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Education in the spotlight during Governor-General’s visit to Viet Nam
Sir Jerry Mateparae attended two major education events during this visit. In Hanoi the New Zealand Embassy and ENZ hosted a “New Zealand Education Connections” event, which for the first time ever in Viet Nam, brought together New Zealand alumni from different parts of the Vietnamese economy and society.
About 250 private students, NZ Aid scholarship recipients and recipients of English Language Teaching for Officials (ELTO) were represented at the event. New Zealand teachers in Viet Nam were also well represented.
The Governor-General spoke about the value of education as a bridge builder for long term relationships and connections between the two countries. In all of his meetings with senior Vietnamese leaders and officials stronger education collaboration was emphasised as a key priority for New Zealand’s relationship with Viet Nam.
In Ho Chi Minh City (which accounts for about 60 percent of all Vietnamese students to New Zealand), Sir Jerry Mateparae delivered an address to 170 students, staff and senior Vietnamese officials at the University of Science, which is part of the Vietnamese National University. The University has nine faculties with around 652 professors and more than 16,000 students.
Auckland University of Technology has a joint programme with the University of Science, delivering a Bachelor of Computer and Information Sciences (BCIS). There are 130 students enrolled in the programme, in addition to the 250 graduates of this programme.
At this event, the Governor-General spoke about the importance of partnerships in education, not only between governments, but also between New Zealand and Vietnamese institutions. Senior officials present expressed the hope that in future there would be more New Zealand and Vietnamese universities engaged in the kind of collaboration demonstrated by AUT and the University of Science, Ho Chi Minh City.Both events attracted plenty of media attention, and helped to raise the profile of New Zealand as an education partner for Viet Nam in advance of the New Zealand education fairs taking place in September.
Dragons documentary airs in China
Guangzhou TV screened the series on their Young channel from Monday to Thursday, and they’ve also made it available on their digital cable service so it’s downloadable and viewable in Guangzhou via the internet TV channel Tang Guo Shi Guang. Guangzhou TV informed us they also plan to play it on their English channels and Comprehensive Channel (their core channel).
Dragons in a Distant Land is documentary series about studying and living in New Zealand. The series tells the stories of six students currently studying in New Zealand and the experiences of their parents back in China. It also shares the stories of alumni working in both New Zealand and China. The documentary is available in both Mandarin and English and can be screened in two or four parts.
Other channels are confirming their screening times – we don’t expect to hear of them in advance but we’ll inform you if we do. Please keep an eye on our website and International Education News for further updates.
Here is a link to the Dragons in a Distant Land trailer that your agents can embed on their websites:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTkyNzQ4Mzky.html
Global Skills Summit opens
The summit provided the ideal platform from which to launch the Education New Zealand/KPMG knowledge paper: Opportunities in India: New Zealand Skills Partnership.
“The opportunities for achieving real, tangible and enduring results are plenty, and the knowledge paper we launched at the Global Skills Summit provides direction as to how to get there,” says Ziena Jalil, Regional Director – South Asia for Education New Zealand.
The skills partnership initiative endeavors to foster mutually beneficial ventures through government, industry and business relationships, and help India realise its national policy on skills development that aims to train 500 million people in by 2022.
The knowledge paper highlights the numerous capabilities of New Zealand’s vocational training and skills development sector and the courses offered by various Institutes of Technologyand polytechnics in New Zealand as they relate to India’s skills requirements.The other photo shows the Indian Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr Pallam Raju, and Clive Jones reacquainting themselves, having met during Dr Raju’s visit to New Zealand in July.
The other photo shows the Indian Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr Pallam Raju, and Clive Jones reacquainting themselves, having met during Dr Raju’s visit to New Zealand in July.
Introducing new offshore staff
Welcome to Education Manager Shelly Xu, who is based in Shanghai, and Market Development Manager Dinh Duong, who is based in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).
Shelly Xu has joined Education New Zealand’s China team as of 2 September and arrives to the role with more than 10 years of experience at Immigration New Zealand’s (INZ) Shanghai Branch, where she built up a concrete understanding not only of visa policy and settings, but also of the New Zealand- China international education landscape.
“We are really thrilled to have Shelly on board and she brings invaluable strengths to this role,” says Regional Director – Greater China Alexandra Grace.
“Shelly’s appointment to this newly created “Education Manager” position will enable better identification and uptake of growth opportunities, as well as better support to industry, in this key region of the China market”.
Shelly’s involvement with industry through her student visa responsibilities led to a desire to work for Education New Zealand. “Through INZ I learnt about the high quality of New Zealand education and found my passion and strong interest in promoting New Zealand education to more international students”, she says.
Get in touch with Shelly when you are visiting Shanghai; or would like to update Shelly on your business or institution’s activities in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui (Shelly’s areas of responsibility, working to the Regional Director). Her email address is shelly.xu@enz.govt.nz. Shelly is a part of the New Zealand Consulate-General effort in Shanghai, and will be based with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) at New Zealand Central.
