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A united Canada
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Canada looks set to steal the limelight this year with the launch of a national government-backed education brand and a new unified schools’ association. Gillian Evans reports.
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Canada’s international profile as an education destination will receive a welcome boost this year thanks to the efforts of the newly formed schools’ association, Languages Canada, and the government’s imminent launch of a national education brand for the country. As it is, Canada is gradually becoming better known as an education destination, says Calum MacKechnie, President of Languages Canada. “Despite the recent strengthening of the Canadian dollar, Canada seems to be finally on everyone’s radar, and the general trend continues to be upwards.”
Although registering an upward trend, growth in both 2007 and the first half of 2008 has been rather stunted. David Oancia at Hansa Language Centre in Toronto, ONT, says that their student numbers increased by just over four per cent in 2007, while Jim Clark at the Canadian College of English Language in Vancouver, BC, reports “stable” numbers at his school. The pattern for 2008 appears to be mirroring 2007, although some sources report a slightly bigger rise in student numbers. Clark puts their better performance in 2008 down to “new programmes and new marketing initiatives”.
Indeed, evidence suggests that schools with innovative marketing strategies, language programmes and partnerships with other institutions are the ones gaining ground in the Canadian market. For example, Hansa Language Centre is benefiting from its scholarship arrangements with several local colleges and universities. “If a student studies with us for a minimum period of 240 hours and gets accepted into the university or college, we give the student a scholarship or the university gives the student a scholarship in our name,” explains Oancia.
East Coast School of Languages (ECSL) in Halifax, NS, has also struck up partnership deals with universities, whereby international students receive a conditional acceptance from the university and are referred to ECSL for English for academic purposes training. Successful completion of the course means they can enrol at the university without taking any additional entrance exams. “This combined university and language school acceptance greatly helps students to navigate the system,” asserts ECSL’s Sheila Nunn.
The school has also developed a girls-only summer ESL camp specifically aimed at the Middle East market. The programme includes a different type of curriculum and activity schedule to “offer an interesting fun ESL experience while respecting the religious and cultural restrictions on the students”, says Nunn.
These initiatives, coupled with the availability of scholarships for ESL and university education for Saudi Arabian students, has had a particularly marked effect on enrolments from this country for ECSL. Saudi Arabian student numbers soared by 50 per cent at the school, and they now make up the school’s single largest nationality.
Overall, however, the trend is Asian-centric, as the most recent Status survey for 2007 intake reveals: Koreans and Japanese in first and second position, with Chinese trailing Brazilians in fourth place in the league table.
A clear trend in the Canadian market has been towards academic English training in preparation for further studies in Canada. The knock-on effect of this trend has been an increase in the average length of stay at some schools. Oancia reports, “While [students] would previously come for one- or two-month courses, they are now studying for three to nine months in order to meet the English requirements they need for the academic institutions that form part of our Educational Pathway programme.”
Meanwhile, Gayle Forler at Language Studies Canada in Toronto, ONT, mentions the benefits to their enrolment figures of the newly introduced visa waiver policy for some of the new EU countries. “[This] has meant that we have seen an interesting and delightful growth from seven countries [Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia] which were previously unseen in our student body,” she says.
United voice
In terms of generic marketing, Canada finally has a united voice, with the merger of the Canadian Association for Private Language Schools (Capls) and the Canada Language Council (CLC) to create Languages Canada, which currently has a membership of 137 English and French language teaching institutions.
Gayle Forler of Language Studies Canada, which used to be a member of both Capls and CLC, comments, “The duplication of effort by the two associations caused uncertainty and confusion in the marketplace. A united stronger association will have many benefits to our industry in Canada – not only for awareness abroad but also as a better lobbying voice to the Canadian government.”
So far, Languages Canada has had a busy year, hosting its inaugural conference in Ottawa, tweaking its accreditation process and setting out its marketing plan for the next five years “to help promote both the association and Canada as a language travel destination”, says Languages Canada President, Calum Mackechnie.
Another boost to the industry is likely to come this autumn with the launch of the education brand, developed by the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
Industry sources believe these initiatives will finally put them on an equal footing with many other English-speaking countries that have similar associations and strong government support.
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Contact any advertiser in the this issue now
The following language schools, associations and accommodation providers advertised in the latest edition of Language Travel Magazine. If you would like more information on any of these advertisers, tick the relevant boxes, fill out your details and send.
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