British Council South Africa held their annual Education UK Study Tour on 23-26 January 2017.

16 UK institutions were represented, as well as the British Council Exams and Customer Services team, and the Visas and Immigration (UKVI) team from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

On the first day, Janine Carlse (SIEM Project Manager) presented a Country Overview and Market Briefing at the Radisson Blu Sandton, before the Clustered School Visit at St Mary’s Waverley in Johannesburg. This was followed by a Welcome Reception at the residence of the British Council Country Director, Colm McGivern, with stakeholders from the National Research Foundation (NRF), International EduLink and Global Education.

This is the first year that we’ve had clustered school visits (hosting a visit in a school hall and inviting surrounding or associated schools to attend), these were quite successful and drew many interested students and parents who may not have been able to attend the main Exhibitions. The actual Exhibitions at the Sandton Convention Centre (24 January) and the Belmont Square Conference Centre (26 January) also drew many more visitors than in previous years.

Overall, this Study Tour was a success and a learning curve for the South Africa SIEM team (Janine Carlse and Fadwa Arnold). We tried new strategies for the execution of the Tour and we will do our best to make future events even better!