ESL school’s P160-M facility seen to boost tourism, jobs

By moving to a bigger office, one of the first English as second language (ESL) schools in Cebu City sees the transfer to help boost educational tourism in Cebu and bring in more teaching jobs for Cebuanos.

Raiko Fujioka, owner of QQ (Quick and Quality) English, said he invested P160 million for the transfer and expansion of his school because he believed in the importance of English in the international community.

QQ English is an online and offline ESL tutorial center that serves Japanese and Korean students of all ages who want to learn English.

Last Wednesday, the school moved to a bigger facility at the Skyrise 4 in Asiatown IT Park from its previous location at TGU building, still at the IT Park.

From occupying one floor at its previous location, the school now occupies three floors (7th to 9th floors) of Skyrise 4.

It has 120 classrooms for offline classes for 3,000 students and another 200 classrooms for online classes.

QQ uses Skype in their online classes while they have a one-on-one classroom for students who avail the offline sessions.

“I am confident in the teaching ability of the Filipinos because of the good feedback I received from the students as well as how I’ve seen them work,” Fujioka said.

Fujioka said the school doesn’t just just teach English, but it also promotes tourist destinations in the Philippines.

“We have designated rooms where the students are educated about the beauty of the Philippines. This is necessary so that they will be oriented about the place and be encouraged to visit the different tourist destinations in the country,” Fujioka said.

He said the QQ English teaching system is based on the communicative learning approach (CLA) used in the United States and United Kingdom.

The system assumes daily practical situations where students learn communication based on given scenarios in English.

“The teachers give scenarios based on the tourist destinations that the students have seen. In this way, we are hitting two birds with one stone. We are giving quality education to the students and we are also helping to promote the Philippines,” Fujioka said.

Tourism Regional Director Rowena Montecillo of Central Visayas said the school’s expansion would help bring more tourists to study here.

Montecillo, who attended the school’s transfer, said since last year she has been inviting tourists to study here after Cebu City Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young asked her to promote educational tourism in Cebu.

In a separate interview, Vice Mayor Young said educational tourism would boost the economy of Cebu and create more employment opportunities for Cebuanos.

“The international market for ESL in Cebu is growing. Making Cebu an educational tourism destination will surely help the country,” said Young.

Last year he requested different universities and colleges in the US to allow ESL students in Cebu to study in their universities if these students would want to finish a degree there after completing the ESL curriculum in the country.

“I am glad that most of them have agreed to help us. Right now, we are just waiting for them to finalize the subjects that are acceptable in their universities,” Young said.

Young said having more foreign students in Cebu boosts sales of shopping malls, hotels, restaurants and other business establishments.

The benefits of studying in Cebu include better transportation and cheaper prices of basic goods compared to other countries offering ESL, said the vice mayor.