At gatherings, I often humour by indicating that I like the stage but that public attention that I desire is for what I put out passionately and often only pertaining to what I believe in and almost always in the interest of the industry. Honestly, I find it embarrassing and untruthful to be claiming to be the “best” or even “better than the rest”. The push of my endeavours is to seek differentiation and to attempt to go one notch ahead of myself at each step. That is, it.
However, there is also GLOBAL REACH which was conceived in 1991 and which has had my contribution but also of hundreds of other individuals. Even the idea in 1991 was of three friends who shared the same residence at Bond University in Australia and in-fact, ran with the concept together in the initial phase. Thereafter GR (as we lovingly refer it as) moved beyond infancy into adulthood, has breathed on its own and has had several guardians over the years. Employees who believed in this start-up to give their working lives to, associates and partners at various locations who invested in the idea and of course the Education Institutions who contracted their student recruitment to it. The GR mission statement also refers to Government Agencies as its customer and this includes the Immigration department. So, when Global Reach is identified and declared the finalist for the “Education Agency of the Year” at the inaugural PIEoneer Awards, the spotlight is firmly on the company and what it stands for. It is embarrassing and unfair for it to be identified as solely my achievement, which it is not.
Congratulations to GR and its GReat teams and all those associated with it. I would only like to add my personal thanks to all of them too and also to all others who have encouraged me to pursue. This includes the readers of this blog. Congratulations to the concept of “education representation agency”, which too took birth around 1991.
The PIE is an independent media and recruitment company offering a market-leading portfolio of services for professionals working in international education.
The flagship website The PIE News is a widely read and highly trusted source of news and business intelligence about the global international education industry.
The readership and client base includes people working for educational institutions, education agents, service providers and government
The shortlist for this award category (Education Agency of the Year) is as follows:
1. ESL, Switzerland
As well as demonstrating significant global expansion in the last year, with 9 new offices opened, ESL launched its own awards programme to showcase best practice from its partner schools based on feedback from ESL staff and also student ratings, to combine both B2C and B2B perceptions. It runs a CSR self-assessment tool and is actively involved with product development with school partners and offering a broad variety of destinations and product types.
2. Global Reach, India
Global Reach has a long track record of pioneering approaches to education counselling via engagement with governments on pilot visa trials, based on compliance. It shows a commitment to improving standards in southeast Asia and has expanded into Bhutan. Organising fam trips for its staff also underlines its approach to best practice placement. A new strategy for 2016 saw a commitment to career counselling beyond education services.
3. UKEAS Nigeria, Nigeria
UKEAS was strongly endorsed by a university partner for its determination to stick to high customer service standards in a country that can be unpredictable to navigate. The agency has expanded to be a testing centre and introduced a fee-free model for students, gaining market share quickly. It also runs nationwide exhibitions that are innovatively organised. It counsels clients on a range of destinations including Turkey, China and Mauritius.
The details on the first-ever awards and full list of categories is provided by PIE News on this link and I quote from that:
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