The Language Business

British Council: management still in control

In January this year the “Chief Executive” of the British Council Martin Davidson announced that the British Council was advising other government departments about "outsourcing" (i.e. exporting jobs) to India. The British Council, Davidson crowed, had made itself “significantly more efficient”.  Downtrodden British taxpayers can only hope, albeit against the trend, that the DFID and FCO are not so stupid as to take their advice.

The Chief Financial Officer of the British Council, Bidesh Sarkar, has issued a circular to British Council staff in Manchester informing them that because the British Council senior management thought they would have to pay for only two floors of the building in Bridgwater House when the landlord actually requires them to pay for three, and because they have empty floors in Spring Gardens for which there is no tenant, they “are significantly behind our UK savings targets”. So while the Chief Executive says the British Council is “significantly more efficient”, his financial controller says they are “significantly behind”. Significant or what?

All this has come about because the British Council outsourced 75 finance and IT jobs to India, sent 240 staff away with expensive sweeteners to create “voluntary” redundancies, and have apparently made such a success of this attempt to become more efficient that now “we will have to consider new ways of working and the services we are able to retain in Bridgewater House, such as meeting rooms, the reception and canteen.”

Chillingly for British Council staff in Manchester, the Chief Financial Officer writes “we value the work you do”. Evidently he’s not sharp enough to realise that the “you” in that phrase betrays an intention by “us” to create distance, and make a rather clear distinction between London, where the British Council chiefs are (so no threat to the canteen there), and Manchester where they are evidently so valued that, thanks to the monumental incompetence of London and their failure to even understand their property contracts - much less actually manage them - employees will have to huddle together and find "new ways of working" as they do without their customary and, in London's view, superfluous facilities.

The full text of the letter follows:

o    Dear colleagues,

In July you were informed that the Executive Board (EB) had approved recommendations to retain two floors in Bridgewater House.

Since then, the landlord has required us to pay rent on three floors until September 2012, rather than just two floors, as we had expected. Added to that, the UK property slump has meant that it may take longer than anticipated to secure a subtenant in Spring Gardens. All this means that we will have to pay more for longer and are significantly behind our UK savings targets in this austere Comprehensive Spending Review period to 2015.

The EB have therefore taken the decision to consolidate Manchester operations onto one floor to make important savings.

These changes are due to take place in a years time, September 2012, but I wanted to let you know as soon as possible. I realise this is not the news you would have wanted to hear.

This decision means we will have to consider new ways of working and the services we are able to retain in Bridgewater House, such as meeting rooms, the reception and canteen. We will consult with you and Trade Union Side on our developing options.

Although were having to make these changes, Manchester continues to be an important operation for the Council. We value the work you do and we are renewing the Bridgewater House lease for the next 10 years with a standard option to review after three years.

Alex Chaplin (Director Global Business Services), Eddie Byers (Managing Director Programme and Projects) and Angela Gibbins (Deputy Director Global Estates) will be holding an open staff meeting in the Boardroom this Thursday 24 November at 1500, where you will be able hear more and ask any questions. More details on that to follow.

With kind regards,

Bidesh Sarkar

Chief Financial Officer

Are you feeling a bit QR?

You are probably aware of them. These things (“Quick Response” codes) are now on clothes, DIY products, and all manner of other things, and they are used by companies because they are much more powerful and versatile than barcodes. I’ve taken to adding the QR code above to my email “signature” and my business card as it has my name, plus company phone number, web and email address. When scanned by a mobile phone the data can be stored by that phone user without any rekeying.  Today every school record on the English in Britain site has a QR code. I would agree that in such a context QR codes may be marginal, but some will find them useful, they cost nothing, and their presence may be a spur to some new thinking.

In Berlin I noticed that QR codes were appearing on brochures, and I would expect that by this time next year the codes will be seen on most of them.  If you choke on that rate of growth, try this one:  US company Mobio reported in July that from Q2 2010 to Q2 2011 here was a growth in scanning QR codes of almost 10,000%. Growth by a factor of 100 in one year – pretty staggering.

