IEGF success key to Chile market

Vital English’s success in Chile started in mid-2012 when ENZ staff introduced Vital English to STEP, an institute associated with the University of Santo Tomas that regularly tenders for Chilean Government bids in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).

Through this introduction, Vital English was able to identify an opportunity for developing an ESOL product based on an existing Vital English course that would be suitable for upskilling Chilean primary and secondary school teachers.

Just a few months later, Vital English and STEP were involved in a Chilean Government pilot involving 380 teachers. The pilot saw teachers improve their Test of English for International Communication scores by one or more levels on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages in three months.

Given that success, the Chilean Government sought to extend the pilot to a 12 month course in 2013 involving 4000 teachers.

Vital English was under pressure to rapidly develop new content to meet the needs of this bid and attend a number of meetings with Chilean Government officials. While both STEP and Vital English could recognise the scope of the opportunity, neither party had sufficient resources available to meet these requirements within the required timeframe.

“Fortunately, the IEGF was announced”, says Adrian. “Winning an IEGF has provided enough of a financial boost to allow Vital English to develop the required content and get to market quickly to maximise the opportunity.

“The result of being able to respond quickly to the requirements of the Chilean Government has, without question, strengthened our position there and accelerated our ability to grow the market. It has led to Vital English being invited to participate in a further bid for providing ESL to 1000 secondary school students.

“Vital English is now participating in three different Chilean Government bids worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. More importantly, the lessons learned from the partnerships formed, have opened the door to a new business model that Vital English is well positioned to maximise.”

For more information on the IEGF, click here.

About Vital English

Vital English is a supplier of digital support products for international students throughout the student engagement lifecycle; from helping institutions build awareness in the market to communicating with alumni digitally. Central to the Vital Suite of products is a catalogue of online and blended English courses. Vital English supply these products globally working with institutions in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, South East Asia and the Americas.

Vital English is happy to share more feedback from lessons learned in Chile. Please contact Adrian Sallis for more information. adrian.sallis@vitalenglish.com