of Colleges (AoC) in the UK, says, “Recruitment agents play a major role in college’s international recruitment work and the association is always happy to support this activity. This can be through advising on recruitment policy, linking appropriate partners together and generally promoting the college sector to help potential and current agents understand our offer better.”
Maintaining contacts with agents is a key way for associations to foster relations between them and their members, as well as providing networking opportunities. Mariana Lane, Project Manager International Education for Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) in Australia says that part of her role is to liaise with agents. “If I am contacted by an agent looking for a specific kind of placement or programme for a student or group of students, I will attempt to find one or more schools which may be able to respond to this enquiry,” she says. “I also assist with inbound agent familiarisation trips, organise networking functions for agents to meet with and get to know independent schools and I have been involved with the training of agents at an AEI agents’ seminar in Bangkok.”
Organising inbound agent fam trips is an area of activity and promotion that seems to be popular with education associations. Craig Leith, Chairman of Education South Africa, says that they have hosted two fam trips with groups of Italian and Turkish agents recently. “The biggest single difficulty is that South Africa is a relatively unknown destination and the few people who do know about the country have a negative image of it because of how South Africa is portrayed and represented by the international media,” he says. “So our challenge is to convince and persuade agents and students alike that South Africa is a viable, exciting, interesting, affordable and realistic alternative to the traditional EFL markets.”
Dispelling misconceptions and providing factual information to agents and students is also an area that Independent Schools Queensland is currently engaged in. Lane says, “ISQ is working with a group of member schools interested in addressing misconceptions about private education providers in China to produce a translated fact sheet about independent schools in Queensland. This explains that schools, such as our members, are not-for-profit organisations, are accredited schools, are independently governed, receive commonwealth and state government funding and as such meet strict accountability requirements.”
In countries where changes to immigration regulations are having an effect on the industry, the role of an education association is particularly key for members. Mountford in the UK says that they have been working closely with the UK Border Agency to ensure that changes to student visa regulations have minimal impact on members. “We are delighted that our government funded colleges have been awarded highly trusted sponsor status and this reflects the quality of our sector,” he says. The association is also involved in encouraging best practice among members when it comes to working with international students. “We have been promoting the AoC International Charter to help promote the excellence of our members’ work with international students, including how to integrate them successfully into our colleges to ensure that they maximise their learning experience.”
The work of education associations is far from simple or clear cut and activities vary according to the pressures and needs of every individual member. The benefits of a united front however, are clear. As Capil says, “There is nothing better than working together for each other and seeing all benefit.” |
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Education Travel Magazine
11-15 Emerald Street
WC1N 3QL
London, England
T: +44 (0)20 7440 4020
F: +44 (0)20 7440 4033
Pacific Office
T/F: +61 (0)8 9341 1820 |
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