The UK government has announced a reshuffle of its trade arm, UK Trade and Investment, in a bid to spread trade responsibilities across government departments. Education export operations will be affected by the reshuffle but details are yet to be finalised.
With growing concerns in the UK around including students in net migration targets, a more positive and opportunistic outlook surrounding offshore and improving UK branding was forecast by experts from the UK's education sector, investors, financial and legal advisors and strategy consultants at an event in London this week.
Four UK education consortia have won contracts to run 12 technical and vocational training colleges in Saudi Arabia as part of the government's Colleges of Excellence programme. The deals will take the total contribution of the programme's contracts to the UK economy to over £1 billion.
Following the cancellation of the UK Post-Study Work Visa in 2012, initiatives from UKTI and recruitment consultancy, OSSC, are currently in development to meet the demand for work-study among Chinese students and bolster trade ties for UK businesses.
This autumn, UK educators will travel with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) GREAT WEEK missions to Vietnam in hope of providing services that will meet the country's gap in vocational skills. Thirty odd companies boasting expertise in various facets of education ranging from higher education to vocational training have signed up so far and have been deemed market ready by UKTI.
British PM David Cameron signed a number of education agreements with Kazakhstan last week, extending opportunities for UK providers. UK Trade and Investment said that the oil-rich country offered opportunities in vocational education and skills development.
The British government is to establish a new unit to help realise the "untapped" potential of the UK education exports industry. Education UK will coordinate efforts to win bids for all education sectors. The British Council underlined that BIS and UKTI would work alongside their significant work under their own Education UK brand.
A new guide to the UK's technical and vocational education training sector has been produced by the British Council, in partnership with government department UKTI (UK Trade and Industry), given the increasing global interest in skills as well as qualifications.
