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  • ENZ Agent Seminars in China make a strong impact for rebuilding connections

    China is the largest source of international students for New Zealand with agents being the leading channel for student recruitment in this market. Building strong connections between providers and agents in China is critical to recovering student mobility, improving awareness of New Zealand as a study destination and strengthening New Zealand's market position. ENZ's Agent Seminars in China are a well-recognised and impactful way of building relationships with a range of key agents.  

    Education Counsellor and ENZ’s Regional Director Greater China, Michael Zhang, (far left) at the Beijing Agent Seminar with representatives from New Oriental Education Agency and H.E. Grahame Morton, New Zealand Ambassador to People’s Republic of China.

    In addition, Agent Seminars also help to keep agents informed with the latest official information and is an important tool that Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao (ENZ) and other NZ Inc agencies use to share such information. According to recent Immigration New Zealand (INZ) data, agents in China have a high approval rate for student visa processing.   

    Currently, ENZ runs its Agent Seminar series twice a year in this region and this latest series of events held in Chengdu, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing were supported by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and INZ. INZ’s China-based representatives gave in-person presentations, an initiative which was well received with 88% of agents reporting its inclusion as “very or extremely important to their attendance” in a post-event survey. 

    Participants at the Hong Kong Agent Seminar discuss New Zealand education offerings.

     

    Kevin Wang from the International College of Auckland presenting at the Shanghai Agent Seminar.

     

    To leverage the visibility of New Zealand education providers in the China market, ENZ facilitated media interviews and social media recordings for participants at the Shanghai and Chendgu Seminars. New Zealand providers and ENZ representatives in Chengdu conducted interviews with 13 journalists, the highest response rate for media attending Agent Seminars to date. As a result, three million views were achieved from 58 stories published by 27 local media outlets, with New Zealand university representatives quoted in a media story and an exclusive interview and story for Te Pūkenga on the uniqueness of New Zealand's vocational education in a separate article.    

    Joyce Zhang, University of Otago, is interviewed by a journalist from local media in Chengdu at the ENZ Agent Seminar.

    In Shanghai, the ENZ Shanghai team delivered a China marketing insights session for sector representatives. The presentation titled “Unlocking China’s Education Market: Insights and tools for success” covered:  

    • The key drivers of the consumer 

    • China’s media/digital/social media landscape​ 

    • The big four – WeChat, Little Red Book, Douyin and Bilibili (case studies included) 

    • ENZ’s China local marketing plan​. 

    Anyone interested in receiving a copy of the Marketing Presentation can access this here on ENZ’s Intellilab. 

    ENZ collaborated with Shinyway, the largest agent in the eastern region of China to produce short videos for the agency to promote online. The online promotion aimed to leverage brand awareness of a New Zealand education showcasing New Zealand providers attending the Shanghai event.  A big kudos goes to the 18 brave New Zealand representatives who accepted the invitation to participate in the filming. Education Counsellor and Regional Director Greater China, Michael Zhang, was also interviewed to present the advantages of a New Zealand education and our institutions across all sectors. 

    Shinyway has published all the videos on their consumer-facing social media platforms, including WeChat, Little Red Book, and Weibo. The collaboration enhances New Zealand providers’ market exposure by leveraging Shinyway's influence across their digital platforms and reaching prospective audiences in China elevating our brand profile within a highly targeted audience group.  

    Mary Nixon, Principal of Takapuna Grammar School participating in the recording for sharing on social media. The first trial video published on Shinyway's WeChat received over 300 engagements including likes, shares, favorites and comments.

    87.5% of New Zealand education providers also said that “attendance at the seminars was either “very valuable” or “valuable” for their organisation.” 

    The dates and locations for the next round of Agent Seminars in China will be announced soon. These details will be posted on the ENZ Events page along with the link for registering. 

     

  • Growing offshore interest in NZ through onshore ‘Famils’

    ‘Famil’, short for ‘Familiarisation’, are visits organised to literally familiarise invited groups of people with a product, or in our case, New Zealand as an international education destination. The intended purpose is that those who attend famils will become valuable advocates for a New Zealand education and therefore drive preference for New Zealand in market.  

    During Covid-19 these visits were stopped due to border closures. Now that borders have been fully open for some time and our international education sector is recovering, this summer provided the perfect opportunity to show off New Zealand, including our regions and unique culture, and the wide range of educational and experiential offerings to representatives from various international markets.  

    The summer of showcasing New Zealand started in November with two media famil groups from India and Viet Nam. This was followed by three groups of education agents from Brazil, Germany and South Korea visiting in March and most recently, a famil co-hosted by ENZ and Air NZ bringing Japanese school teachers to regions in the North Island. ENZ subsidises these programmes with other costs covered by participants, regional economic development agencies, and education providers.  

