Wednesday, January 18, 2012
ASIDE from positioning Cebu as an island destination for leisure activities, the Department of Tourism (DOT) 7 will also push for an aggressive campaign in making the province a preferred ESL (English as Second Language) destination among international students.
In an interview, DOT 7 Director Rowena Montecillo said efforts in improving the ESL program in Cebu are underway to make the province a premier destination for ESL in Asia.
Learn what's new in CEBU now, click here
She said Cebu is the most popular ESL destination, particularly among Japanese and South Korean students.
“ESL would still be one of DOT’s priority markets. We would like to increase the number of foreign students learning ESL here,” Montecillo said.
One of the moves of the department will be the tie-up with the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (Tesda) in locating English schools here.
Tesda 7 earlier reported that there are a lot of learning institutions here that create their own ESL curriculum. Tesda has requested that ESL schools be regulated because of their proliferation.
Montecillo said keeping track of ESL schools will not only help them be updated with the number of international students but at the same time help sustain Cebu’s ESL program.
Montecillo said education-driven tourism is one of the growth drivers for tourism in Cebu. She said it could promote long-staying visitors.
Cebu Business Club president Dondi Joseph said the DOT should collaborate with the academe and private sector to achieve its goal to make Cebu an alternative education destination for international students.
He cited the lack of education facilities and the “little interest” among stakeholders as challenges for the growth of education-tourism here.
Learn what's new in CEBU now, click here
ESL could also be a possible fallback for business process outsourcing (BPO) employees in case the pending bill discouraging US firms to outsource, filed before the US Congress, would prosper and affect Cebu, Montecillo said.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on January 19, 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment