On the move

Torquay International School in the UK is pleased to welcome Dean Jones as the new General Manager of the school. Mr Jones has worked in the industry for almost 20 years – starting in China training teachers. He then moved to Japan and worked as an academic manager with responsibility for a region of 47 schools. After returning to the UK, Mr Jones spent almost eight years as General Manager of LAL Torbay in Paignton.

Zachary Johnson has taken on the role of Chief Executive Officer at Ielts USA. Mr Johnson has over 20 years of leadership and management experience, including senior roles in global education companies, most recently at Blackboard Inc. where he held various leadership positions across the UK and Europe, Asia Pacific and the USA over the past seven years. He will be responsible for increasing the number of institutions across the USA which recognise the test as proof of English language skills, and for working with the growing network of test centres in the country to increase opportunities to take the exam.

International House London in the UK is delighted to announce the appointment of Hortensia Mendy to the role of Sales Manager. Ms Mendy, who joined in May, will be managing agency and corporate partnerships in Spanish speaking South America. Bringing considerable experience in the sector, having worked in senior roles with both St Giles International and Study Group, Ms Mendy will be based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

Having stepped down as board member and chair of Ialc, Walter Denz recently joined the Eaquals executive committee as vice-chair. “I am very much looking forward to working for Eaquals. My own schools have profited a lot from Eaquals membership. Their expertise in language education is unparalleled. My main objectives as incoming vice-chair are to raise the profile of Eaquals in our industry, recruit new member schools and maximise the benefits our members are enjoying,” he said.

Dorothée Lamy has joined Ilac in Canada as Regional Marketing Manager. Focussing on student markets in France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, Ms Lamy will be responsible for business development, student and agent support and expanding agent networks in Europe. Ms Lamy has many years of experience in the international education industry, having previously worked in a sales and marketing role at Accent Français in France and in the education department at the French Embassy in China.

Q&A Educator association

This month, Tony Millns, Chief Executive of English UK, talks about the association’s recent communication with government.

Full name: English UK
Year established: 2004
Number of members: 454
Type of members: Private and state English language centres
Association’s main role: The advancement of English language teaching
Government recognition: yes
Code of practice: Yes, in relation to member centres
Complaints procedure: yes
Agent workshops/fam trips: yes
Contact details:
T: +44 2076087960   
W: www.englishuk.com

What has your association been up to in the last 12 months?
We have continued with our own very successful series of small fairs. We’ve also organised some promotional trips and taken part in other workshops and events in Turkey, Russia, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Brazil and Kurdistan. And we brought agents on an inward mission to Central England. We refreshed our flagship event, StudyWorld London. And with almost 900 attendees, it was our biggest yet. In addition, we take our role in professional development very seriously. We’ve run our regular conference for the ELT sector in the UK in management, marketing, business English and the annual conference. We’ve also run a huge range of more than 30 one-day training courses, as well as a diploma course for ELT managers and a certificate course for welfare officers. Recently we have also had a central role in re-forming the Joint Education Taskforce, the key body through which the English language sector talks to UKBA. 

What challenges DO members FACE in regards to the ESVV?
There is a very volatile situation at the moment, but our statistics show that our members are very good at diversifying. Many have moved out of Tier 4 and are concentrating on Europe or using the SVV and ESVV very successfully. We’ve also noticed that adult numbers are down, but junior courses are booming – up by 21 per cent. At our annual conference, UKBA’s Neil Hughes said that the main reason the Extended Student Visitor Visa (ESVV) had not been written into the Immigration Rules was that UKBA wanted to make sure the route was not abused. The ESVV was going to be included in an overall review, and while he couldn’t give any promises, he told us he was “quite content” with what was happening with the visa and that they were not seeing enormous evidence of abuse or displacement. Our own survey of members found a refusal rate of eight per cent, which compares very favourably with the 20 per cent threshold for HTS. So all that gives us hope, together with David Cameron’s speech of last year which suggested strongly that the government was interested in boosting tourism, in particular from areas such as China. It would clearly concern member centres if the ESVV were not made permanent. At present, it’s hard for members making use of this visa to plan ahead with confidence.

Please talk about your research on non-accredited language schools in the UK.
Our predecessor, Arels, put together a list of 560 non-accredited language schools in 2002. We wanted to get an idea of the scale of the problem, because our members were certain that these institutions were sources of blatant abuse of the student visa system. We’ve kept this list going, checking it again four years ago when we found most of them were still active and giving cause for concern. This year we made it a priority for our researcher to work her way through the list. She found that 45 per cent were no longer operating as language schools, 27 per cent were taking EU students only, and 22 had some form of accreditation, which is better than nothing. So, almost 95 per cent of those suspect colleges are no longer actively recruiting students in breach of immigration rules. The remainder, six per cent, failed a “mystery shopper” exercise carried out by our researcher. I’m pleased to say that it was English UK that raised the issue of bogus colleges as an immigration loophole and persisted in drawing this to the attention of ministers and UKBA.

