Independent language school and college collective, Quality English, hosted its 100th mission in 15 years with its sister brand Quality Education, as its chief executive predicted a possible shift to more “collaborative” marketing by schools and agents targeting students.
According to chief executive Jonathan Swindell, QE’s network of over 400 agents is “as important as ever” for the organisation’s members and for Quality Education, which was introduced in 2012 to market top-quality vocational and career colleges.
“Agents will always be crucial and integral to how we operate”
“We share a mutual goal of offering students a range of high-quality independent schools across the world who all meet the same standards and put the needs of students first,” Swindell said.
“For us as an organisation, agents will always be crucial and integral to how we operate, but as the reputation and awareness of our schools increases, and more agents decide to focus on QE and QED schools, there may be a shift towards more collaborative marketing to students.”
In November, QE hosted three European missions, in Warsaw, Milan and Barcelona respectively. Combined, the three events saw 121 agents take part, while 41 of QE/QEd 71 schools from eight countries attended.
The Milan workshop was QE’s largest to date, with 31 schools and 44 Italian agents in attendance, while the Barcelona immediately broke the record again, featuring 43 QE/QED schools from 8 countries, 45 Spanish and 10 agents from across the globe.
In Spain, following the organisations 100th mission in 31 countries, QE held its Gala Dinner with 92 guests from 22 countries. (Photos from the event are available here.)
“We are always looking for new markets or re-emerging markets where we can increase awareness of QE and QED schools, and potentially run missions,” Swindell said, adding that QE/QED has looked to collaborate with agents to raise brand awareness among students, which has led to exciting new events the organisation is hosting in 2019.
Among its other achievements, QE raised over €1000 for the Eddie Byers Fund through fund-raising games and donations with the support of Spencer Fordham from Capital School of English, Bournemouth.
Its eight missions planned for 2019 kick off with Tokyo in January, followed by Bogotá and São Paolo in March.
