With offices in Australia and Latin America, Andrea Palacios and Chad Yesilova from Blue Studies International tell The PIE about how the company was set up, and why students love coming to Australia.
The PIE: So how did Blue Studies International begin?
AP: I am originally from Colombia, and I went to Australia 13 years ago as an international student. My plan was to study English for six months then go back, but I fell in love with Australia and I decided to finish my Bachelors degree in Australia. I did an English course, a diploma and the Bachelors. When I was completing my diploma, the director of international students told me that they would like to have more Colombian students and that they proposed opening an office there and have me be in charge.
“There weren’t any agencies at all from Latin America; there were many from China, India, but not from Colombia or Latin America, so I was the first one”
I wanted to take them up on their offer. So I started researching and the more time I spent researching, the more I realised that I liked this industry. I realised I could help my people, but then the school closed down. Nothing more happened after that, but I knew that this is an industry that I definitely wanted to be in.
The PIE: The school you were studying at closed down?
AP: Yes. That was many, many years ago. But the opportunity to start an agency came about through my final project at university. The project was to create a business plan for a business between two countries. Naturally I chose Colombia and Australia and the business was in the education industry.
My teacher was so happy with the business idea, that he told me ‘Andrea, we need Latin American students, we need Colombian students at the university’, and he started to introduce me to everyone at the university to get me a job. The lady in charge of international students suggested ‘perhaps you should start sending students to us as an agent. That way we can work together, otherwise there is no work available’. She explained the process and I said, ok let’s do it’.
By that stage, I was already helping my friends as well as a number of other international students in Australia and those who wanted to come and study in Australia.
The PIE: So all the people you knew, were they interested in studying abroad?
AP: Yes, but also Colombians in Australia, they didn’t know what to study, what to do or how to do it.
The PIE: So they all come for a short-term course and then they didn’t know what to do afterwards?
AP: Exactly, there weren’t any agencies at all from Latin America; there were many from China, India, but not from Colombia or Latin America, so I was the first one.
The PIE: Interesting! And how did you come up with the name Blue Studies International?
AP: Well, blue is my favourite colour and someone mentioned to me that Australia used to be called blue Australia or something like that, many, many years ago, and so I thought it would be a good idea to combine those words.
That’s how it started. I initially signed an agreement with Swinburne University, and I started approaching other schools from there. They were very excited because they didn’t have many Latin American students. I didn’t have money to rent an office so I was counseling the students at McDonald’s. Within two months, I had a lot of students.
“It was very hard for me to do the cases from Australia when they were there in Colombia, so I decided to travel there and open an office”
The PIE: How were you finding them, were you using social media or word of mouth?
AP: Word of mouth. That was eight years ago, I didn’t know anything about social media then, it was just starting to enter the market.
As I started working with students I realised that many people were looking for options to stay in Australia so I went to have a chat with a migration agent. I asked her if she would be interested to work with Colombian students and also I told her that I was looking for a space to see the students, she said ‘yes, let’s share the office’ and that’s how it all got started.
By the six month mark, I had a lot of students and they started asking me to help them bring friends and family from Colombia and it was very hard for me to do the cases from Australia when they were there in Colombia, so I decided to travel there and open an office. Six months later I had my first office in Bogota.
The PIE: How did you find staff there who understood the industry?
AP: I knew some people from the industry who had returned home. I ended up going to Colombia for six months so I was training the staff in that time.
The PIE: And you were funding this with the money you made already?
AP: Yes. I brought three or four students at first and I saved that money to open the office in Bogota. And the same thing happened with Chile and Peru, so I’ve got seven offices now.
The PIE: How many students are you sending?
AP: It’s around than 6-700 a year.
The PIE: And how have you seen the industry change in Australia? Because there are a lot of onshore agents now…
AP: Yes, there are many competitors now, but because we were the first ones we have a good reputation in the market. Plus we’ve been innovating and introducing new things. When Chad, my business partner, joined the business, we started introducing new systems; we’re using a lot of social media now.
The PIE: So how do you see your company developing in the future – do you think it will be good sustained growth?
CY: Absolutely, I think Australia itself is a great product. Everyone loves Australia.
The PIE: What do they like most about Australia?
CY: Well the beach culture, the weather, the economy as well.
The PIE: What about the ability to work?
CY: Absolutely.
The PIE: Do you keep in touch with your students throughout their journey?
CY: Yes, that’s what differentiates us. We hold a lot of different events, webinars, seminars to keep them informed. We understand they come with different objectives in mind, whether that is a job or opportunities, we want to make sure we are there guiding them throughout their journey so that that they do achieve the goals they set out to achieve.
“There are many competitors now, but because we were the first ones we have a good reputation in the market”
The PIE: And how long is a student’s lifecycle?
CY: Andrea’s got some clients that have been with her for 8 years now, since the company started.
AP: Yes, now it is interesting to see that they are coming with a partner and kids. They are usually English language students and they progress to Bachelors, then Masters, then they stay and bring the family or friends.
We have a really good connection with them, we run other activities including a language exchange, so every week we have Australians learning Spanish, we partner them up with Latin American students to practise their English as well.
CY: The first 30 minutes you speak English only and the next 30 minutes you speak Spanish only. There are three rounds: 10 minutes of English, 10 minutes of Spanish, and then you switch partners. They love that, we’ve been holding that weekly now and we get on average about 40 to 50 people attending.
The PIE: How do you recruit or how do you find Aussies to take part?
CY: We’ve got a meet up group, it’s got about 4,000 members. There are many different events within that group and there are different organisers as well. So we’ve got an Aussie style barbecue coming up and they love that because Australians love showing what Australians offer.
The PIE: And that’s a good way to recruit clients as well.
AP: Exactly.
CY: It is really interesting because sometimes we’ve got clients who arrived at the country and maybe 2 days in, they’ll hear about our language exchange program and they’ll be there, which is very exciting. We love that it’s attracting people.
The PIE: And what proportion of your business is onshore and what proportion comes from your offices overseas?
AP: I would say it’s 50-50.
“Every week we have Australians learning Spanish, we partner them up with Latin American students to practise their English”
The PIE: And tell me about the award you were recently nominated for.
AP: The Colombia Minister of Foreign Affairs has the “Colombia Nos Une” program, specially created to facilitate networking and linking of Colombians abroad. They have a program where they nominate “Outstanding Colombians Overseas” and I was selected in October 2014, they went on to publish my story in Australia on the Colombian government’s website.
The PIE: That’s really good. So are you in Australia forever, or do you think you’ll ever go back to Colombia?
AP: I think I will be in Australia forever. My brother lives in Australia, he’s working with me as well and we’re planning to bring our parents.
