ISEA is pleased to be collaborating with industry partner ISANA by working together to address Education Agent needs. ISANA are holding a professional development day in Auckland on the 5th November and we have been encouraging our ISEA Accredited Agencies to sign up for this important event. We look forward to collaborating further with ISANA.

The workshop, focusing on international student learning, mental health and integration, is mainly designed for international education agents and international department staff.

The workshop will provide insights into the international student experience in New Zealand, and in particular, the workshop is designed to equip agents with strategies for advising international student which are informed by relevant coalface experience.

The Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, announced on 24th September that the decile system for New Zealand schools would be replaced by a new Equity Index system in 2021 or 2022, to ensure a more even distribution of education resourcing.

The current school decile system has been used as a measure of the percentage of a school’s students who are from low socio-economic communities, by which the government will decide the amount of funding it will assign to public (state and state-integrated) schools. However, it turns out that the decile system deters the adequate education resourcing from being distributed to low decile schools, and it becomes a stigma for many low-decile schools as they are judged by decile rating rather than the achievement of their students.

ISEA accredited education agents point out that the majority of their international students prefer to study at decile 9 or 10 schools. Therefore, replacing the decile system would be an opportunity for those schools which have low decile ratings but high education performance to attract more international students.

Read more in the EducationHQ New Zealand report.

First Christchurch Providers Briefing completed with some very positive feedback from the 15 provider representatives who attended including from regional body Christchurch Educated on 20th September. ISEA are grateful for the growing support across all education sectors as we spread the message around New Zealand and abroad. The next stop Wellington Provider Briefing will be on the 18th October.

A  big thank you to Craig at NTA Christchurch for hosting the briefing event.

ISEA was invited to attend Sympled – Symposium on Leading Education Recruitment in Melbourne by ISEAA Australia. We had great strategic meetings with Robert Parsonson – CEO of ISEAA Australia, Joe Hernandez – Asia Pacific Regional Manager for PTE Academic, Rod Hearps – Vice President of ICEF and Toshi Kawaguchi from Study NSW.

ISEA successfully launched in Indonesia market! 23 education agency representatives joined our launch briefing on 13th September. ISEA will go back to Indonesia in November for the first round of training.

The first ISEA Education Agency Training and Accreditation interviews in the Philippines were completed successfully on 11th September with 23 Agents from 9 companies! We appreciate everyone who travelled near and far (some coming from Australia and others driving through the night to attend) and all the great feedback.

ISEA will continue to develop and provide better service for the New Zealand international education industry!

ISEA is planning to come back to the Philippines in November to deliver the second round of agent training.

If you would like to become an ISEA accredited agency, please refer to our Accreditation Programme for details.

ISEA successfully organised the providers briefing in Auckland at AUT on 23rd August, last Friday. There were 20 representatives from education providers who joined us for the event. We were very pleased to have Jaime from AUT to address a speech regarding why AUT would like to support the initiatives from an education provider’s point of view. ISEA has received very positive feedback and extensive support from many providers since we launched. We will be holding the providers briefings in Christchurch and Wellington in September and October respectively.

Any education providers who would like to support ISEA please feel free to contact us at [email protected].

ISEA was very pleased to hold the second round of agent training in Auckland on 13th and 14th August. There were five agencies with eight counsellors who joined us this time. The third round of domestic agent training is scheduled for 16th and 17th October.

ISANA NZ has agreed to offer the ISEA accredited agents the same discounted prices as their members to participate in the Professional Development Workshop Auckland scheduled for 5th November.

Register now at the Eventbrite website

https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/isana-nz-professional-development-workshop-auckland-tickets-66848426443?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

To get the Earlybird price, please sign up by 13th September.

ISEA was successfully launched in the Philippines. We received considerably positive feedback from the local agents and they were very keen to join ISEA to work together to promote New Zealand as a study destination.