Till Gins is the owner of the OISE Group of schools and many other independently-marketed brands of language school that form part of the Gins Alliance. He spoke with The PIE about how his empire has evolved, how he runs his ELT businesses and his thoughts on increasing private equity in the sector.
The PIE: What made you start OISE?
TG: I founded the Oxford Intensive School of English as I was starting my PhD in order to support me through the rest of my studies. Inspired by the university tutorial system, all the courses were conducted entirely by means of individual tuition. I wasn’t worried that it forced me to charge a lot more than other schools because I was so convinced that educationally it was the right approach to help students achieve their ambition to master the language fluently.
The PIE: How did you recruit students?
TG: At the time I did not know that most schools recruited their students through educational agents, so I launched an advertising campaign directly in the most important European markets.
The PIE: So then how did you expand?
“I was so convinced that educationally it was the right approach”
TG: When the number of students from France started to increase I opened an office in Paris and then in other parts of Europe. This strategy forced me to develop the range of courses and open schools in other university cities. I started running summer courses for young learners and that grew quite rapidly: in the late 1970s and 1980s schools were more concerned about keeping up with demand. Sales as such, which perversely language specialists called “marketing”, started properly in the mid ’80s.
The PIE: At this point were your clients still mainly European?
TG: In those days the majority of students were European and Japanese, especially when the regime changed in Iran which, until the fall of the Shah, was also a major market.
The PIE: How did you open up from being essentially European-based to global operations?
TG: In the 80’s we all spent a lot of time pioneering in new markets. I remember Brian Heap from Anglo-World opening up the market in Turkey: we thought he was being very adventurous but time proved that he was right and by the early 90’s we all worked with Turkey.
However with Russia and China it all began when the markets opened up: very few students came from the Soviet Union until the early ’90s. After the fall of the Berlin wall, many more students came from Russia and ex-Soviet states.
“Sales as such, which perversely language specialists called “marketing”, started properly in the mid ’80s”
The PIE: How do you see the industry changing in the future?
TG: The educational agency network is fragmenting very rapidly, unlike the schools which are consolidating into larger groups: this makes for a strange combination! The cost of entry as an agent now is very low because all you need to do is to build a website, whereas schools have to become more sophisticated in what they provide. 30 years ago you could just rent premises and buy a whiteboard or blackboard; now you have to give students a far more sophisticated environment which has put up the cost of entry considerably.
The PIE: As the industry has professionalised, do you think the level of teaching quality has progressed?
TG: No, in the ’70s the owners of language schools were extremely committed to their educational offering and very attentive to what happened in the classroom. From the late ’80s onwards it became all about marketing and sales, so the educational side took a back seat. That seems to still be the reality.
“I refuse to compromise the results to please the sales effort”
That’s where I think the group that I’ve built is so different from others: the educational aspect still represents a large part of my work with constant efforts going into further pedagogical developments. I refuse to compromise the results to please the sales effort. I’d rather deliver the right course which might be more difficult to sell than just package standard educational programmes that are easier to sell.
The PIE: How do you try and assure outcomes?
TG: By providing very close learning supervision: all of our study groups have a very low number of students – four or eight; only some schools teach in groups of a maximum of 12 learners. Every time a new school has joined us in the past we have reduced the numbers of students in the class.
Language teaching is not all about knowledge, it’s about performance, and therefore if groups are too large, students are not going to be able to get enough practical training.
The PIE: I’ve heard that when everyone else was having a downturn, you’ve never really witnessed that.
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TG: Yes, when there’s a downturn it is usually due to economic problems: people decide to give up on what they perceive as unnecessary spending, so they become far more selective in their choice of education provider.
The PIE: So when did you start acquiring other brands?
TG: 1996. The first school that joined us was Harven School of English in Woking.
The PIE: Tell me about your strategy to keep these schools under their own brand.
TG: Whether it is an OISE school or another school, the principal is empowered to manage that school as if he/she owned it. We give them guidance and support yet they have a platform to express themselves and therefore provide a very unique service. But this only comes as long as it is backed up with continuous professional development which I spend a lot of time organising.
“Whether it is an OISE school or another school, the principal is empowered to manage that school as if he/she owned it”
The diversity of the schools’ pedigree brings purpose and vitality to all our schools. For example, the amazing creativity of Pilgrims encouraged every school to be more innovative.
The PIE: So is the OISE client-base, given your focus, slightly older, more professional than other schools?
TG: Yes. The average age in an OISE school is late 20s to early 30s but many of the participants are older.
The PIE: And you offer junior programming as well?
TG: Yes, we have a large Young Learners operation. There again, it focuses on motivated students. We don’t do morning lessons and afternoon activities like everyone else. All our courses are full-day programmes, so we attract the people who really want to study and put in the effort to develop significantly their language skills.
The PIE: Do you think that in general students are arriving with a better level of language acquired?
TG: Yes definitely. The percentage of students in the advanced classes is much higher than 20 years ago, a lot higher.
“What we don’t want to do is go down the path of sixth form colleges; our interest is in international boarding schools”
The PIE: Do you think there will still be a market for ELT even if the levels of English training are sufficiently good in the country?
TG: Yes, I think most students will go from beginner to elementary in their own country. The market is shifting because a lot of the students who choose to go to an English speaking country have an ulterior motive: to go to university in these countries.
The PIE: So how does OISE or your group tap into that?
TG: We deliver courses for pre-university students who prepare to go to university, either in the UK or another English speaking country.
The PIE: How many schools do you have now?
TG: Thirty. I like them all – I have this ability to spend the day in one school and forget that I have others. I focus on that school and get very excited about what it delivers. And I hope that the passion rubs off on the person who runs it.
The PIE: Do you see expanding your group further?
TG: Yes, we are now in secondary education with Newbury Hall, an international boarding school; Basil Paterson has always been preparing local Scottish pupils for A levels and Scottish Highers and has now opened a Middle school. I find it all very interesting because it is very similar to good language teaching, in the sense that it’s also dedicated to helping people achieve their future success.
“A lot of public schools think they’re doing well financially, but that’s because they own their premises: if they were charging themselves rent most would be loss-making”
The PIE: One of the things we’ve observed is parents increasingly attempting to send kids abroad at the younger age.
TG: Yes. It’s not just the language level, it’s the cultural level. If they want their children to become cosmopolitan, they want to send them abroad early. We are planning to open a Prep school for pre-Newbury Hall pupils.
The PIE: So do you think this is a growth area for OISE?
TG: Yes. I can see OISE further developing secondary education. What we don’t want to do is go down the path of sixth form colleges; our interest is in international boarding schools.
The PIE: You own quite a lot of property – so that gives you financial backing. The reason not a lot people go into secondary education is because it’s a lot more expensive, isn’t it?
TG: It is, and it takes a lot longer to get a decent return on investment. A lot of public schools think they’re doing well financially, but that’s because they own their premises: if they were charging themselves rent most would be loss-making.
The PIE: What do you think about big private equity companies looming into that sector?
TG: I think they transform the industry in a negative way: they are usually focused on the short- to medium-term whereas in education you need to have a long-term view. People ring me every week asking to invest in OISE and the answer is always an emphatic ‘no!’
