Mexican students prefer to study in Canada: interview to Ana Laura Escamilla Ruiz, EDUWORLD

Appointment n. 8 with the ETN Focus interviews.

Today Alessandra Martinelli, Head of International Relations for ETN Focus, speaks with Ana Laura Escamilla Ruiz – CEO & Founder at EDUWORLD (Mexico): the most popular destinations, the pros and cons of this business and the Mexican scholarships are some of the topics covered.

Enjoy the reading.

Hi Ana Laura, first of all thanks for your time. Let’s start with the first question: would you tell me a little about Eduworld and what does it do?

Hi Alessandra! Well, EDUWORLD is an educational agency and our goal is to guarantee the best tailor-made training services; we always try to respond to the needs of our students and clients.

What do you think about your job? Which are the positive and negative aspects?

What I can tell you is that we are happy to be the link between the student and the school, trying to make the students fulfill their dream of going to study abroad. As to the negative aspects, we have some problems with the Visa, it‘s quite expensive and sometimes the Embassy does not reply in time. What we do to tackle the cost problem is to allow families to pay with funding to guarantee everyone the opportunity to live this experience.

How many students or clients do you work with each year?

Last year we sent abroad more than 100 students.

Which destinations do they prefer?

Right now the highest demand here in Mexico is to go to Canada, mainly for Visa reasons. Another very popular destination is England and we have various requests for Europe, in fact a group of children will shortly leave for England.

Here in Italy there are several scholarships with national and European funds that allow students to live an educational experience abroad. Are there scholarships in Mexico that allow students to study abroad?

Yes, there are some scholarships guaranteed by the Government and then there are those of Conacyt that guarantee the educational experience abroad even if the latter include students based on average and income.

And are they scholarships for university students or for those who still attend school?

Scholarships are mainly for university students and graduates but the government also offers scholarships for kids. These are scholarships of at least two weeks abroad: the Government distributes scholarships and also pays for the flight and the agencies research schools abroad. However, most of our customers are not groups but individuals; we work mostly with private individuals.

Do individuals prefer more language courses rather than summer camps or, for example, the entire academic year abroad?

What they ask of us are mostly programs that include study and work especially in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. Thanks to these programs they study English and at the same time carry out an internship in the company. The duration is generally never less than 20 weeks due to issues related to work permits abroad.

As for the agent fairs, do you think it’s useful to participate in them?

Yes, they are very useful because you have the opportunity to learn about different schools, to do networking.

Which type of fairs do you think are more useful: large fairs or smaller fairs?

I think both formulas are ok. I liked ETN’s fair a lot and I found it really useful because it was attended by unexpected schools, schools that none of us knew. I mean, big agencies offer the same schools. Last year’s event was truly exclusive and innovative because it allowed us to become much more competitive.

I am very pleased to hear you say this: Last question: do you have any suggestions for our next event in October?

I really like the fact that the event took place over two days. Perhaps the top could be being able to meet 30 schools but otherwise I have nothing to say because the organization was really good.

Thank you Ana Laura and see you soon.

Thanks to you, Alessandra. Have a nice day and see you soon.