QE Mission success story: Devon School of English

The Devon School of English in Paignton Devon UK is a typical Quality English school.  QE Members since 2008, this medium sized school was started by Brian and Joan Hawthorne in 1971 and is run today by brothers Paul, Bret and Chris Hawthorne. Over the last 11 years the School has built up a considerable fame for its 50+ and specialist adult course offer, with 11 open enrolment course dates in 2018.  

The nationality mix on these course has always been traditionally European, but thanks to the success of the Quality English mission to Tapei in 2018 they have happy to add a new nationality to their mix – Taiwanese.  The mission helped cement an existing contact with Welcome Consulting in Tapei, which saw a group of  students travel to Devon last September.  That successful trip laid the foundations for a solo marketing visit in January 2018, and that in turn to two further groups in May and September this year.

As an independent, family-run school events such as the QE fairs are very important indeed, they allow us to initiate and develop meetings with the best agents, and give us an opportunity together to develop and lead the market.  Welcome Consulting have a great insight into their market and where trends are going.  Our visit in January involved a day broadcasting from the national radio station CSBC, which was immensely enjoyable and worthwhile.  So within 12 months we went from relatively unknown to being the most famous Englishman in Taiwan for the day.  We have been very lucky that our wonderful location and offer has seen us lead the UK market in 50+, and it is great to see that success extend into Taiwan, adding great interest and diversity for all our students.  The ability to strike up such successful partnerships is what makes attending QE fairs so worthwhile.