Here’s a nice example of how they are being used by an enterprising Korean supermarket company: commuters on the subway can walk down the platform while the walls simulate supermarket shelves, and do their shopping. Neat.

It’s another spur to us all as we consider the rapid growth of mobile phone use. One year ago one visitor in 70 to my company’s web portals was using a mobile device, and today it’s one in 12. A year from now what, 1 in 4? Less? The times they are a-changin’. 

ICEF Workshop Berlin 2011

Let’s not mince words – the ICEF Workshop in Berlin is simply the best. Each year it goes on getting bigger, and it goes on getting better.
 
As a forum for meeting agents the ICEF Berlin Workshop is in its own league. More agent representatives (913) attended this year’s Berlin workshop than the total number of people in all categories at StudyWorld, for example. The agents, from 87 countries, were there to help build the businesses of more than 500 educational organisations. And there were 70 exhibitors lining the halls of the Intercontinental Hotel.

Marcom’s software was instrumental in arranging over 21,000 meetings in the course of just two days. It is a remarkable achievement to put on this key event for so many people, and keep them happy, focused on the job, as well as comfortable, fed and watered. The food and drink were excellent, and the organisers were unstinting in their hospitality. Size may not be everything, but when things are done as well as this it adds value geometrically as so much more gets done. And this year even the weather was good.

Select Statistics
Educator Top 5 Countries
UK             30%
USA            11%
Canada       10%
Spain            7%
Australia     7%
Other        35%

Agent Top 5 Countries
Spain        12%
Turkey        9%
Russia        7%
Germany    7%
Italy        5%
Other         60%

Education Institutions
Language Course Providers        63%
Universities and Vocational        19%
Secondary, Boarding, High Schools    16%
Multi-sector and additional services    2%

Three short planks

It’s not just May and Green, PM David Cameron would seem to be just as bad – or else he just has poor quality advisors. He claims that the government is “getting a grip on immigration”. Fine, we would all support that, as indeed would most immigrants. But as evidence of this he announces a ban of 474 colleges. Now I know a fair number of those on the list, and they take well-heeled juniors for a few weeks in the summer, and that’s it. They are no more going to take immigrants than fly to the moon, so banning them is like, I don’t know, banning sheep from possessing nuclear warheads. It is a complete irrelevance.

It’s bad enough that politicians do not understand the difference between international students and immigrants, which is a failure of analysis and intelligence that has our competitors in Canada, the USA, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand rubbing their hands with glee. It’s bad enough that they introduce a new half-arsed inspection system to provide “Educational Oversight”, and then come up with exhorbitant fees which have the sector gasping for cash in order to stay on the right side of a regulation the purpose of which they support but the execution of which fills them with dread as well as contempt. But now impeccably decent, respectable, conscientious course providers have to suffer the indignity of being “banned” simply because they have elected not to opt in to this fatheaded scheme and do what they were already doing, working with students who have no need of visas because they can come here anyway. Of course there are dodgy outfits – we’ve all been saying that for years to a deaf and inert administration. But now to produce an inflated list tarring them all with the same brush is an act which is at the cheapest end of politics, an ill-judged response which does the country no credit and which will continue to damage what is arguably Britain’s finest post-war growth industry.

Having just returned from what is surely the biggest international education event in the world, where seminar speaker Will Archer produced hard evidence of changing – and deteriorating - attitudes to Britain as an education destination, I am in no doubt that this government’s stupidity is damaging our standing in the world, damaging our educational institutions, and doing serious damage to the nation’s economy. And for what? We hear that the government has lost track of 124,000 or so asylum seekers and others who have outstayed their visa. As so often happens decent people, decent businesses are being used as cover and as scapegoats for monumental governmental incompetence. Short planks, thickos and losers.

Edit: Today's news is that UKBA haven't been checking passports properly anyway. Such a fiasco.