The newest chapter of national association English UK is English UK Wales, formed this month by eight founding member schools.

“I’m really excited about members working together,” commented chairman, Dave Henson, of We Bridge International. “We are all aiming for the same thing, to increase the overall number of students experiencing this excellent destination.”

Wales’ outstanding cities, quality of life rating, its welcome for students and its beautiful coast and countryside are among the selling points that English UK Wales will be promoting to education agents via inward missions and fam tours.

It also plans to work with local and national government to raise the profile of educational tourism.

English UK Wales will join Universities Wales in aiming to promote the country for its unique offer to international students and also highlight the value of international education.

Over 25,000 international students study at tertiary level in the country, bringing in £218 million in revenue and an additional £195 million estimated in additional off-campus spend (which creates 1,720 jobs).

UW has also found that 38% of Wales’ international alumni have gone on to start up businesses across the globe.

As for its ELT reach, statistics indicate that Wales had 28,512 EFL  student weeks in 2013 with an average length of stay of 5.29 weeks.

Vice Chair of English UK Wales, Emelyne Burkhard from Celtic English Academy, extolled Wales’ famously friendly people, international sporting events, world-famous castles and outstanding beaches and urged education agents to get in touch.

The founding member schools are:

• City School of Languages, Swansea
• Celtic English Academy, Cardiff
• CELT, Cardiff
• Cardiff and Vale College, Cardiff
• We Bridge International, Cardiff
• Ectarc, Llangollen
• Inlingua Cardiff, Cardiff
• Peartree Language School, Cardiff