    Korean delegation at University of Otago

    The University of Otago provided a campus tour with a Korean student and didn't miss the opportunity for a classic picture with its famous Clock Tower.

    ENZ’s General Manager International, Lisa Futschek said that careful planning goes into facilitating these visits to ensure the famil groups are exposed to a range of subsectors that are relevant to the visiting country while also leveraging the visits to benefit as many providers as possible.    

    “While we’d love to showcase every New Zealand provider, this is obviously not possible. Much consideration is given to the source market and to the subsectors that we know are popular with that country.  

    “This ensures we are targeted in our approach and our visitors go back to their countries equipped with the most relevant information that helps build that pipeline of future students," said Lisa.  

    The Brazilian agents attended a networking event hosted by AIS for Auckland-based English Language providers.

    “We also look for opportunities in which we can make introductions to several providers in one go. For example, a networking function was held at Auckland Institute of Studies (AIS) with Auckland-based English Language Schools invited to meet the agents from Brazil, cultivating many new connections while strengthening existing ones,” added Lisa.  

    As well as showcasing the various subsectors, promoting the destination is also hugely important and famil itineraries also include time spent seeing what the regions have to offer international students. This is often organised with the help of the regional economic development agencies.  

    A perfect example of cross sector collaboration was seen in Ōtautahi Christchurch where Christchurch Educated, an international education organisation based in the region, hosted a networking dinner with the regional economic development agency, ChristchurchNZ. They hosted the Brazilian and German agent famil groups and education providers from various sectors in the Canterbury region.   

     

    The German agents are pictured here at the Christchurch Educated networking event with a group of Christchurch based education providers (mainly high schools). The event was hosted at Ara’s Visions on campus restaurant with the Brazilian agents in attendance too.

     

    Stefi Porter, International Education Partnership Manager for Christchurch Educated said that bringing everyone together to mutually share the benefits of studying in Ōtautahi Christchurch was a wonderful thing.  

    “There is certainly strength in numbers and a perfect example of where collaboration between providers and regional economic development agencies can really deliver greater bang.  

    “Instead of competing against one another, we are sharing resources, time and energy to show the best of our region and the breadth of study options we can offer international students.” 

    A key outcome of the various famil groups visiting New Zealand is that they become advocates for New Zealand as a place to study, ensuring a steady pipeline of students for years to come. In the post-famil survey, all attendees reported they were either much more likely (87.5%) or somewhat more likely (12.5%) to recommend New Zealand as a place to study for prospective students.  

    Other positive outcomes, include the positive media articles and social media posts produced by visiting journalists and individuals to their networks in their home countries. This positive coverage not only showcases the quality of New Zealand's education system but also shares the New Zealand education experience with prospective students in their home countries through stories featuring students and alumni.   

    The India media famil has achieved five in-depth stories to date in Education Times, India's largest newspaper supplement (circulation 500,000). The stories showcase the research prowess at New Zealand universities, including in biotechnology, managing climate change related disruptions, and feature the New Zealand education experiences of a range of students from India. 

    In Viet Nam 10 articles and four social media posts have been published so far, reaching an audience of 557,000, with more coverage expected in the coming months. Of note is HHT, the top teen magazine in Viet Nam has created a column “letters to New Zealand”, which shares weekly articles about New Zealand written about alumni.   

    An example of some of the coverage these visits receive. Featured is a compilation of posts that Brazilian agent, Juliana Viana Silveira, owner of CI Intercambio in Juiz de Fora, made on Instagram to her followers during March while in New Zealand. The role of agents in Brazil in international student recruitment is becoming increasingly more important as reported by StudyTravelNetwork here -https://studytravel.network/magazine/news/0/30492

    ENZ would like to extend a huge thanks to the education providers and regional representatives for hosting our international visitors and leaving them with a strong sense of New Zealand’s education offerings. The way in which ENZ is able to work collectively with providers and the regional economic development agencies to collaboratively plan the famil is ideal to ensure a good mix of experiences and a balance of activities.  This approach helps regions feature strongly in any future famil plans and also helps develop the regional international education ecosystem.  

    We look forward to hearing about more connections with education representatives at the ICEF ANZA conference in Christchurch. 

    Check out our image gallery of the famils which shares further details of each of the groups including who attended, where they went and who they met with.

    Japanese teachers playing a Māori stick gamge

    The Japanese All Girls School Teachers participated in a kapa haka class at New Plymouth Girls High School in New Plymouth. Here they are pictured playing the Tītī tōrea Māori Stick game, a traditional New Zealand game which has been played for generations.

     

      

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