24 May 2017 at 9:00 am
Korean agents tour New Zealand
In a packed seven-day trip, four Korean education agents visited providers and industry leaders in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch as part of an ENZ agent famil.
From 7-14 May, the agents (three of whom were winners of ENZ’s “I want to Study in NZ” video competition) met with schools, ITPs, universities, export education stakeholders and key industry players.
Sunah Kim, ENZ’s Market Development Manager – Korea, said the agents also got a taste of the Kiwi lifestyle that students enjoy outside the classroom.
“We wanted to showcase New Zealand as a high quality, safe and creative destination for Korean students,” said Sunah.
“This was a nice balance to their meetings with industry professionals, which were aimed more at expanding the agents’ partnership networks in New Zealand.”
In Auckland, the agents met with local schools and providers, while their visit to Wellington focused on the creative sector, and pathways from high schools to Yoobee School of Design, Massey University College of Creative Arts and Park Road Post Production, which ran its first film production training programme last year.
The final stop was Christchurch, where some of the agents had sent their very first students. Ara Institute of Canterbury thanked them for continuing to build strong education ties with the city, and also thanked ENZ for increased engagement with the Korean market through the video competition, scholarship offers and agent famil.
Networking event at Ara with Christchurch education providers.
Sunah said the numbers suggest Korean agents have taken note of these activities. Visa data shows a 14% increase for the first quarter of 2017 – the first time in a decade. The growth is consistent across all visa types and has been sustained since November 2016.
“Agents are important players in the Korean market, and their reinvigorated energy has helped raise New Zealand’s education profile in Korea,” said Sunah.
“Many thanks to everyone who made this trip successful by showing such warm hospitality and providing useful insights to the agents – particularly Misook Kim from Study Auckland, Christine Pugh from Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency, and Karen Haigh from Christchurch Educated.”
Left: At the Yoobee School of Design. Right: At the ENZ head office in Wellington.
