Education South Africa and the Brazilian Educational and Language Travel Association have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to encourage more Brazilian students to study English in South Africa.
“Our overall aim is to increase the number of Brazilian language travellers to South Africa, position ourselves as a location of academic quality and spread the concentration of Brazilian language students across the country,” Torrique Borges, vice-chair and marketing at EduSA, told The PIE News.
“Our overall aim is to increase the number of Brazilian language travellers to South Africa”
The MoU, which was signed last month in Sao Paulo, Brazil, builds on an ongoing relationship between the two associations, which has included fam trips for Belta agents organised by EduSA.
“For a number of years, South Africa has been an increasingly attractive destination to Brazilians looking to study abroad,” commented Maura Leao, president of Belta.
In 2014, there were 1,527 Brazilian students studying with EduSA member schools, making up a total of 7,355 student weeks.
However, there has been a slight decrease since 2012, with 2013 figures showing 1,633 students making up 7,411 student weeks.
“We have begun working more closely with EduSA by sharing knowledge and insights about the possibilites of developing the education sector for the benefit of our students,” Leao said.
“The MoU futher confirms this relationship, and we look forward to Belta and EduSA growing even more.”
Borges added that EduSA wanted to match quality agents with the quality English language centres, in order to ensure “prospective students get the maximum value from their language travel experiences, while obviously benefiting members of both associations”, he said.
EduSA has 15 full members as well as nine incubator and associate members.