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Embarking on a new business activity can be daunting and industry professionals like to research thoroughly before offering new product options to their clients. With Work & Travel programmes – encompassing unpaid internships, volunteering and paid work placements – all attracting more attention, many agencies are considering expanding their portfolio, if they haven’t already done so.
Cecilia Galli from Link Viagens Culturais in Brazil is typical of an agent looking to further her company’s horizons. “As a matter of fact, we are in the process of receiving information from different agencies considering that [Work & Travel] is in increasing demand in Brazil,” she says. “But of course we need to be very careful in selecting the agencies that offer this type of programme,” she adds.
In nearby Colombia, Sandra Vargas of APIEC Estudios en el Exterior acknowledges that it is also a growing market there, although the agency has yet to branch into this sector. “We have thought of offering those services to our clients as a lot of them have requested some information about that,” she notes. “We really believe it will be worthwhile introducing this service to our portfolio in the near future.”
Sanjar Oblokulov of Ekspotur in Uzbekistan is also in agreement, noting that 75 per cent of his clients are asking about Work & Travel programmes. “Work & Travel programmes have an ideal future,” he says, explaining that at the moment they offer language-and-work placement programmes but not stand-alone work placements as they don’t have any partners who can offer them this yet.
Aside from Work Wise magazine, one main conduit for furthering business opportunities is the Wyse Work Abroad Association, whose members include placement organisers keen to expand their agency partners worldwide.
For those agencies active in this sector already, another entry point has been working with companies offering study programmes as well as work and travel. Santiago Flores, of Fundacion Cultural Apex in Ecuador, relates that moving into this sector was, for his agency, a natural progression from working with J-1 visa programmes in the USA. “We started promoting work & travel programmes five years ago as we had already consolidated the J-1 high school programme [with our partner],” he says. “Two years ago, we started with trainee and internship programmes and this year we continue with au pair [placements].”
Antonio Bacelar Junior of Via Mundo Intercambio e Turismo in Brazil tells a very similar story. “I found our first partner, CIEE, through our high school operations, once we already sold their high school programme,” he relates. “Our second partner, we found through the recommendation of another Brazilian agency.”
The market appears to have taken off in the last five years or so, according to Flores, while Bacelar says he offered work & travel programmes soon after setting up the company eight years ago. He suggests that the market attracts a different type of client; university students from lower middle and middle social classes. “It is not a major product to us, but it is important, since we attend to a completely different market to our vacation, high school and language programmes market,” he says.
At STB in Brazil, Santuza Bicalho also makes the link to university students. Moving into the sector in 2002, she says, was an obvious next step for STB, “from working with university students who wanted more from their exchange programme experience”.
The revenue-earning potential may not be as great as other sectors, but all agencies acknowledge the upbeat nature of the sector. Flores says work and travel clients represent 65 per cent of business individuals but only 38 per cent of the revenue earned, and one reason for this is lower costs; “five or six times less than in the language/education sector,” he says. But with all work and travel providers expectant of further business growth, greater volume of clients will achieve greater earnings in the future.
Bicalho signals that counselling clients for work placements is distinct from the approach used for language/education clients. “The difference is really relevant,” she underlines. “Work and travel clients need to understand that they are providing the service, not the employer. When enrolled in a language or education programme, they receive a service.”
Flores in Ecuador agrees that ensuring clients are adequately prepared means a different approach towards counselling. “The word ‘work’ makes most students think they are actually going to be in a formal job covered by labour law,” he explains. “This makes it hard to explain that this is a ‘cultural exchange experience’ that implies working. Participants must have the right objectives.”
Many agencies are confident that the market holds great potential for the future, because of the unique opportunity to recoup monies spent through a paid work placement or the chance to gain valuable professional experience overseas. Bicalho foresees returning students using the agency again to try working overseas for a second time, “wishing to go back and enjoy the experience again”.
And Suad Alhalwachi from Education Zone at Knowledge Village in Dubai, UAE, gives one further reason for an agency’s pivotal place in the recruitment chain: “Students are sceptical about finding jobs overseas [on their own],” she underlines.
PAYMENT PRACTICE
WAgencies report that rather than working with established commission margins, in this sector, they usually receive a net price for products which they can mark up. Some may also charge an administration fee.
This has drawbacks and benefits, as Santiago Flores of Fundacion Cultural Apex in Ecuador underlines. He observes that using standard commission payments allows transparency, but smaller agencies can grow faster by setting their own price, although there is a risk that larger agencies with lower overheads can dictate pricing.
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