Agents from several Chinese cities extended their StudyWorld experience with an English UK fam trip exploring the West of England.
The Chinese agents, recruited by British Council China, visited 10 English UK members in seven destinations including Bath, Bristol, Gloucester and Oxford. From QUIC statistics, the South and West of England is the area least discovered by the Chinese market, accounting for less than 4% of the region's market share in quarter three last year.
These twelve agents came from a mixture of tier one, two and three Chinese cities, some of which will be visited by English UK members taking part in the China Roadshow in November. The group gave fantastic feedback on their trip, scoring all areas as either good or excellent and with more than 9/10 saying they would recommend the experience to an industry colleague. 100% of the agents advised that as a result of participating, they are more confident promoting UK ELT.
Roz McGill, English UK's Market Development Manager who accompanied the trip, said: "Whilst juniors are the most important element of the Chinese market, they are not the only things they are interested in. As the market matures, agents are looking for ways to differentiate their offer. The group commented on the great variety of options offered by the centres they visited".
Fam trips offer a valuable opportunity for agents to see our members and their premises in person rather than just via emails, photos or videos and the participating centres made a real effort to make their time with the agents memorable, for example including taster lessons and sampling local food specialities.
Guoshuai Li from Hangzhou Jushou Network Technology said "We got a full understanding of the showcase schools and experienced some different English academic environments and also enjoyed the wonderful landscape and local food in the UK," while JianQing He, Dongguan Qingtian Investment Company, commented: "It was a wonderful trip. I could meet so many excellent educational experts". Alice from Suzhou Dushu Lake Science and Education Development Company agreed it was a very meaningful trip adding "It is of great help for me to better understand UK education and better develop our SINO-UK education program."
Educators also rated the trip highly. "The trip was very well-organised, and we enjoyed welcoming the group. They all seemed attentive... I have done several of these events and this seemed the best one" said James Horden from Target English International, while Anna Trot from Kings Education added she would recommend being a showcase: "It is a cost effective way to be able to showcase your school to a range of quality agents."
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