INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS WHAT GLOBAL MOBILTY EXPERTS NEED TO KNOW
Marianne Curphey talks to Jitin Sethi of L.E.K. Consulting about the education choices and challenges facing parents when it comes to relocating with school-age children. There are opportunities for employers to impact retention and engage with schools and their talent pipeline of the future.
E
ducation is one of the biggest concerns that parents have while relocating, with the overall cost and quality of childcare and schools a key factor for assignees and their families.
Parents can be ‘paralysed by choice’ and unsure about how to go about finding the right educational establishment for their children, says Jitin Sethi, Partner, Global Education Practice at L.E.K. Consulting. To help them, employers and global mobility professionals can work with schools overseas to assist with applications and admissions, and potentially secure discounts for their relocating families. “Twenty years ago, there were not many options for parents but
now there is a great deal of choice in key cities such as Singapore, Jakarta, Beijing, Dubai and the UAE,” he says. “In the past, a lot of schools were embassy-linked or were smaller, select providers. Over time, the professional global providers of schooling have seen increasing demand from parents locally for top quality education.” Sethi is based in Singapore and has delivered education cases across
the globe and has extensive experience across all education segments, including K-12, Higher Education, Transnational Education, English Language Training, Education Technology and Corporate Training. L.E.K. Consulting is a global management consultancy firm and serves public, private, non-profit and private for-profit educational institutions and also works with investors and foundations that are involved with the education industry.
There are three million students enrolled in international
curriculum schools overall, with the Premium K-12 market now valued at between $20 and $25 billion US dollars of revenue, he says. Premium schools in developing countries tended to offer the
IGCSE and IB. Well-known brands such as Westminster, NLCS, Dulwich College and Malvern College are key players. Nord Anglia (which has 54 international private schools, based in 28 countries), Cognita (which owns and operates schools throughout the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil and Chile) and Inspired (with 38,000 students across an international network of over 50 schools) are growing brands. Growth has been driven by governments in countries such as Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai, recognising the importance of investing in schooling and granting licences to operators.
A GOOD-VALUE OPTION “One advantage of using the international schools system outside the UK and US is that parents may find educational facilities that are comparable with the best schools at home, but at a lower price,” he says. British schools have set up international schools in Asia and the
Middle East providing good quality options for British nationals. “For many brands, the fee for education is higher in the UK,” he
says. “This means that parents can get comparable education overseas for their children at a lower cost.”
30 | RELOCATE | SUMMER 2019
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