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Study in New Zealand on Instagram
Over the next six months we are trialling some social media marketing with 15 scholarship students on Instagram.
The students from the university and ITP sectors have been challenged to capture one moment each week of their New Zealand study experience. This could be in the form of a photo or a short video.
Highlights so far include shopping for fruit and vegetables at Wellington’s fresh produce markets, a visit to the Taihape Gumboot, canyoning in Piha and riding a mechanical bull at AUT University. We are looking forward to seeing the ‘inside the classroom’ pictures as the study year gets underway.
With Instagram it’s very important to be real so we thought the best way to do that was to hand the reins over to the students themselves. While we are working closely with the students to generate the right type of content, our student ambassadors are encouraged to share their education experience as authentically as possible. As we learn how to make the most of this student-led social media channel, we’ll invite new contributors from all markets to increase the amount of content we are generating.
The 15 scholarship students are competing to be crowned the best contributor with a prize of $200 towards a kiwi adventure of their choice. We’ll also provide each of the 15 students with an official reference for their CV at the end of their six month stay in New Zealand.
If you’re on Instagram, follow the students’ journey at @studyinnewzealand - http://instagram.com/studyinnewzealand
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Education in ASEAN 40 celebrations
Let them be part of an exciting project that's taking place this year to mark the 40th anniversary of New Zealand’s Dialogue Partnership with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
A cross-government leverage and legacy team, led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is looking for stories and photos that will bring the ASEAN : New Zealand relationship to life, and perhaps be included in a timeline that will tell this story in a compelling and high impact way.
We all know what an important role education has played in this relationship, and some of you may have your own experiences of this to draw on. If so, we encourage you to share them with the team, as they may be suitable for inclusion in the timeline project.
Stories and pictures that demonstrate the significant impact education exchange has had on all involved - on both a personal and national level - are most sought after.
If you have memories or stories, and accompanying photos or other visual material that tell:
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of events/activities involving students from SEA countries in New Zealand
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a ‘where are they now?’ story showing the path a New Zealand-educated student from the SEA region has taken
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of personal experiences of studying with students from ASEAN countries, particularly those where enduring friendships or research partnerships were formed.
In the first instance, please write a brief description of the story or “moment” using the three questions below as a guide, and email it to Mandi.vanWeede@mfat.govt.nz. Please note that not all stories will be able to be included in the timeline, and someone will be in touch if there is any follow up required.
What took place? Include a brief description of the event/activity/experience.
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When did the activity/event/experience take place?
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Are there any images or other visual material that will help illustrate your story?
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How can you be contacted should someone from the team wish to follow up on your story?
Please include your name and contact details.
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Events in Latin America a great success
A mixture of education fairs and agent seminars were held in five cities across Brazil, Chile and Colombia and proved to be hugely popular. Three times as many students and families attended the ENZ fairs in Bogota and Santiago as attended the 2014 fairs, with a queue of eager students waiting their turn to enter the Education New Zealand fair in Bogota.
The students themselves expressed surprise at the level of interest from their peers in studying in New Zealand and, though some may have felt a little regret that their study destination “discovery” was not theirs alone, it affirmed that their interest was well-founded.
As well, more New Zealand institutions – representing all sectors of the industry – than ever took part in the series of events, showing a real desire for greater engagement with prospective students in this region.
But it wasn’t only about the numbers.
Feedback from the institutions that participated was very positive, and included comments such as:
“ENZ operates very well in South America. The staff seem to be very switched on and they have a lot of market experience. I have been involved in many ENZ events in various countries and I am very happy with South America.”
“The marketing of the event was clearly done very well because there were a lot of interested students and family members. Well done to Ana, Sam and Javiera for organising such a good event”
“Awareness of New Zealand as study destination was very good”
If you would like to know more about events in Latin America then please drop us a line events@enz.govt.nz
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Game on English – Golf launched in Korea
Game on English is an edu-sport programme that combines intensive English language classes with top quality sports training. Game On English – Golf is aimed at talented young Koreans, 13 years and over, who want to become professional golfers.
“Game On English combines New Zealand’s expertise and passion for sport with our education system that consistently ranks amongst the best in the world,” said Lisa Futschek, Education New Zealand’s Regional Director for Americas, Japan, and Korea.
“With an estimated 70,000 Koreans passionate about golf, and both our countries’ claims on World #1 women’s golfer Lydia Ko, it seemed the obvious sport to test out the Game On English market in Korea.”
To launch and raise public profile of Game On English in Korea, four young Korean golfers will be awarded scholarships to spend a month in New Zealand working on their game with the professionals at New Zealand’s Institute of Golf while improving their English at English language school, Unique New Zealand.
Applications for these scholarships will open in mid-2015.
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Malaysian student teachers value NZ experience
While it was not much money, it motivated them, according to Mdm Anis Abdullah, co-ordinator of the Kiwi Experience Project at the Institute of Teacher Education (Batu Lintang) in Kuching, who accompanied the students.
