对话英媒：启德将成为有着独特定位和产品的行业大玩家

近日，启德教育集团留学事业部副总经理郭蓓女士在美国迈阿密参加AIRC年会时，接受了来自英国媒体THE PIE记者Natalie Marsh的专访。

郭蓓   启德教育集团留学事业部副总经理

启德教育集团是中国最顶尖的教育咨询机构之一，每年帮助超过4万名学生实现出国留学的梦想。副总经理郭蓓正与管理团队一起，带领公司进化成一家国际教育机构，在传统咨询的基础上提供增值服务。她向The PIE介绍了启德是如何满足越来越成熟、内行的客户，以及她对于留学咨询行业的期待。

The PIE：您可以先介绍一下启德的背景吗？

BG（郭蓓）：启德20多年前就在中国成立了，是最早一批为中国学生提供出国留学咨询的机构。之后启德将业务扩展到了考试培训和学习工具，现在我们的启德学府子品牌，提供AE学术英语培训。在过去的几年里，我们一直致力于通过自我升级来适应市场的变化。中国的教育体系将需要相当长的时间完成改革，与此同时，家长们也依旧关注国际教育机会。现在的趋势是留学低龄化，大学生留学的主力军地位在逐渐让位。在转型升级的过程中，我们不再把自己称作“中介”了，因为通常意义下，“中介”意味着你只是一架桥梁、一个信息提供者。而我们现在的自我定位是教育提供者。这意味着我们要为学生提供更系统化的、更富价值的内容和服务。

The PIE：低龄学生对咨询的诉求有什么趋势？

BG：过去学生都是到了最后一年（比如高三、大四）的时候来找我们。提前一年开始行动的就被称为“早起鸟”了。但今时今日，“早起鸟”们可能提前三年就开始着手准备留学了。比如，一个7年级孩子的妈妈会来找我们为孩子申请本科提供服务——不是申请高中，而是申请本科。他们真地在思考这个问题，而且他们了解，要出色地完成申请需要花上几年的时间。他们明白这个过程不简单，今时今日，仅仅提前一年开始准备已经太迟了，必须要更提前。

The PIE：在您看来，家长们为什么要早早地把孩子送出国？

BG：我认为，这恰恰是为了孩子实现更好的人生发展，基于机遇同样的目标，我们也在提供一系列的短期“增值”课程，比如人生规划、公共演讲、辩论，以及批判性思考和批判性写作。通常，项目制学习对于低龄学生更加高效，所以我们提供了各种各样的竞赛——比如国际太空城市设大竞赛。我们集团还提供考试培训。考试培训有别于语言学习，这也是我们要专门成立一个部门，开设学术英语课程的原因，这一系列的学术英语课程，可以帮助学生更好地适应国外大学英语授课环境和教学方式。

The PIE：对于中国学生来说，有没有新兴的留学目的国？

BG：中国学生对所有的发达国家都很感兴趣。近年，泰国和俄罗斯开始流行起来，尤其受到一些省份的欢迎。英国、美国和澳大利亚是花费最高的留学国，排在这三个国家之后的是加拿大、香港、日本、韩国，然后是一些欧洲国家。

The PIE：中国近年进来了一大批国际学校，您觉得发展趋势如何？

BG：其实未必是国外学校直接进入中国开设国际学校，而是中国本地学校在大量开设国际班。如果一个中国机构为了迎合市场需求，想建立国际学校作为独立产业，该机构最好能找到一个国际合作伙伴，最好是英美顶尖的、或非常有名气的高中。目前，高中国际部的发展还不够成熟。他们通常从9~10年级开始。所以，大约2~3年后，你就能看到这些学生毕业，看得出这些学校是不是真得有益于学生、并且能吸引到新生，对吧？我认为，目前，他们是为了抓住这个市场需求，因为太多的中国家长愿意出钱送孩子去国际学校或者国际部，这种需要创造出了这个市场现象。至于是不是所有的学校都能把口碑和品质做出来，笑到最后，我们拭目以待。

