The British Council Japan is delighted to announce that we are inviting UK English language schools to participate in the “Summer Study in the UK Programme for Japanese High School Students 2017” (“Programme” hereafter) targeting junior and senior high school students in Japan in partnership with the Japan Association of Overseas Studies (JAOS - http://www.jaos.or.jp/top-eng), a major association of study abroad agents in Japan.

Overview of the Programme
This programme will promote selected English language programmes provided by Accreditation UK member schools amongst high school students in Japan with the aim of sending junior and senior high school students to the selected schools through JAOS member agents between the end of July and middle of August 2017. Schools will be selected through tendering and a selection process described below.

Eligibility:
English language schools that meet the following criteria will be invited to the tendering which is now open.

1. Accreditation
   The school/centre and course must be accredited by Accreditation UK.
    
2. Period of courses
   Proposals will be accepted from schools which offer 1 – 4 week ELT programmes, starting from the 24^th July 2017 and finishing by 27^th August 2017.
    
3. Age group
   Schools participating in the scheme must be able to accept the target age group of 13 – 18 years. Schools should identify what age group they would like to involve within the targeted range. There is no specific requirement for the group size.
    
4. Mixed nationality classes
   Schools or colleges which can offer mixed nationality classes. The schools do not need to create a tailor-made class for the group of students; it is expected that the students will join existing classes.
    
5. Agents
   English language schools which have experience of working with agents in Japan will be preferred.
   Schools which do not have partnerships with JAOS member agents are also invited to participate in the tender but will be required to agree on a partnership with a JAOS member agent if selected for the scheme. For a list of current JAOS member agents, please visit the JAOS website at http://www.jaos.or.jp/member_eng　

Important notes (changes made from 2016):
In order to improve the impact of the programme and ensure each selected course will be successfully filled, we have made some important changes.

1. Course pricing and fees
   There is no price range specified for courses, but please note that a local agent fee will be charged to students/parents on top of the fee posted by the school. The commission should be decided through agreement between the school and the designated agent.
   
   The British Council Japan will charge £150 (exclusive of VAT) to schools for each successfully enrolled student through this scheme. The fee covers costs for marketing and promotion, including online and offline promotion through a dedicated web page, flyers and fairs. We ask that schools  refrain from charging this fee to the agent as this will  increase the price for the students and, given that Japanese customers are now very price-sensitive, it could negatively affect the sales of the programme. Institutions will be invoiced for this fee based on  the number of students who attended the course.
    
2. Group leader
   Unlike 2016, agents will not be required to arrange group leaders. Some agents will have one group leader per group while others may choose to have no group leader. In this case, they will ensure that participating students will be well supported by their Japanese speaking staff based in the UK. If the agents arrange group leaders, the costs should be decided between schools and agents after the selection process.
    
3. Location diversity
   The selection panel will endeavour to ensure that participating schools will not be concentrated in specific areas. If a school has multiple centres in different areas, they will be required to nominate one centre.
    
4. Minimum number of schools and agents
   Please note that if we receive proposals from less than 10 schools and interest from less than 5 agents, this programme may be cancelled. Please see the “selection process” below for further information.

How to participate in the tender:
If you would like to participate in the tender, please submit the following to the British Council Japan at JP_BC-SIEM@britishcouncil.org by 1:00AM GMT on Tuesday 12 December 2016. Please note that proposals received after this date will not be accepted.

1. Completed application form <Form 1> - attached below
2. PowerPoint presentation in PDF format <Form 2>- attached below
   The presentation should include:

• School (centre) name, brief school introduction and location on UK map (page 1)
• Contents of the course (page 2)
• Information on accommodation, travel distance and meals (page 3)
• Costs of the course and what is included (page 4)  
• Unique selling points (page 5)    

The presentation should not exceed 5 pages in total.
If you have multiple centres in different areas, please choose one centre for nomination.

Please note that schools will be selected solely based on the information provided on the tender form and PowerPoint presentation. Any other additional materials provided, including videos and youtube links, will not be considered during the selection process.

Selection process:

• Once proposals are submitted, applications from schools which fully meet eligibility criteria described above will be sent to JAOS. JAOS member agents that are interested in participating in this campaign will register their interest by submitting a list of up to three schools they would like to partner with based on the proposals submitted. 

• The British Council and JAOS will match each school with an agent. Approximately 7 schools and agents will be selected.

After selection:

• Schools will be notified of the results by late January.
• Once schools have been selected and assigned agents, they should then communicate and negotiate details directly with the agent not the British Council Japan.
• The British Council Japan will start preparing for marketing the campaign in February. The participating school will be asked by the British Council Japan to submit a profile of the school for promotional purposes by mid-February.
• The school will be individually contacted by designated agents for further details for their respective promotion.
• Placement of students will be handled by agents assigned to participating schools by JAOS and the British Council Japan.

Timeline:

11 November 2016:  Invitation to tender
12 December 2016:  Deadline for tender
Late January 2017: Selection of schools and announcements
February 2017:  Preparation for marketing
March 2017:   Launch of campaign website and start of promotion
April/May: 2017:  Face to face promotional event in Tokyo (agents to be invited to speak to students and parents)
July – August 2017:  Students travel to the UK

Marketing plan:
The British Council will run the following online and offline campaign for the Summer Study in the UK Programme.

• Offline promotion includes production and dissemination of pamphlets with details of each school and courses as well as face to face promotional events in Tokyo.
• Online promotion includes production of dedicated webpages and social media campaigns including Facebook, Twitter and e-newsletters.

Each agent will also be expected to promote each course through their respective marketing channels.

Further promotional opportunity for UK ELT providers:
The British Council in Japan will publish its annual “British Council English Language Study Guidebook 2017” in March 2017. We are offering up to 25 schools space to promote their schools in the guidebook.  We will advertise this opportunity through the British Council SIEM website in mid-November.

Background:
The Japanese government aims to double the number of students studying abroad by 2020, from the current 30,000 per year to 60,000 for senior high school students. The government’s Tobitate! Ryugaku Scholarships fund 500 Japanese senior high school (SHS) students to study abroad every year. In 2015, one new category that allows 140 students to study languages at language schools was added to this scholarship programme. In addition, earlier this year, the government also suggested that English teaching will be provided in English at junior high schools (at senior high schools, English classes already need to be conducted in English) from 2020. These governmental initiatives have led to increased interest amongst Japanese parents and high schools students in studying abroad.

The British Council Japan regards the ELT summer school market in Japan as a strategic priority for UK educational promotion in Japan. Competition with other major English speaking countries, particularly from Australia and Canada is intensifying. We think that it is extremely important for the UK ELT sector to capitalise on the growth of the young learners’ market in Japan and the British Council Japan is keen to support the initiative.

Contact:
If you have any enquiries about this tender please write to:

Rui Ogura
Projects Officer (Education)
British Council Japan
Email: JP_BC-SIEM@britishcouncil.org
Tel: +81 3 3235 7955

General enquiries:
Ayako Towatari
Projects Manager (Education)
British Council Japan
Email: ayako.towatari@britishcouncil.or.jp
Tel: +81 3 3235 8043