UK: centre of excellence for corporate and executive training
9 February 2015
The Education & Training Trade Mission was one of the largest sector focussed groups to visit the Gulf region in 2014 with 25 delegates representing universities, colleges and training companies. The group identified major opportunities for developing business and working in partnerships with both the public and private sector.
Being regarded as the centre of excellence for corporate and executive training, the United Kingdom has already a considerable track record and the experience to deliver training to overseas clients and tailor them to individual needs. For that reason British training providers are highly regarded in overseas markets for their high quality training services across a range of platforms such as face-to-face, online or through a blended approach.
Universities, colleges as well as private training providers were represented on the Trade Mission offering a diverse range of professional development programmes. These include courses with industry recognised accreditation, project management and educational partnerships, as well as coaching and mentoring, leadership development and management consultancy, along with HR solutions such as recruitment services and personality profiling.
All the participating institutions were looking for a wide range of opportunities in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Bahrain including direct delivery, franchising their programmes to local training organisations as well as possibilities to develop educational partnerships with local universities and colleges.
“From my perspective the trade mission to KSA, Dubai and Bahrain which involved 25 organisations was a great success. Each market provided a range of different opportunities and the meetings for the delegates enabled them to understand how different the markets were and the best way to enter them.
The delegates said that the trade mission allowed them to meet with people that they otherwise would just not have been able to have the opportunity to meet and that the programme was developed in such a way that they had both the opportunity to understand more about the market as well as make contact with potential clients and partners in each market” - Amanda Selvaratnam, Director, University of York.
“Being part of a sector specific trade mission really helps to build the profile of my business, win new clients and network at a very senior level. We already work in the UAE and Bahrain but this trade mission allowed me to elevate my business over and above our competition. Our export strategy uses trade missions quite extensively and I would recommend them to any business that is planning to export as a method of new business generation” – Munir Mamujee, Managing Director, M2R Education.
All the delegates agreed the visit was a great success with a wide range of Yorkshire and the Humber organisations learning about the training opportunities and building their network to enable them to expand their business in the Gulf region.
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