By Amandev Singh
Mata Press Service

One of BC’s largest post-secondary education and training providers held a gala evening in Vancouver recently to recognise its partners who have helped make it and the BC provincial economy a major hub for the global education market.
Vancouver-based CIBT Education Group hosted the “Annual Evening with Sprott-Shaw & King George International College” at the Renaissance Hotel downtown.
The evening commemorated a year in which CIBT created a new partnership between its two colleges and streamlined the working relationship between the two.
Students enrolled at King George for English language skills can now continue through to Sprott-Shaw’s business career and Diploma programs, and even progress to a Bachelor’s degree at the degree-granting college.
Students can also attend classes now from a single central location at new campus facilities conveniently located in downtown Vancouver.
This new coordinated educational model offered by CIBT will pave the way for similar programs at CIBT campuses in China, the Philippines, Jordan, Korea and South Asia.
Toby Chu, the President of CIBT spoke on glowing future of British Columbia as an education destination for students worldwide, “Vancouver has many advantages over other cities in that it is very multicultural, it is located on the Pacific Rim and it is the most beautiful city in North America.”
Chu added that despite Canada currently being the fourth largest foreign education market, he expects this to change in the coming years. “Education is already a bigger part of the BC economy than tourism,” he stated. “We believe this market will grow and even surpass the US, UK, and Australia.”
CIBT is investing back into its colleges as it prepares for the future. Sprott-Shaw Community College, a college with 107 years of history, is a cornerstone of its operations here in BC. Since inception, the college has educated nearly one million graduates.
“Sprott-Shaw is commencing a new phase of its journey,” said Patrick Dang, the President of community college, speaking about the school’s key position within CIBT. “Our team is re-energising and re-tooling for the tremendous growth we foresee in the coming future.”
Sprott-Shaw Community College (SSCC), is the oldest private post-secondary institution in Canada and the parent of Sprott-Shaw Degree College (SSDC), which received consent in 2004 from the B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education to confer a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration.
King George International College, or KGIC, is one of the largest language training schools in Canada with 14 years of history, 6 campus locations across Canada and eight overseas offices. Since inception, KGIC has provided English language and TESOL training to over 40,000 international students from 42 countries.
In 2009 and 2010, CIBT Education Group was named Top 100 Public Companies in BC by the Business in Vancouver newspaper, Top 1000 Companies across Canada by Report on Business magazine, a subsidiary of Globe and Mail, and one of Canada’s Fastest Growing Companies by Profit Magazine.
For more information on Sprott-Shaw or King George International, please go to:
www.sprott-shaw.com and www.kgic.ca.