Page 13 - StudyTravel Magazine November/December 2021 Issue

eDucAtor Q&A AGeNts oN...

INDustry speAKs DIGITAL DEvELOPMENTS

This issue, Jonathan swindell, Chief Kevin Hunt,
Executive of Quality english, talks to us Traveledex www.
about e-Missions, mental health workshops and traveledex.com, UK
developing new agent training sessions.
“Traveledex is a new agency dis-
rupted by the pandemic. With a lim-
ited marketing budget, we selected
Facebook and Instagram as market-
ing channels and employed free-
lance social media designers from
our target market countries, ensur-
ing they had personal knowledge
and experience of studying abroad.
We developed separate country
www.quality-english.com accounts on Instagram where we
info@quality-english.com have tried to post regularly. Pro-
motional posts have secured over
Number of members: 63 QE schools/six QEd schools 3,000 ‘likes’ in countries such as
Types of members: independent English language schools Kazakhstan and over 50 bookings
and colleges for an IELTS webinar. Our follow-
ers have grown so we can now get
what impact has the Covid-19 pandemic had on members? ‘insights’ feedback."
We saw a few schools close, whilst those that have survived have suff ered
greatly from a lack of business and, in many cases, a lack of fi nancial sup-
port. When the pandemic fi rst hit back in early 2020, we were in a good posi- Sylvain Lolley,
tion as we had already developed our popular e-Missions and so we were able Catch-up Education
to continue these. We have welcomed one new school in the last 12 months: https://catch-up-
Sunshine Coast International College in Sydney and a new QE Associate education.com, Australia
School: Panda English School in Minsk, Belarus.
“Habits have changed in the wake
How has QE supported its members and agent partners? of the pandemic. Students are more
We continued with our regular e-Missions and enhanced these by off ering inclined to travel online and we will
market-specifi c events. We hosted regular webinars, conference sessions, strengthen our online training and
sales training, academic training and mental health workshops. As many study abroad preparation off ers.
of our schools moved to online courses in early 2020, we worked quickly to The distance and cost of training
develop the QE Online Course Standards. We greatly reduced our fees for 2021 have become diffi cult to overcome
and any additional services have been off ered free of charge or at low cost. for students whose parents have
lost sources of income. This has
what else has the association achieved? signifi cantly altered access to train-
We were thrilled to win the ST Star School Association Award! This was our ing and online training has become
fi fth award in a row and puts us into the Hall of Fame so a huge thank you to a solution until better days. We off er
all of the agents who voted for us. We continue to improve our quality assur- students the opportunity to learn
ance procedures and we’re developing new agent training courses to ensure all while staying at home in order to
an understanding of the benefi ts of working with high-quality independent prepare themselves for the future.”
EFL schools (QE) and independent colleges (QED) is shared with agency staff .
Read more at: https://studytravel.
Read more at: https://studytravel.network/magazine/issues/815 network/magazine/industry-issues

10 STUDYTRAvEL MAGAzINE