Page 27 - ELG1802 Feb Issue 454

COMMENT . FEATURES & COMMENT

he vast majority of students
attending a private language school
are enrolled in one in their home Testing times for
Tcountry. The language travel industry
Just three percent are studying a language Pon language
abroad, according to research by Student lags far behind in-country
Marketing. schools in terms of knowing schools?
The language travel industry sees itself as
separate and superior – a proper, grown- where the market is going,
up industry, increasingly made up of large Language schools in Ireland, Malta
international chains concerned with things says Melanie Butler and the UK can expect up to 30,000
like service levels, agent networks and Italian state funded students this year
‘return on capital’. as the 100 million Pon funds have been
Big fish operators see the local schools as approved.
small-fry mum-and-pop operations selling to However, since money is only paid
local parents and companies and worrying when a student has successfully passed
about ‘minor’ issues such as student an approved language test, the Italian
learning and exam results. government’s decision to push for an
If language travel bosses think about local exam testing all four skills presents new
schools at all, it sees them as competition. problems for course providers.
But do they imagine that a seven-year-old To qualify for funding from Pon
from Milan studying two hours a week after (Programma Operativo Nazionale)
When it comes to understanding the What global big fish
school would otherwise be jetting off to students must have B1 English and
Melbourne or Manchester for a three-week the funding is only released if they
residential? pass a a recognised, externally marked,
language exam at B2 at the end of the
change in markets, however, the local in- course. The list of exams recognised by
country schools are years ahead. the government include those offered
Recently, a well-known UK operator was by Cambridge, Trinity and, since the
talking about the failure of yet another can learn from local beginning of this year, LanguageCert.
central London language school targeting The exam can be taken either at
the travel market. the host language school or when the
‘Perhaps the business model is out of candidate returns home.
date,’ she said. ‘Perhaps big, shiny, city- However, language schools, who
centre schools is no longer the way to go.’ language school minnows typically receive less than half the
In my mind I hear the response from a €3,100 allocated to each student for
thousand owners of local language schools, the three week trip, have generally
from Surabaya to Seville – ‘Well, duh!’ opted to offer on-demand tests to
Most local language schools decamped improve cash flow.
from city centres decades ago. For example, However, the new drive for students
a young English man opened his first to take a four skills language exam,
language school in a Tokyo suburb in rather than the traditional speaking
1977, aware that the market for anxious and listening tests, would mean some
young workers struggling to learn English on-demand test providers are ruled
was gradually being replaced by troops of out. To fill the gap, LanguageCert,
ever-younger children. By 1990, Shane a host family for that money in Manhattan. boarding houses for juniors. The host family years. Many local language chains go one which bought the well-known City and
Lipscombe, then owner of fifty Shane Ditto in Central Paris. The going rate in Juniors, though, are good news. From step further: they hire the room in the Guilds four skills exam suite, is offering
schools, summed up his strategy for me in Beijing is twice as high. Tokyo to Turin, they will tell you that crisis exists across most primary schools and teach the children who the updated test on-demand with 10
five short words: ‘Go where the families Even in Malta, as we reported last month, parents stick with schools they like. They of the language travel are already there. days’ notice for exam bookings.
are.’ schools are looking for host families in rural will enrol their child in a local language Michael Bondarev of IH Moscow started It is also offering automatic centre
I thought of Shane’s words when, a year villages because the supply in the coastal school aged six and they are likely to stay world. And the causes his school in 1990, as the Soviet Union recognition to all accredited language
or two ago, an upmarket central London resorts is dropping off. there until they are at least twelve. fell, and grew the business by forming schools in the UK and Ireland.
school was contacted by an Italian agent The host family crisis exists across most More normally, they stay until sixteen are always the same: partnerships with primary schools. This year, all Italian high schools are
wanting to bring a group of EU-funded of the language-travel world. And the or eighteen years old. In an academic ‘Headteachers,’ he told me ‘are our eligible for Pon funding for one group
students. causes are always the same: rising house downturn, private education is the last rising house prices mean best friends.’ Schools, like companies and of 15 students.
‘What I want,’ the agent said, ‘is nice prices mean the middle class can no longer thing families cut. the middle class can parents, are reliable clients. They tend to Most are expected to opt for English
middle-class host families in Zone 1 at a afford to live in the centre or have big Far from choosing local schools over work with the same language schools year language courses in one of the three
cost of £100 a week including an en-suite houses with spare rooms or mothers who language travel, research by Student no longer to live in the after year. Schools in Europe now receive English-speaking Erasmus countries:
bathroom, two meals a day and three at don’t work to pay the mortgage. Marketing shows that families that send funding for language travel direct from the Ireland, Malta or the UK.
weekends.’ One solution is student residences, their children locally are much more likely centre EU.
Dream on! It is simply impossible to find at least for the market of anxious young to send them overseas as well. Private schools in the Middle East now
people desperate to learn English to further Of course, local language schools sell marketing to consumers rises, so does the offer summer-abroad trips to lure in the
From Tokyo to Turin their careers. But in the language travel to consumers – it’s a B2C market in the commission charged by agents. parents.
To reduce the marketing costs, agents
In China, the government backs schools
they will tell you that market for English, the fastest-growing jargon. Language travel uses agents, which themselves tend to try to recruit through in sending children overseas for a semester. MELANIE BUTLER
are, of course, businesses taking commission
segment is the one for groups of ever-
Time for the mighty barons of language
parents stick with schools younger school children coming year-round – the business model is B2B. local state schools. travel to follow the path long trodden by Editor at large
Till Gins, chief executive of the UK’s
for short courses.
Both have their drawbacks. As the supply

they like Student residences won’t take them and in a market increases, so does the cost of largest group of language schools, has been local language schools and head for the @MelanieButler_E
few schools are set up to run short-stay marketing to consumers. As the cost of doing the same in France for at least thirty headteacher’s office?
26 February 2018 editorial@elgazette.com 27