ML: I was an exchange student myself, so the liking for being international started with myself. I started in the business invited by my friends, who are now my business partners, back in the early 90s, and then I started the company in 2002. I really think it’s worth working very hard, even though it’s like a 24-hour-a-day and seven days-a-week work, but I think it’s worth it!

I have a lot of passion and I would keep doing it even though I see a lot of changes in the market. I would say in the last five years, there a lot of competition in Brazil, but I think the ones that are going to survive when the market is going a little downhill are the ones that are very serious and have a strong brand.

Then the people are not going to look just for the price, but also look for a trustworthy company, so it may be good for the ones that are working the right way.

The PIE: And how big is your company, Yázigi Travel, now?

ML: Well, my company is a little different than the other companies in the country because we are not a chain of agencies, we provide international education [options] for a chain of language schools in Brazil. We recruit students from the language schools, even though a lot of them are not the schools’ students, they just trust the brand to travel because the school is there.

“It’s the largest company in Brazil for language teaching”

It’s a different way of recruiting students, and it’s like a dream come true if we could send lots of students from every school. We haven’t done this yet, but we have this as a goal.

The PIE: And am I right in thinking that Pearson bought the holding company?

ML: Yázigi is a brand of language schools which was bought by Pearson. They bought a group of language schools in Brazil: Yázigi, Wizard, Microlins and Skill and some others and so it’s huge, the largest company in the world for language teaching.

It’s very interesting to be there. They are also having a lot of changes, but we are the ones that are there inside, providing the international education. So there is a lot to be done but we are so respected by the brand itself, by Yazigi, that we are part of the team, we are part of the game.

The PIE: And notwithstanding the currency ups and downs, how do you see the Brazilian market in the next five to 10 years?

ML:  There will be a market in Brazil always, because we are not English native speakers, so we need to learn a foreign language. Even though we have language schools in Brazil, there is always a need to improve that learning process by going abroad. And this is not the first time the currency goes up and down! Everybody in this market knows that it’s something that happens. We were kind of getting used to the good life of not having to look after the currency because we were in a more stabilised period for the economy but we are used to that, we have lived like this forever.

I don’t think it’s going to be better in the next months, but I think that we should keep investing in our businesses, we should keep looking after possibilities, we should be innovative and to keep your business going for the next years, or you close down.

“There will be a market in Brazil always because we are not English native speakers, so we need to learn a foreign language”

The PIE: What about the types of programmes, or the reasons for Brazilians studying abroad. Is that changing?

ML: Yes, I also believe this. One, because some families are now seeing a possibility of sending their kids abroad for several reasons: for safety reasons, also for the possibility of giving their children a better education. We have more people being able to go abroad, they have seen a possibility of going for higher education. In the past I never had someone come in and say: “I would like to send my son to study [at university] in the US” and now I have people saying: “Can you help me do this?”

I don’t think it’s going to be huge numbers, but the numbers will be there. And Brazil is pretty big, we have more than 200 million people, so some of these people are going to be able to go abroad for higher education. That’s the future also, you have to look into that way: pathways and getting to any university in all these countries.

The PIE: Do you think the Ciência sem Fronteiras [Science Without Borders] scholarship programme has had an impact too?

ML: I think they opened up people’s minds to the possibility of going abroad and even for the kids they were like “OK, I have to improve my language learning”, either going before for short-term language programmes and then getting ready for the Science Without Borders. I’m sure this has opened up people’s minds and it is the students’ goal to be part of it.

The PIE: Tell me about becoming president of FELCA?

ML: It’s a big honour to become the president of FELCA [federation of agency associations], because I think I can bring some of our experience as president of Belta [Brazilian agency association], which is a well-established association. I can share some of our experience and also bring some new ideas, like how to motivate the agencies in their countries to do something for their own industry.

“Because Brazil is in such a sensitive economic situation, it’s very important that the students that are investing their money to go abroad, they should do the right way”

I’m very excited to be working with some other agents’ associations from different parts of the world in Asia, Europe and North America. That’s my goal: being able to share my personal experience running an association.

The PIE: And tell me about the new Belta quality seal?

ML: We have developed the Belta seal to help the end client to know that when they decide to travel abroad for an exchange programme, they should look for Belta members. Because they will get quality, they can trust the agencies that are Belta.

Spain has been doing this already, so I think that’s an international tendency working in favour of the agencies that are well-established, that work hard, that want quality service for their clients.

The PIE: How are you going to promote it to the Brazilian public?

ML: We have started already a national campaign on social media, which is very strong in Brazil. All the Belta members have received the campaign itself and so we organised a way of doing it, everybody at the same time, so if you look now through the media in Brazil you’re going to see it.

We launched the Belta seal in mid-August, which was held at the New Zealand Consulate, and Education New Zealand was sponsoring us as well. I think it’s well received by the public, by the agencies. Also because Brazil is in such a sensitive economic situation, it’s very important that the students that are investing their money to go abroad, they should do the right way, in the best way, and that’s what we want. And this experience, we want to share with the other associations.