Founder of Kiev-based agency Grade, Volodymyr Naydyuk gives The PIE News an update on student mobility out of Ukraine, emergent trends spurred by the conflict and how he’s coping with an uncertain future.
The PIE: Tell me about your agency, Grade.
VN: We recruit both adults and juniors and we prepare for IELTS and Cambridge Exams, so everything is in one place. I have been working in the industry since 2010. I started as sales manager at another agency where I worked for two and half years and then I created the agency in 2012.
The PIE: What’s the current demand like among your clients?
“Parents tend to send their children somewhere for longer periods of time. Maybe because we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow”
VN: What we see now is that there is bigger demand for academic programmes in Ukraine. So for more long-term programmes. Especially parents tend to send their children somewhere for longer periods of time. Maybe because of the uncertain situation because we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Every day there are changes, it’s a bit complicated.
The PIE: How many students do you work with?
VN: When we’re speaking about numbers it’s important to ask if its groups or individuals. In January we had sent 55 students and when I speak to partners they say that their numbers are the same. We recruit more individual students instead of groups and this is very important. There are agencies who send groups do so because they have links with schools or one of the teachers there so it’s not really the agency who sends the students.
The PIE: Where do you send students?
VN: The UK and more and more Canada. In general we have seen a lot of interest in pathway programmes, preparation for Canadian colleges or universities. Also postgraduate programmes. A lot of students who finish their degree in Ukraine see it’s difficult to find a job so the postgraduate programme gives you a chance to change your degree from linguists or philology for example to HR, management or marketing.
The PIE: So you’re seeing more demand for academic programmes?
VN: I think it is becoming a trend, yes, but Ukraine is so difficult now so you don’t know what to expect tomorrow. The problem in the UK for example is the pound. The pound is almost double the value of the Ukrainian currency. So parents are starting to think twice about whether to pay double for the short-term programme or to accumulate money and save for long-term courses.
The PIE: Could the currency devaluation divert traffic away from the UK?
“Parents are starting to think twice about whether to pay double for the short-term programme or save for long-term courses”
VN: It could. For the UK they will be struggling especially for the short-term programmes. And for the long-term programmes you get your degree in the UK, but you have to go back. There’s little chance you can stay to get some work experience, but Canada gives this chance. In general Canada is a nice country and there are more opportunities there which students aren’t used to and there’s the Ukrainian diaspora in Toronto too.
The PIE: Have you had any problems with visa issuance considering the current situation?
VN: Every country says “we support Ukraine” or “we are very worried about you” but usually it’s only words. When it comes to business and especially when they see people from Donetsk or Lundansk applying for a Canadian visa they just cancel it. That’s happened to our clients. They said they weren’t sure that they would return to Ukraine.
We haven’t had any visa refusals from the UK, just delays because of the change in the UK visa centre in Kiev to Teleperformance. It was mostly organisational problems. They lost passports, they changed some information. It took more time for them to process visas, especially in the summer.
The PIE: There were several agencies complaining about problems with the UK’s new visa provider. Has it affected business?
VN: We had a few clients who had to change their flights. And it makes parents nervous. especially when it’s a child and he or she doesn’t start with other children.
“There were some enquiries for parents to travel with their kids. They might event start thinking of purchasing an apartment”
The PIE: In general, what’s the feeling in Ukraine at the moment?
VN: When everything started in November, when the riots were in central Kiev, there was a feeling that people wanted to change something. Then when people actually died, in February, loads of families just moved away. Another period was just before September- they wanted to send students to do A levels, GCSE, some academic programmes. There were some enquiries as well for parents to travel with their kids, and stay in an apartment not far from the school. So they might event start thinking of purchasing an apartment. There are people can afford it.
The PIE: You could see more Ukranian parents buying foreign property to escape the conflict?
VN: It would be better if the government didn’t have so many rules. If they want to settle in the UK for example it’s quite difficult. So they will look for new countries where they are looking for investors for the economy. There are countries where if you buy a property for €350,000 or something you’ll get residency– Spain, Malta, Cyrpus. So it’s much easier and the Euro is a bit cheaper as well. Of course there are people who earn their salaries in foreign currencies. For them it’s not so difficult. But that’s a small number. In Ukraine the problem is that there is a big gap between the wealthy and the poor. There is a very small amount of people in the middle class.
“The problem is that there is a big gap between the wealthy and the poor. There is a very small amount of people in the middle class”
The PIE: The academic year is kicking off in this shaky environment, how are you preparing for whatever is next?
VN: Our plans are to start heavily promoting January start programmes – that’s when most academic programmes start. And we’ll try to send some juniors for autumn and winter holidays. It’s not official yet but due to the problems with gas Russia says that the schools may be closed in winter for two months or something. Which means they might reduce the autumn holidays to one week and they might add to the winter holidays. So maybe for us it’s an opportunity, children will be at home but parernts will still have to go to work. So they’re might be an opportunity to push winter break courses.
And loads of people are moving from the eastern part of Ukraine to Kiev to other cities. So there is a special interest for those kinds of people because there were people there who worked in government or the mining industry who have money.
We only hope the situation doesn’t escalate further and that there won’t be a war. Because already there are loads of people suffering from this.
