Page 18 - StudyTravel Magazine December 2016 Issue

INDuSTRY ISSuES AGEnTs sPEAK OUT aGENCY aSSoCIaTIoN
WHaT HavE BEEN SoME oF THE MaIN STuDENT TRENDS Q&A
FoR You aS aN aGENCY DuRING 2016?

manuEl HildEnbrand, adrian solomon, studEnt
lingovEntura WWW.lingo- travEl WWW.studEnttrav- This month, we interview
vEntura.dE, gErmanY El.md, moldova
“it is unavoidable to learn new lan- “in 2016, our main destinations were Tatsu Hoshino, Executive
guages like Spanish, but to learn in the uSa and France. the trend in Secretary of JAOS, Japan.
regular schools on-site is old fashioned. language Moldova continues amongst the youth as the more
study travel has especially had a strong upsurge. we explore those markets, the more students we
and time shows us that it isn’t only about learning have interested in it. a surprising trend in 2016 is WHaT HaS JaoS BEEN
uP To ovER THE PaST 12
a new language anymore, it is about going on an ad- that we see more and more interest for students in
MoNTHS?
venture and to gain experiences. in the last year, the other countries such as canada and australia. they We have conducted JaOS business seminars
demand on special programmes like volunteering or want to obtain a quality education and come back for Japanese agencies [and topics included
internships in combination with a language course in- to implement everything they studied. because of
creased by approximately five per cent for the 14-to- some political and economic instability in Moldova, finance and business development]. We also
held a seminar to Japanese universities for
30 year olds. but as an effect of the sensitive security students trust international programmes more now. international recruitment using agents. the
situation, language travels are booked more sponta- Such programmes change lives for our students and
neously. nonetheless, for us, Spanish countries in change mentality in the country in general.” 19th JaOS/Fger (Foreign government edu-
cational representative) Meeting was held
latin america are becoming more popular, but the between the education/commerce depart-
undisputed leader for the Spanish-speaking market, david l fEW, JacK studY ments of foreign embassies in tokyo, the edu-
of course, is still Spain.” abroad WWW.studYabroad. cation sectors of each country’s government,
sg, singaPorE
sErgio guZmán amo, EasY- “in many ways Singapore is the ba- and JaOS members. thirty-six organisations
and eight government agencies participated
go WWW.EasY-go.org, sPain rometer which moves with the trend in this meeting. JaOS has also teamed up
“as previous years, during 2016 the and for the moment it is definitely swinging towards
uK was our main destination for australia. One additional significant factor over the with the british council to launch a promo-
tional campaign to raise public awareness of
adult students and ireland for junior past two years was the culling of eight uK universities
students. However this could change next year due from the list of approved institutions by the Singapo- overseas english language study programmes
to the pound (after the ‘brexit’ referendum it was rean Ministry of law in order for graduates to qualify for middle-school students.
much cheaper). the main request of our clients is for the Singapore bar. the list included many of the WHaT aRE SoME oF THE MaIN JaPaNESE STu-
a school with a good mix of nationalities. language uK’s leading and well-established universities who DENT TRENDS?
schools should also work on this. in terms of the between them accounted for 30 per cent of Singa- We see more university students studying
number of bookings in 2016, the adult market has porean law graduates from the last three years in the
gone down and the junior market has increased. On uK and came as a shock to the market – on the other abroad using their university-tailored pro-
grammes. More and more Japanese students
the other hand, during 2016 the interest of mini-stay hand no australian or nz universities were removed are beginning to see the Philippines as their
programmes increased considerably. although the and additional places became available at expanding
profit is not very high, these programmes can help Singaporean universities. this has logically led to a study destination. there has been some de-
cline in numbers for european countries due to
agencies during low seasons and if the student is reduction in places available overall in the uK but has terrorism that happened in France.
happy with the experience it can be a bridge for indi- more significantly hit the strong pathway market in
vidual bookings.” law and humanities foundation programmes.”
HoW HaS JaoS CELEBRaTED ITS 25TH aNNIvER-
SaRY THIS YEaR?
We held our 25th anniversary ceremony in
agency of the month november, inviting representative country am-
bassadors, diplomats, Japanese government
in a series appearing each month in StudyTravel Magazine, we ask a different teaching institution to officials and politicians, university officials, and
nominate one of their preferred agencies or advisor partners, and to explain why this person/company various other stakeholders actively involved in
is worthy of their nomination. international educational exchange.
this month, stafford “boa lingua has been a key partner for Stafford House as it has
House international grown from one school in 2010 to 10 schools in 2016. Working with WHaT DoES JaoS HavE PLaNNED FoR 2017?
www.staffordhouse. We would like to make collaborations with for-
com, uK, nominates boa the agency team has been great. they invest in their counsellors to eign government organisations, not only with
visit the centres and they have developed innovative campaigns to
lingua www.boalingua. promote our school to their clients. the british council but with austrade, the Phil-
ch, Switzerland. ippines’ government agency, Malaysia’s MOe,
We have actively involved them in our strategy, our recent rebrand and
stephan roussounis at our product development. their insight has been invaluable. the partnership and so on.
the school explains this is getting stronger each year and we are delighted to receive their students to
decision.
our schools in the uK, uSa and canada.”
FuLL NaME: Japan association of Overseas
Studies
“We have been accompanying Stafford House for a long time – pretty much from the start of YEaR ESTaBLISHED: 1991
their expansion throughout the uK and north america. due to the high level of professionalism NuMBER oF MEMBERS: 39 agencies,
of Stephan and his team, our partnership has grown stronger ever since. Our clients and staff 15 associates
particularly appreciate Stafford’s professionalism as well as their constant dialogue with us, their CoNTaCT DETaILS:
agent. this has led to a great destination portfolio and we are excited to continue the journey W: www.jaos.or.jp
together with Stephan and his team.” CHRISTIaN GRaF, Boa LINGua, SWITzERLaND

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