The PIE: Really, you think China and India for Spanish language demand?

AA: Yes we had an office in China since three years ago, and it’s really going very well.

The PIE: That’s really interesting.

AA: We’ve been investing for more than 10 years in this country, and the good thing is not too many students make many student weeks because they stay for a longer time – more than one or two years.

The PIE: Do you have any backing from the Spanish government in terms of exporting Spanish language?

AA: No, they are very interested but they’re not a very big help. They really try to promote Spain as a tourist destination but they don’t have a focus to give very good support to businesses like us. [More>>]

The PIE: In terms of how you’re finding clients and working with agents, do you see that relationship changing at all? Do you see more students wanting to go direct?

AA: Our focus is working with agents. We put a lot of effort and spend most of our energy on supporting agencies. We don’t look for direct business, because the agents give us a big amount of support. Choosing and selecting the students and giving them all the information. Something that is very important for us. Every time we go to a new country or we open an office in a country, it’s just to give support to the agents and to really see how we can help them.

The PIE: And in terms of growth, can you give us any figures of how much your market has grown year on year? Have you seen slow steady growth?

AA: Spain has been expensive in the last few years because of the euro change but we are happy to say that in the last year we’ve grown more than 12%. Something that is not easy when you have a big market share or you have more than 40,000 students per year.

“We don’t look for direct business, because agents give us a big amount of support”

The PIE: How many students do you have now then?

AA: Now we have over 40,000 students per year and more than 500 people full-time and in the high season we go up to over 1,500 people.

The PIE: Looking ahead do you think study abroad as an industry is going to carry on growing?

AA: I believe study abroad is amazing. It’s a beautiful industry and for sure it’s going to be growing and growing because people are more international than local. So they’re going to study all over the world.