China Trip Secures New Business for Portsmouth Language School
Neil Pick, the Chief Executive of Tellus Group which runs the Meridian School of English in Portsmouth has secured fresh business opportunities worth more than £40,000 during a trade mission to China.
It is part of a bid by the school to bring in £1m of business a year by 2019.
Mr Pick is planning another visit to China in March, but said the highlight of this trip, his second to the Republic, was securing a deal that will see 40 Chinese schoolchildren spend a week in Portsmouth and Plymouth in February, living with host families and engaging in British life as part of an English language course.
The youngsters, aged between 14 and 17, will also enjoy trips in the countryside and partake in Sherlock Holmes-themed activities, including a visit to London’s Baker Street.
Mr Pick said: ‘In China relationships and trust are very important. That’s the same around the world, of course, but there’s even more emphasis on them there.’
The British Council-organised UK Summer School Programme China Road Show took in the cities of Beijing, Chengdu, and Shenzhen, while Mr Pick also visited schools and contacts in Nanjing, Shanghai, Fuzhou and Kunming.