By Ayen Infante
10/07/2008 [ tribune.net.ph]
The Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco) called yesterday on local learning institutions to promote English as a second language (ESL) to Taiwanese nationals seeking to improve their English skills and at the same time immerse themselves in Filipino culture and tourism activities.
In relation to this, Meco board director and chief finance officer Ma. Isabel Golamco said two major ESL institutions are expanding their Cebu facilities to meet an anticipated higher influx of foreign students.
According to Golamco, the country’s representative office in Taiwan has been doing promotional tie-ups with several ESL institutions in Cebu that are offering room, board and ESL instruction packages to foreign students like South Koreans, Japanese, Russian and Taiwanese nationals. Meco is also encouraging Taiwanese travel agencies to offer bookings in the ESL learning programs in conjunction with sight-seeing, diving, golf and other fun pursuits to boost tourism activity in Cebu.
Golamco recently accompanied Taiwanese journalists who took a tour of two ESL institutions in Cebu to drum up publicity to reach more prospective customers in Taiwan. These are the Cleverlearn English Language Institute (CELI) established by US multimedia giant the Bigfoot Group and the Cebu Pacific International Language School (CPILS) that was put up by Korean investors in 2001. Golamco said Meco aims to boost awareness in Taiwan of the ESL classes offered in the country which are comparable to the best in other parts of the world. At both schools, a four-week course costs just half of the tuition charged in North American language centers.
John Lawrence Mercado, CEO of CELI, said they welcomed Meco’s support to boost arrivals from Taiwanese students, although his school’s 6,000 sq.m. facility, in the Fidel V. Ramos Building at the heart of Metro Cebu’s prime business district, is already operating at full capacity. To meet the pickup in demand for CELI’s ESL courses and other education services, Bigfoot may acquire another 6,000 sq. m. property in the business district and infuse more funds on top of the $60 million it had already invested to put up its current state-of-the-art multimedia learning center. Mercado said the Cleverlearn system of ESL instruction, which is the basis of CELI’s instructional system worldwide, represents a $25-million investment for the Bigfoot group. The group has invested $7 million in CELI’s ESL operations alone.
Aside from offering ESL to individual students, CELI offers specially-tailored English corporate communication courses to employees of multinational companies from Japan and other countries. It also offers English instruction for call center workers and other specialized fields such as medical technicians and nurses. Bigfoot has its own 300-seat call center operating in another building in Metro Cebu.
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10/07/2008 [ tribune.net.ph]
The Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco) called yesterday on local learning institutions to promote English as a second language (ESL) to Taiwanese nationals seeking to improve their English skills and at the same time immerse themselves in Filipino culture and tourism activities.
In relation to this, Meco board director and chief finance officer Ma. Isabel Golamco said two major ESL institutions are expanding their Cebu facilities to meet an anticipated higher influx of foreign students.
According to Golamco, the country’s representative office in Taiwan has been doing promotional tie-ups with several ESL institutions in Cebu that are offering room, board and ESL instruction packages to foreign students like South Koreans, Japanese, Russian and Taiwanese nationals. Meco is also encouraging Taiwanese travel agencies to offer bookings in the ESL learning programs in conjunction with sight-seeing, diving, golf and other fun pursuits to boost tourism activity in Cebu.
Golamco recently accompanied Taiwanese journalists who took a tour of two ESL institutions in Cebu to drum up publicity to reach more prospective customers in Taiwan. These are the Cleverlearn English Language Institute (CELI) established by US multimedia giant the Bigfoot Group and the Cebu Pacific International Language School (CPILS) that was put up by Korean investors in 2001. Golamco said Meco aims to boost awareness in Taiwan of the ESL classes offered in the country which are comparable to the best in other parts of the world. At both schools, a four-week course costs just half of the tuition charged in North American language centers.
John Lawrence Mercado, CEO of CELI, said they welcomed Meco’s support to boost arrivals from Taiwanese students, although his school’s 6,000 sq.m. facility, in the Fidel V. Ramos Building at the heart of Metro Cebu’s prime business district, is already operating at full capacity. To meet the pickup in demand for CELI’s ESL courses and other education services, Bigfoot may acquire another 6,000 sq. m. property in the business district and infuse more funds on top of the $60 million it had already invested to put up its current state-of-the-art multimedia learning center. Mercado said the Cleverlearn system of ESL instruction, which is the basis of CELI’s instructional system worldwide, represents a $25-million investment for the Bigfoot group. The group has invested $7 million in CELI’s ESL operations alone.
Aside from offering ESL to individual students, CELI offers specially-tailored English corporate communication courses to employees of multinational companies from Japan and other countries. It also offers English instruction for call center workers and other specialized fields such as medical technicians and nurses. Bigfoot has its own 300-seat call center operating in another building in Metro Cebu.
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