The PIE：就业能力是国际教育领域的热门话题了。你们如何帮助中国学生在专注学业的同时兼顾职业技能的发展呢？

BG：大约在5~10年前，家长们更看中录取率，但现在，由于竞争白热化，孩子们蜂拥留学，导致就业成为了家长们最关心的问题。现在，人们不会再赞叹“你毕业于UCLA啊，太牛了。”现在拿着UCLA毕业证的人太多了，这些人又在一窝蜂地回国。所以，学术背景不再是就业的决定性因素，如果你的目标是毕业后就能找到一份全职工作，那么本科期间的实习和申请、毕业一样重要。

然而并非所有的学生和机构都明白，因为在这一块市场有很多趋势，很多发力点。我觉得倒不用要求所有的机构都聚焦职业发展的培训，但我们是这么做的。我觉得很多大学的职业发展办公室还是传统的运作方式，现在它们运作地很顺畅；但如果他们的方式还是停留在带公司进校园的老套路，那么势必会在未来面临挑战。因为这已经不能满足学生的需求了。而且大学的就业办公室规模都很小，他们很难关注到每个学生。但我们能够做到很有针对性，因为我们在一对一培训和定制化培训上经验丰富。我相信这种培训服务是我们在未来重要的战略优势——从留学到就业的一站式服务。

The PIE：那么，你怎么看中介市场在中国未来几年的发展？

BG：这也是我们一直在自问的问题。我认为，教育产业本质上是服务业。作为一家教育企业，我们必须明白客户的需求，什么才是他们真正需要的？我们还要谨记不要盲目赶时髦，比如，在线教育。技术是为了辅助提升学生们的学习体验，但我们是不是就要因此完全转型？我想这需要时间给答案。我相信，在未来，真正成功的企业都是拥有大数据的企业。大数据能显示过去学生们的成功案例和成功模式，也能显示市场趋势。但孩子们大多数的时候还是希望和老师面对面的。我们的学生中有40%在网上接受考前培训，但这种网课是老师在我们的在线视频教室现场直播。所以这也是一种通过在线平台实现的面对面，比线下的方式更灵活。

在中国，我们还没有见证过留学机构的行业整合。你能看到很多大玩家、小玩家，但这个市场迄今没有寡头出现。但在其他竞争激烈的行业，我们都能看到有一天，只剩下几个玩家了。我认为这最终也会是中介产业的格局。而我们正在为之努力的，就是在那一天来临时，成为其中一个有着自己独特定位和产品的大玩家。

以下为原文链接https://thepienews.com/pie-chat/bei-guo-eic-china/

Bei Guo, EIC, China

EIC is one of China’s top education consultancies sending over 40,000 students overseas each year. Deputy General Manager, Bei Guo, is leading the company’s evolution into an international education provider that offers value-added services beyond traditional counselling. She tells The PIE how EIC is catering to an increasingly savvy customer base, and how she expects more consolidation in the agency industry.

The PIE: Can you tell me about the background of EIC? 

BG: EIC was founded more than 20 years ago in China – I think it is one of the earliest pioneers in terms of starting to provide Chinese students with study abroad advice. Later on, we migrated into test preparation and study tools and nowadays, we have an academy which is an academic English provider. So in the past few years, we have been trying to adapt ourselves to changes in the market.The Chinese education system is going to take a longer time to reform itself; parents are still looking into international education opportunities for their kids and the trend is now not only for college students but also for younger kids.

We don’t call ourselves agents anymore because usually ‘agent’ means you are just a bridge and an information provider. Now we see ourselves as not just an agent but also an educational provider. This means we have to provide more systematic and value creation and content and services to our students.

The PIE: How has the trend of counselling to younger students evolved?

BG: In the past, our students came to us when they were approaching their senior year. We called them ‘early birds’ coming in one year in advance, but nowadays the early birds could be three years in advance. A seventh grader’s mum will come to us to ask for an application service for the kids for college – not for boarding school, but for college.

They are really thinking about it, they know it is going to take a few years to kick off the application process but they are savvy. They understand it is not that easy, actually one year in advance nowadays is way too late and you really have to be prepared way more in advance.

The PIE: Why do you think parents want to send their students overseas at younger ages?

