Feltom, the federation of schools teaching English as a foreign language, organised a familiarisation visit of 15 agents to Malta, at the end of the StudyWorld Fair, English UK’s premier international study abroad workshop. Over 900 representatives of educators from 18 countries and agents from 65 world markets attended the fair.

A special feature of StudyWorld is the programme of familiarisation trips, immediately following the three-day event, planned as and designed to be regional or thematic showcases. This year there were 12 trips to choose from: Sussex, Bournemouth, Hampshire, London, Oxford, Central England, Yorkshire and Northumberland, Scotland, Ireland and Malta.

The agents on the familiarisation trip to Malta flew to Malta at the end of the StudyWorld workshop and were accompanied by the president of Feltom, John Dimech. The agents are from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Spain, South Korea and Russia and had the opportunity of visiting some of the member schools as well as some cultural sites in Malta and Gozo.

All agents agreed that taking part in this familiarisation visit was essential for obtaining first-hand experience of the destination and centres they are promoting to their clients. Feltom’s initiative to introduce the Accreditation Scheme was very reassuring for the agents as the scheme should improve the quality of the accredited schools and thus increase business to the mutual benefit of the schools and agents. The agents were also impressed with the quality and facilities at the various schools, as well as with the progress that Malta has made in various areas in recent years, such as the infrastructure and the economy of the island.