FDSV, ICEF and English UKSW

It’s been a busy few weeks for GSS president Jonathan Dykes.

On Saturday the November 4th, Jonathan was invited to Berlin to give a presentation at the AGM of FDSV, the German association of language schools and study abroad agencies. He explained why he and his colleagues decided to set up GSS, what it’s main aims are, and how the association’s accreditation system works. The Director of FDSV, Julia Richter, also announced that the two associations had agreed to sign a Memorandum of Cooperation, which should help encourage FDSV members to apply for GSS accreditation (if any additional incentive was needed). This news was featured in a fabulous article published by our good friends at Study Travel Magazine.

The following day Jonathan took part in a discussion panel organised as part of the seminar day at ICEF Berlin. The topic of the panel was ‘Sustainability in international education: what needs to be done?’ and the session was chaired by ICEF Monitor’s Editor in Chief, Craig Riggs.

The next two days Jonathan spent meeting with representatives of language schools, associations of language schools and study abroad agents about how they can become more involved in environmental action. The response from everyone was extremely encouraging. Environmental sustainability certainly seems to be moving up the list of most people’s concerns.

Last but not least, on Saturday 19^th November, Jonathan was invited to give a talk at the conference organised by English UK South West, which was held in Bristol. GSS already has three accredited members from the region - County Cousins, English Country Schools, and Languages United - and there are more in the pipeline.

Of course events such as these involve travel, which inevitably generates yet more greenhouse gases. The way GSS has decided to deal with these emissions is to donate to an organisation called Project Seagrass.  See our forthcoming Blog post for details.