Industry issues - advisors speak out

Q. How big a part do social networking tools play in marketing your agency business?

Irina Kuzmenko, DEC, Ukraine
“We actively use the promotional tools of three popular social networks – Facebook, Vkontakte and Twitter. While we do not engage in exclusively SM-oriented campaigns and mass actions, we mostly inform our subscribers about our new offers or share interesting links with them. From time to time we launch targeted ads – should there be a need to promote a major event. We do not develop or order the special apps, though. By their significance to us, we can rank social networks in the following order: Facebook, Vkontakte, Twitter. The latter is predominantly used on a time basis. When a regular fair is held we hold a Twitter translation to our followers who can’t attend.”

Álvaro Benevides, Ready For You, Brazil
“Social media marketing is being touted as the marketing strategy small businesses need to implement. Be there on Twitter, Facebook or You Tube or be nowhere, is the message, because all of our potential customers are using social media. In our case, Facebook is the most popular. But just being there isn’t enough if we want to engage with those potential customers. We utilise Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. I find Facebook the most effective tool and we have used it since 2007. We currently have 1,800 Facebook friends and this is growing all the time. Consider the following statistics provided by O’Reilly Media. Between September 2008 and February 2009 the number of Facebook users between the ages of 35 and 44 increased by 51 per cent; users aged between 45 and 54 grew by 47 per cent and users aged 26-to-34 increased by 26 per cent. More than half of the 140 million Facebook users are out of college. As you can see, Facebook is no longer for just college students.”

Anna Urazova, Start Plus, Ukraine
“I would rank social networking as tools of great value. For instance, I find Facebook and Twitter very useful when sharing photos, new products and reviews. We often advise students to visit pages of educational providers in Facebook and Twitter to find out useful tips and feedback from previous and current students. We often use social networks to announce special offers, competitions and discounts. And this works for students and young adults very well. They share the news with each other and in this way our targeted audience grows every day. In my opinion, in today’s world of the Internet, agents and educational providers not only can use these social networks effectively, more over they should!”

Onur Yaldizkaya, idealist education consultancy, Turkey
“Social networking tools play a big part in our business. We have been using Facebook for three years. Most of our Facebook friends are previous students and it provides a great opportunity for us to stay in touch. It does not bring us many new students but it helps us to be remembered. We are quite new on Twitter with almost 300 followers. We have been using it to monitor what is being said about our industry in real-time. We are planning to set up a detailed marketing strategy in order to use Twitter more efficiently. We are aware that our target audience is very familiar with it and they are discussing ideas, sharing experiences and talking about frustrations. Just like Facebook, Twitter will keep our brand out there for students to engage with. Having a social media presence helps reassure students that our business is reputable. Our social profiles attract targeted traffic and push users to our official website.”

Q&A Advisor association

This month, Saijai Srijayanta, Manager of Tieca, tells us about the association’s recent activities.

Full name of association: Thai International Education Consultant Association (Tieca)
Year established: 1990
Number of members: 74
E: manager@tieca.com W: www.tieca.com

What has been the main focus for Tieca in the last 12 months?
Our main achievement for 2011-2012 was introducing the Practice of Excellence Assurance Scheme (PEAS), which will compensate our members’ clients in case of losses resulting from negligent counselling. PEAS, which was implemented in June 2012, will distinguish our members from non-affiliated education agents. In this year’s AGM, we elected a new committee, as well as paying tribute to our ex-president, Mr. Udom Ditsomreang, the only Tieca president elected to more than four terms. Tieca welcomed five new members and actively participated in many international workshops.
 
Where do you stand on accreditation?
Tieca stands firm to ensure its members’ level of competency and professionalism meet the standards of practice set by Felca. This year, we are moving toward a more structured accreditation process requiring all new and existing members to pass a Counseling Competency and Ethics course in order to be reaccredited by the association.
 
What challenges do you think member agencies face in the next 12 months?
More intense competition caused by a dramatic increase in home-based practitioners and former teachers who become commercial counsellors.
The changing student visa regulations within countries such as the UK and Australia continue to affect the outflow of Thai students and will necessitate our members remain constantly updated.
 
Please tell me more about the 26th Tieca Study Abroad EXPO.
The 26th Tieca Study Abroad Expo went well. To further this success, a new format will be introduced. The twice yearly Tieca Expo, with exhibitors from all sectors, will be replaced by more frequent sector-focused exhibitions. We will start off with a high school focused exhibition to be held tentatively mid-January 2013. Our fair will host high school providers from around the world making it one of the biggest of its kind in Thailand.