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PIF Recipient: Chasing Time English
Across the world, there is a vast market for English language learning. To put a number on it – around one billion learners. In many countries, though, English is taught through repetitive, mostly grammar-based content. The result is two-fold: students become disengaged and disinterested, and they advance in writing and reading skills at the expense of speaking skills.
Chasing Time English is a New Zealand company on a mission to make English language learning engaging, exciting, and effective for educators and students around the world. How? Through video. The team at Chasing Time English believe that English language classes should excite and inspire students to learn more, and decided video was the best medium to achieve this.
Chasing Time English uses engaging video story content to educate learners.
Through original, live-action-drama videos, Chasing Time English brings intrigue, humour, surprise and suspense into learning. Redrawing the line between education and entertainment, the short videos produced by Chasing Time English are designed to stand alone as quality entertainment, with strong learning outcomes embedded throughout.
To achieve this feat, the company brings together a team of English language educators, applied linguists and filmmaking professionals, who collaborate to create compelling, narrative-based drama content backed up by a cutting-edge pedagogy.
While other education publishers also produce English language learning video content, this is often lower quality video with limited learner appeal and retention. By creating professional quality drama content, Chasing Time English has become a market leader in English language video learning. Captivate learners, and the learning will follow.
Chasing Time English is one of the successful recipients of funding from the International Education Product Innovation Fund, a New Zealand Government-funded initiative to support pilot projects that reimagine and rethink what a New Zealand education experience can look like and mean for global learners. Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao (ENZ) is the government agency responsible for international education and is managing the Product Innovation Fund.
ENZ will work in a partnership approach with each successful recipient, sharing skills, expertise and resources to help each pilot succeed and develop into a self-sustaining education offering. The lessons learned through the pilot projects will be shared for the benefit of New Zealand’s entire international education sector, with a view to encouraging innovative, new offerings for international learners to experience a New Zealand education.
The Product Innovation Fund award will enable Chasing Time English to design, develop and deliver a new set of programmes for high beginner to elementary English language learners and educators. Target audiences include New Zealand education institutions with offshore partners, high schools in Japan and the Netherlands, and English language teachers at the post-beginner level.
Across two programmes of 10 weeks each, learners will be able to access up to 100 hours of engaging resources, including Chasing Time English’s distinctive video content, along with other audio and video resources and communication-based activities. The new set of programmes will incorporate a strong New Zealand theme, sharing New Zealand storytelling and themes of environmental sustainability and innovation. The original video content will also showcase New Zealand’s spectacular natural scenery, helping inspire learners and build a connection with New Zealand, wherever they are in the world.
With the support of ENZ through the Product Innovation Fund, Chasing Time English is set to continue growing its impressive offering for English language learners around the world. Already setting the bar for the quality of its learning resources and pedagogy, this Kiwi education provider is showing that online learning can be fun and effective, while also showcasing New Zealand’s landscapes, people and values to learners wherever they are.
More information:
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PIF Recipient: Connect2NZ
Connect2NZ aims to show that tertiary education providers can work with government agencies to build a framework for international learners that is innovative, future focused, and learner-centric.
Connect2NZ’s target audience is professionals, living outside New Zealand, who are seeking skills development in emerging sectors. Work has been undertaken to determine learner needs and match those with areas where New Zealand is strong. The project will design and deliver micro-learning and short courses which have pathways, allowing these learners to study from a group of courses to achieve their desired career outcomes. Potential topics include technology, leadership, health and wellness, food and agritech, energy, tourism, design and natural hazards. Our goal is to eventually extend our offerings to degree qualifications.
"What excites me the most about the Connect2NZ project is the exploration of potential new offshore/online markets. In particular, the global lifelong learner market which is huge and to date not well served by some of the fantastic educational offerings available from the New Zealand Higher Education sector, "
Professor Mick Grimley, Dean of Future Learning and Development, University of Canterbury
Some of these courses will be delivered by one provider partner, while others will be jointly designed and delivered. The number of tertiary education providers is expected to grow following consultation with government agencies and community outreach.
The pilot project is supported by Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao (ENZ). Through its International Education Product Innovation Fund, ENZ is supporting a range of pilot projects that reimagine how a New Zealand education can engage and inspire international learners and create impact through new delivery modes, approaches and partnerships.
"Connect2NZ breaks the mold by uniting our organizational strengths in solving a challenging problem. When we prove success, the value add is a model other institutions can follow".
Dr David Dannenberg, Director of Learning, Teaching and Library, Lincoln University.