Dinh Duong is the new Market Development Manager in Viet Nam, reporting to Izak Human, Regional Director – South East Asia.
Dinh will be working to promote New Zealand education in Viet Nam through fairs, events, exhibitions, meetings, workshops and other activities. She’ll be supporting New Zealand education providers and business by providing insights into the Viet Nam market, researching and working to establish high quality partnership opportunities for institutions, and keeping on top of developing education trends in Viet Nam.
Dinh joins Education New Zealand with four years’ experience in the education sector, having worked for a big English language provider as well as the British Council in Viet Nam. In addition to speaking English and Vietnamese, Dinh speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, and Chaozhou Chinese dialects.
Get in touch with Dinh when you are visiting HCMC; or would like to update her on your business or institution’s activities in Viet Nam. Her email address is dinh.duong@enz.govt.nz, and she works alongside NZTE staff at the Consulate-General office in HCMC.
Study in New Zealand brochure
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) is developing a suite of language translations to promote NCEA study in New Zealand. Alongside the English language version, Korean, Chinese, Thai and German translations are available. The translations feature NCEA student success stories and the future study plans of these students. Japanese and Spanish translations will also be available by October 2013.
The brochures can be downloaded from the NZQA website (see links below) and free copies can be requested by contacting the NZQA Communications Team at coms@nzqa.govt.nz
http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/studying-in-new-zealand/secondary-school-and-ncea/
http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/about-us/publications/nzqa-brochures/
New Zealand education in the spotlight in India
The three-day annual event, held from September 4–6, is the leading platform for discussion and dialogue on India’s skills challenges, and some 600 delegates participated, including more than 20 delegates from 12 New Zealand institutions.
In addition to maximum brand exposure as the country partner, and several speaking opportunities for New Zealand industry leaders, ENZ participated in a wide range of activities and events to build awareness of New Zealand’s expertise in skills, including launching a knowledge paper entitled: “Opportunities in India-New Zealand Skills Partnership”, that was launched by Indian Minister for Human Resource Development Dr Pallam Raju, pictured below, who visited New Zealand in July.
A roundtable meeting was also held for New Zealand delegates with Mrs Radha Chauhan (Joint Secretary – Ministry of Human Resource Development) and Mr RCM Reddy (Chairman – FICCI Skills Development Forum and CEO IL&FS Skills) – who jointly led the Indian skills delegation to New Zealand in April this year. Other members of the Indian delegation and significant partners joined the roundtable to do a stocktake of progress since the April visit and follow up on areas for further collaboration.
Other events at the Summit included a business-to-business session that enabled nine New Zealand institutions to showcase their strengths to more than 70 potential Indian partners for business development opportunities. There was strong interest in what New Zealand had to offer and the institutions have decided to take a collaborative approach to exploring this further, with ENZ support in India.
In the same week as the Summit, ENZ also hosted a successful series of New Zealand Education Fairs in Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi and Chandigarh to promote New Zealand as a student destination. All fairs received good turnout from potential students, attracted participation from several New Zealand educational institutions and resulted in comprehensive media coverage.
In Bangalore, the presence of former Black Cap Chris Cairns as an Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Brand Ambassador attracted a lot of attention!
ENZ also invited NZ Inc partners such as Tourism New Zealand, Immigration New Zealand, New Zealand apple promoters, Zespri and ANZ Bank to participate in the events. Overall feedback from New Zealand institutions was positive with many specifically commenting on the higher quality of students who attended the fairs this year compared to previous years.
ENZ hosts agents and alumni in Japan
There are many New Zealand providers and agents who are working hard in Japan, and we know that there are more who would like to make forays in to this market. In line with these activities and initiatives, ENZ is making a concerted effort to re-enage with Japan – changing its status from a Tier Three to a Tier Two priority market, and ensuring it receives additional marketing support and investment.
New Zealand and Japan have a long history of education cooperation – Japan is New Zealand’s fourth largest source country for international students, with 9,563 Japanese students in 2012.
There is plenty of opportunity to grow from this strong base, and New Zealand is more committed than ever to engage at all levels – including government, as demonstrated by the visit in the same week by the Minster for Tertiary Education Skills and Employment, Hon. Steven Joyce to strengthen our education relationship.
New Zealand is an ideal partner for Japan in its bid to internationalise its education system and its workforce, providing a prime destination for Japanese students to learn English – formally and informally – in a world-class education system within a multicultural environment.
The agent networking events held in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka and were designed to give New Zealand education providers the opportunity to reconnect with their existing Japanese agents and expand their network of education agent contacts in Japan. It was also an opportnity to promote ENZ’s new online agent e-learning programme which provides agents with current and relevant information on New Zealand and New Zealand education.
