Maltese owned international language school group EC has been awarded a prestigious “Star Award for Innovation” at the fourth Language Travel Magazine awards in London.

At a ceremony with over 700 language travel industry leaders, from over 50 countries in attendance, EC’s executive chairman Andrew Mangion accepted the award on behalf of the whole group.

Starting during the summer season, the excellent performance of EC’s “Freestyle Malta” junior programme gained first place in the highly coveted Innovation category. Taking the industry by storm, “Freestyle Malta” is a programme designed for 16-to-20- year-old students who are looking for more than traditional summer courses. The course focuses on the needs and requirements of this specific age group.

Language Travel Magazine, the leading international language industry publication distributed to 36,000 professionals across 110 countries, has held the annual awards ceremony for the past four years, during which EC has been nominated for the Star Chain School award twice and for the Star Innovation award twice.

The language travel industry is an exceedingly competitive market made up of some “heavyweight” international players. EC, as a Maltese-owned company with its head office in Malta, has been recognised by the industry’s movers and shakers for its ability to thrive in a competitive environment.

Accepting the award, Mr Mangion said: “The awards are voted for by over 1000 language travel agents from around the world and it is a very clear message to us all that our hard work, ideas, dedication and commitment are being recognised by the industry time and time again... Winning the award this year was just the icing on the cake and I can’t thank the EC team enough for everything that they do on a daily basis.”

The dynamic, forward-looking group of English language schools, with centres in the UK, the USA, South Africa and Malta, is dedicated to providing innovative and high quality language courses in the top language learning destinations of the world.