Over the next year they raised their target of 100,000MYR or $NZ 30,000. That first day they rented out the bikes for less than 1 ringgit – so the fact there were 12 takers was the incentive to continue.
During the March visit to Dunedin the third-year primary-level English language student teachers gained insights into New Zealand culture, education techniques, ways of managing pupil behaviour and various literacy programmes. The tour ended with the students performing three songs, including a waiata, at North East Valley Normal School.
Aged 21 to 25, many will be posted in rural areas with added responsibilities as school administrators and for pastoral care of pupils. “English is part of the curriculum in both primary and secondary schools now but in 2016 it will become compulsory and pupils will be required to pass English language studies to graduate from high school,” according to Mdm Anis.
She said the trip enabled the students to have the total Kiwi experience. “I believe in the holistic approach to education where learning entails much more than just what you study in class. Trips like this enrich an education. New Zealand is the most expensive benchmark option for us, but it is the best because we would like our students to see first-hand how the early literacy and reading recovery programmes are carried out here. Besides, New Zealand is a very beautiful and safe country and the warmth of the Kiwis always made us feel very welcomed.”
This visit was the first time some had left their home region of Sarawak. “They have had a great time and many said that when they graduate and have worked for a few years, they will come back.”
Mdm Anis said commonalities existed between the Malaysian and New Zealand teaching ethos. “It is about teachers being informed, knowledgeable and global citizens. Our teacher development programmes focus not only on intellectual aspects, but also on developing values and the emotional, spiritual and physical aspects – similar to the ‘life-long-learner’ concepts in New Zealand.”
Mdm Anis hopes the Malaysian Ministry of Education will plan another twinning programme for Malaysian students to study at the University of Otago, possibly at Masters level. She previously helped co-ordinate such a programme at the institute where she works, that ended in 2013, for 117 student teachers to complete half of their Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, TESOL, degree at Otago.
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Outstanding ASEAN Alumni set for special project
A special project dedicated to promoting education ties between New Zealand and countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region in celebration of the 40th anniversary.
The project will involve 40 selected New Zealand alumni who have made significant contributions to their communities following their formative education experience in New Zealand.
The series not only seeks to celebrate already well known alumni personalities, but also to recognise the humble, quiet achievers. The project is designed to reflect the diversity of New Zealand’s connections across ASEAN, to tell transformative human interest stories about people galvanised by their education experience in New Zealand and to promote alumni as key influencers and ‘ambassadors’ for New Zealand education.
Having received outstanding nominations from across all 10 Southeast Asian countries, the team is now finalising the 40 individuals who will be interviewed for 50 profiles (10 broadcast and 40 written).
The interviews are set to get underway towards the end of this month, with the project to be completed by the end of June. From then on, ENZ will own the written and filmed content to use across multiple channels throughout the anniversary year.
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WeChat – THE Chinese social media
WeChat has become a default social networking tool for Chinese users.
WeChat is China’s version of WhatsApp or Viber but with many additional social networking features. Released in January 2011 it is the largest standalone messaging app with more than 500 million monthly active users of which 15% are based outside of China.
WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, sharing of photographs and videos, and location sharing. It is well integrated with other social networking services. Photographs can be enhanced with filters and captions, and an automated translation service is available.
To understand the scale of WeChat’s growth, the following statistics are interesting:
25% of users check WeChat more than 30 times a day Subscribers spent US$15.3B on mobile data using WeChat last year 86.2% of WeChat users are aged 18 to 36 WeChat users consume more content on WeChat than any other app.
When it comes to marketing, WeChat has a number of advantages;
Relationship building - WeChat acts like a customer relationship management (CRM) tool due its one to one communication, allowing a personal conversation between brands and followers.
Customer Feedback - Customers also use WeChat for collecting information, opinions and comments about products. It is a great platform to gauge consumer satisfaction and to collect followers’ feedback.
Education New Zealand’s WeChat platform was launched last August and has more than 2,500 followers. It is designed to enhance the awareness and understanding of New Zealand education among Chinese students and parents.
Alexandra Grace, Education Counsellor of the New Zealand Embassy Beijing said, “Through the New Zealand’s official Weibo and WeChat, we hope to engage more stakeholders in China about New Zealand’s quality education, encourage exchanges and interactions, promote and enhance cooperation in early, secondary, higher education, and vocational education between the two countries.”
If you are on WeChat, follow Education New Zealand and let us know how this new marketing tool is helping to grow awareness for your business.
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Engaging agents
Workshops of this nature are a highly efficient mechanism for New Zealand schools and tertiary institutions to establish new, and strengthen existing, relationships with agents in a relatively cost effective way. The energy and buzz in the room clearly demonstrated the enthusiasm agents and New Zealand providers had for the opportunity to meet and engage with one another.
Institution representatives commented how encouraging it was to see that so many of the agents at ANZA – approximately a quarter – were first time attendees. From an ENZ business development perspective it was great to see New Zealand regions take the opportunity to promote themselves at the workshop, with many regions arranging agent familiarisation visits following the workshop.