BG: I think the goal is actually more for the enhancement of the student as a human being, which is why we are trying to provide short-term ‘value-add’ programmes like life coaching and public speaking, debate and also critical thinking and writing.

Usually the project-based learning is more effective for younger kids, so we provide different kinds of competitions – the international space design competition is one of them.We are also doing test preparation, but test preparation is different from language study, so that is why we are working on starting a department of academic English and courses to teach how to really navigate yourself through a real setting in an English classroom in a university.

The PIE: How many students do you send abroad a year?

BG: Every year more than 40,000. I think study abroad is really a personalised case for each individual, you cannot really do it on a massive scale. So although it sounds like we have thousands of employees, we send so many students abroad each year, if you look at each individual case, they are all unique.

The PIE: Are there any emerging destinations that Chinese students are interested in?

BG: Our Chinese students are interested in going to all the developed countries. Thailand and Russia are becoming popular, particularly for some provinces. Going to study in the UK, US and Australia, are the top three most expensive destinations, followed by Canada and then Hong Kong, Japan and Korea and then some European countries as well.

The PIE: There has also been an influx of international schools in China. What trends are you seeing in this space?

BG: They are not necessarily coming in, but sometimes the local private schools can set up their own international division. If a Chinese provider wants to set up an international school as its own standalone entity, sometimes more for marketing purposes, it had better have an international partner, usually some top notch or well-known high school in the UK or the US.

The current international divisions are in their early stages, though. They are recruiting the first batch of students usually around 9th-10th grade. So in two to three years you are going to see them graduate and then comes the final judgement, right? To see if those schools are really operating well and can attract more students. I think right now it is just market demand, and so many Chinese parents are willing to spend the money and send their children to international schools or international divisions, which is nurturing this new phenomenon. Whether all the players are going to survive in the end, we will have to see.

The PIE: Employability is obviously a hot topic in international education. How are you helping Chinese students to focus on their career skills as well as their academics?

BG: Maybe 5-10 years ago, parents were more concerned about acceptance rates, but now because the competition is so fierce, so many people are studying abroad, so employability is becoming a question frequently asked by parents. It is not like, “Oh you graduated from UCLA, that is amazing.” Tons of people have graduated from UCLA and are coming back to China. It is not just about your academic background anymore, so doing an internship in college, prior to application, prior to departure, has become a must if you are aiming to get a full-time job after graduation.

Not all the players are aware of this, there are so many trends in this market that people can focus their efforts on, I think it is not necessary that everyone has to really focus on career development for the students, but we do.The career offices in many universities I think function well in a traditional sense, but I think they are going to face a lot of challenges in the future if they keep just bringing the companies on campus – that is not going to be enough. And since the university is only putting a handful of staff in the career office, they are not going to put that much emphasis and focus on each individual student.

We can be more specific because we have all the experience in terms of one-on-one coaching and more tailor-made coaching for the students. I see that as a very important strategic move for us in the future: tying study abroad to career development.

The PIE: How do you see the agency market in China changing over the next few years?

BG: This is a question we keep asking ourselves. I think the education business is essentially a service business; to be honest I even think the high school and university businesses are. As an education company, you really have to understand what are the demands of our customers, what do they need? We also have to remember not to be too fascinated by those new kinds of trends, for example, online education.

Technology is there to try to help facilitate the student experience, but are we going to completely migrate into it? I think it is still going to take a long time. I think in the future, the ones who are going to be very successful are the ones who have all the big data. The big data can show you all the success cases and success patterns of past students, which can indicate the trends of the market.But kids still want to meet the teachers face-to-face most of the time. More than 40% of our students are receiving their test preparation class online, but it is live using our own online video classroom facility. Still it is face-to-face, it is just using the online platform to make the accessibility more flexible.

In China we haven’t seen the consolidation of agency businesses, you still see a lot of big players and small players, the phenomenon of one player dominance has not happened yet. But we usually see this in many other sectors when the competition becomes fierce, one day it boils down to only a few players. I think that will eventually happen in the agency industry as well. And we are aiming to be the one of the few big ones who have our own unique positioning and products.