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Statement from Linda Sissons, Acting Chief Executive
We are deeply saddened by the tragic passing of international students in a road accident near Lake Tekapo on Saturday.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims, the campus communities at the University of Canterbury and Victoria University of Wellington and the wider Malaysian student community in New Zealand.
We hope those injured in the crash make a full recovery.
We are grateful for the community of support that has emerged around the accident in New Zealand and Malaysia to aid the victims and their families during an extremely distressing and challenging time – heartfelt thanks to our emergency response teams, the Malaysian community in Ōtautahi Christchurch, universities, and locals who responded to the scene.
Linda Sissons
Acting Chief Executive, Education New Zealand
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ENZ responds to international education commentary on NBR
ENZ Acting Chief Executive Dr Linda Sissons rebuts an economics commentary published on National Business Review (NBR) on Monday 25 March 2024. The rebuttal is published here on NBR and is reproduced below.
In response to your piece “International education: wrong horse to back for export growth?” my answer to the question is a hard “no”. Here’s why. Students are returning to New Zealand. In the first eight months of 2023 international student enrolments topped 59,000 with all sectors experiencing growth except wānanga. Accepting that it is from a low base, comparing 2023 to 2022, Universities have bounced back strongly reporting a 15% increase from 24,040 to 27,535.
It is true that we have not yet returned to 2019 numbers. In my opinion, this is not a bad thing. During the pandemic years the sector lost people and capability. The recent moves of some of our competitors tell you what a sudden return to those numbers of students brings.
I want to address your correspondent’s concerns about the lack of a plan and competition within amongst universities. There is a plan. The New Zealand International Education Strategy, revised in 2022 in discussion with the sector and across Government, sets out the plan to develop a high-value, resilient and innovative education sector for both international and domestic students.
I can also assure you that the sector is working together to achieve its goals, that all eight universities participated in a recent ENZ-led delegation to India, is just one example of the co-operation.
International education is more than universities. In the first eight months of 2023 English Language Schools saw the greatest percentage increase in international enrolments, increasing by 347% from 1,565 to 7,001. Schools reported a 114% increase from 5,925 to 12,662. NZIST Te Pūkenga, a 32% increase from 4,955 to 6,560 and Private Training Establishments (funded and unfunded), a 13% increase from 5,000 to 5,671.
Immigration New Zealand tell us that international student visa applications for all forms of study have increased by about 20 per cent in the peak application period. Between 1 October 2023 and 8 March 2024, they received over 31,800 applications for an international student visa.
Today we have a base of international students in the country and the pipeline for the coming academic year has strong growth.
Our own research shows that the experience international students have while studying in New Zealand is a good one. In our Student Experience survey of 4,755 international students from more than 70 nationalities, 84 percent rated their overall experience positively, while another 83 percent said they would recommend New Zealand as a study destination.
When these students return to their home, and 75% of international students return home after three years, they will be our word-of-mouth advocates – an advocacy we didn’t have during the COVID years.
New Zealanders also appreciate the benefits of international students. In an ENZ survey of 1,100 New Zealanders conducted in December last year, 75 percent of respondents believe that international students benefit New Zealand. The Ipsos Fast Facts survey, which drew responses from all regions of the country, saw 80 percent of respondents highlighting economic benefits, particularly in local communities, as a key reason for their positive view.
The results of the 2023 survey highlighted the continuing growth in support for international students and their positive impact on New Zealand since 2016 when only 57 percent believed international students helped the New Zealand economy and economic growth.
We have students in New Zealand; a strong pipeline; students having a positive experience and advocating for New Zealand; and New Zealanders appreciating the benefits having of them in our communities.
International education is highly competitive. Your correspondent rightly recognises that there are new competitors emerging and Singapore is a good example. We’ve also seen countries like South Korea, a core market for New Zealand, become competitors.
This is not new. We have, and will always have, to compete to attract international students to New Zealand – that they are returning tells me our reputation is good and we remain an attractive option.
Globally the number of international students has grown significantly over the past two decades from around two million in 1998 to over 6.4 million in 2020, according to UNESCO data. New Zealand only needs a very small proportion of what is effectively a supply-driven market to return to pre-pandemic levels of economic contribution and value.
While I am confident that international education is not the “wrong horse”, achieving double the export earnings is going to require a lot of hard work and there is much to do. My point is, that in less than two years since the borders reopened in August 2022, the recovery has well and truly commenced, the progress made to date is significant, and as a sector we can be rightly proud of what we have achieved together.
Linda Sissons
Acting Chief Executive, Education New Zealand