The ENZ booth was well patronised, with agents who were new to New Zealand keen to know about how to work more closely with our education providers, and others with more experience in New Zealand commenting that awareness of New Zealand as a quality education destination is increasing. Others enquired about how to access the wonders of the Brand Lab and had queries about the agent training programme.
ICEF reported that a total of 86 education institutions from Australia and New Zealand, 12 work and travel organisations, 35 service providers and 147 ICEF-screened agents from 37 countries, gathered for the three days, participating in over 3,400 pre-scheduled meetings.
The 2016 ANZA Workshop will be held April 13 – 15 in Melbourne, Australia at the Pullman Melbourne Albert Park.
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Learning on the land – Semillero Rural students arrive
Semillero Rural, the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture's scholarship scheme for vocational students from the regions of Chile, enables students from agricultural schools to learn new skills, develop their English language capabilities and apply their new knowledge by working on a New Zealand dairy farm or in fruit production.
Students then return to apply their new skills at home.
This year 18 students are enrolled in programmes at the National Trade Academy (NTA) and 14 students are studying at Otago Polytechnic in Cromwell.
“The 18 students enrolled with NTA are participating in an English plus Agriculture Programme,” says Craig. “The programme consists of six weeks of learning English, including agriculture terminology, and developing knowledge of health and safety, milk production, fencing, animal husbandry, pasture management and more.
“The students enjoy visiting local farms, learning to ride motorbikes and quad bikes, and learning new fencing skills. The biggest difference between farms in Chile and here in Canterbury is the scale of farming. In spite of New Zealand being a much smaller country, our farms are much bigger in terms of land area, the number of cows milked and the use of technology to improve production.”
During trips to recruit students and build the programme, Craig’s learnt to build relationships first and to be flexible.
“You can’t just take a programme over to Chile and say this is it. We need to be flexible and ask what would work for them,” he advises.
“The other point is to be patient. Nothing happens overnight as there is a process that has to occur. However, once you get final approval it will happen quickly so, as a business, you have to be ready to act. Feedback is also important and you will need to visit the market more than once to build relationships and trust.”
“In my view it is better to look for partner organisations, such as institutions with similar courses, who can promote NZ study opportunities to their graduates, who can then follow up with agents as to enrolments. Chilean parents are fully involved with the whole process and they like to be able to know who they are dealing with,” he adds.
In 2008, NTA contracted a person in Chile to act as their representative, a move that has expanded their network of contacts and proved highly successful.
“The support of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the early years was critical, as is the more recent support of ENZ as they understand the market and can assist with introductions that we likely couldn’t make ourselves.”
The ‘Semillero Rural’ scholarship was the pilot for the Primary Sector Training Visa recently approved in New Zealand for Chile.
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A media education
In late May I had the great pleasure of taking five journalists from South East Asia on a tour of New Zealand. The journalists – two from Thailand, two from Viet Nam and one from the Philippines – all have a special interest in education, and were part of a bigger group who were hosted by NZ Inc as part of a range of events to mark the 40th anniversary of the relationship between New Zealand and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
While the other journalists went on a trade and tourism circuit, our group travelled on their own education-focused itinerary. Apart from meeting up with the others at a cocktail event held by the Prime Minister at Auckland Museum, we did our own thing.
Above: The journalists were engaged right from the get go!
Most regrettably, a blizzard interfered with our plans to visit Dunedin and Queenstown, but the hastily-arranged alternative schedule of Canterbury-based events made up, in some measure, for the missed opportunities further south.
Once we got the basics – such as dressing appropriately for the cold – sorted, we were on a roll and the week raced by in the intense, humour-filled, lost-in-translation way they do with such visits, and with a good measure of sheep shearing, eye-dog marvelling, pie eating and hobbit-home wonderment thrown in.
Above: They saw cakes being iced in Canterbury…and a robotic guitar in Wellington.
From schools to English language centres, ITPs to universities the journalists were impressed by the range and quality of the programmes and facilities, intrigued by the Intermediate School concept, very interested in our homestay set ups and excited by the many opportunities to hear directly from students currently in New Zealand.
Above: They met with a group of Thai health professionals undergoing executive development in Waikato...and rubbed shoulders with the Prime Minister in Auckland.
For my part, it was a hugely informative trip – providing me with valuable insights into the three South East Asian countries via the journalists, as well as me to make connections with members of our industry and to become more familiar with what you have to offer. Many thanks to those who took part, and arranged tours and gathered students to talk to the journalists.
As I bid farewell to them all at Auckland airport, Nirunsak, one of the Thai journalists who had been a bit of lone wolf during the week, but who I discovered was a music-loving, short story-writing romantic, said: “I will carry New Zealand in my heart with a song.’ Magic.
And yes, we went to Hobbiton!
The follow up questions are coming through now and we look forward to the stories in their media that the visit will generate.