The events featured a presentation from ENZ on New Zealand’s unique study benefits and an update from Immigration New Zealand on their new Immigration ONLINE visa processing, scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2014, plus, of course, an opportunity to network and socialise afterwards.
It is hoped that the agents left these events with a clear sense that they are very much valued as promoters and sellers of New Zealand education to Japanese students and their families.
The purpose of the alumni networking event in Tokyo was to help keep the alumni connected with New Zealand and with one another, and affirm their roles as willing ambassadors for New Zealand education.
The alumni networking reception was held at the New Zealand Embassy in Toyko, and it proved to be the perfect venue for hosting the approximately 40 alumni and the New Zealand education providers who were in town for the agent events.
The networking function included speeches from New Zealand’s Ambassador to Japan, Mark Sinclair, Minister Joyce and invited Japanese alumni, and included a performance from Tomitsuyu (stage name) a geisha in training.
The event also included a classic kiwi BBQ and a yes/no game much loved by the Japanese.
A nice moment recalled by the two ENZ staff who attended was of alumni taking photos of themselves eating pavlova to post on their Facebook pages.
The activities in Japan supported ENZ’s recently launched ‘Study in New Zealand’ school campaign in which showcases to prospective school students and their parents that you get more from a New Zealand education: a better learning experience, greater lifestyle opportunities and the foundations for a promising future and career.
Strong team established in South East Asia
It was first time everyone in the South East Asia team had been together in one location and it was a great opportunity for the them to work on the business plan for the coming year.
Three areas of focus were identified during the planning sessions; first, delivering great marketing events (such as those recently held in Indonesia and Malaysia and soon to be held in Thailand and Viet Nam); second, introducing New Zealand institutions to potential partners and facilitating business development. Opportunities currently being explored in this area include early childhood education in Indonesia and Borneo; vocational education in Viet Nam; and English language opportunities in several countries. The third area of focus is leveraging Government connections and relationships.
Also over the two days, the team spent time working out the best way to ‘pitch’ New Zealand as a destination for tertiary education to students at selected schools in all countries of focus. The first task was to identify which Year 8-10 students and parents would consider New Zealand as an education destination, and what types of schools they were at; and then, how the team could most effectively raise awareness of New Zealand education as a study destination among this group. The South East Asia team will be trialling a pitch in selected schools soon, and awareness-raising activities of this sort will become an important part of their job at the conclusion of the fairs.
Many of you will already know some of the team – but perhaps only as a voice over the phone, so the accompanying photo shows, from left to right: Sarah Gauthier, ENZ’s Wellington-based International Market Manager who supports South East Asia; Izak Human, ENZ’s Regional Director – South East Asia; Margaret Low (Malaysia), Yenny Chen (Indonesia); Gewalin (Nan) Lertrasameewong (Thailand), Dinh Duong (Viet Nam) and ENZ General Manager – International, Peter Bull.
Yenny and Dinh are new to the team and next month Dinh will be in New Zealand for the first time. During her stay in New Zealand, from 10–18 October, Dinh is hoping to gain as much understanding of New Zealand education as possible and would very much like to meet education providers and visit schools and other education institutions
If you would like to meet Dinh and show her what New Zealand can offer Vietnamese students, or discuss your plans for market development in Viet Nam, please email Sarah Gauthier: sarah.gauthier@enz.govt.nz. (Note: due to itinerary constraints, we may not be able to honour every request, so please understand if we are unable to visit you – but rest assured that we will do our best!)
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
Seven Flying Kiwis travel to Chile
'Flying Kiwis' Charlotte Butler, Catherine Lee, Shai Robinson and Caznae Raynes with two 'Penguins'
The ‘Flying Kiwis’ initiative was developed by Education New Zealand in response to the highly-successful ‘Penguins without Borders’ programme, which was piloted in New Zealand and saw 40 Chilean students come to Auckland to live and study for two terms in the first half of this year.
The ‘Flying Kiwis’ are all students from Auckland schools that hosted the ‘Penguins’. While in Santiago they will attend school and live in homestays, with some staying with the families of former or current programme participants.
‘Flying Kiwis’ Catherine Lee and Charlotte Butler address guests at a welcome reception held at the Ambassador’s residence in Santiago
The experience will give the ‘Flying Kiwis’ and their accompanying teacher an invaluable opportunity to immerse themselves in the Spanish language and the Chilean culture, and will enable them to see and experience the lives of the Chilean ‘Penguin’ school mates they have been studying and living alongside in New Zealand. The ‘Penguins’ have had a window in to the lives of Kiwi students, and now it’s the turn of the Kiwi students to gain some insights into their world.
The ‘Flying Kiwis’ initiative represents another strand in the strengthening education relationship with Chile and also contributes to the establishment of enduring connections between Chilean and New Zealand young people.
New Zealand school communities in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland are currently hosting the second cohort of 101 Chilean students in the ‘Penguins without Borders’ programme.