The end of term is nearly here! But as schools and colleges close for the holidays, young students from overseas will take the opportunity to use the summer months for broadening horizons and adding valuable life experience to their CVs.
More than half a million people of all ages arrive in England every year to get to grips with speaking the native tongue. Consequently, visiting Britain and learning to speak English has not only maintained its leading position in attracting English language learning, it is still a top combination for international students. As the numbers for places on courses increase, learning English and booking homestay accommodation has increasingly become another popular pairing.
Loving every minute
Young students in their teens and early twenties on short courses, can especially benefit from the straight forward arrangements. A hosted room scheme provides a safe ‘home-from-home’ to take care of a young person’s everyday practical needs, whether a standard accommodation or a group accommodation. Anxious parents will be relieved to hear their loved ones are eating properly, thanks to the homestay meal plans while the youngsters are loving every minute of being away from their parents!
Taking up English learning courses offered by a hosted accommodation scheme has seen the number of young students studying English in the UK double over the last ten years by nearly 50 per cent, according to one recent UK student statistics report. So too, the average length of stay was up, by nearly four weeks for junior students. Clearly, the host schemes have become one of the most preferred types of accommodation for the Millennial generation.
Can feel a bit like being on holiday
Nothing could be more easier. A host scheme will arrange a car, people carrier or coach to collect a young homestay guest or party of guests from the airport and ensure they arrive safely at their new ‘family’ home. A homestay scheme aimed at British Council approved standards goes to great lengths to match the right host to their guest. This means a clean, bright, modern furnished room with all the desk and cupboard space they need, and essential online access. Hosts will ensure their guests know about using bathroom / showers, and laundry days. Depending on whether a guest is full or half board, breakfasts, evening meals and lunchtime sandwiches are all taken care of too.
In other words, it really can feel a bit like being on holiday! Apart from the scheduled English language study, a quality international host scheme will provide an exciting and memorable experience of cultural life in whatever part of the country a course is being held.
In practical terms, this means the opportunity to enrol on an inclusive programme, which combines homestay accommodation, learning English and sightseeing visits to some of Britain’s most historic places.
Well-known landmarks and other exciting adventures
The Hosts International team, for example, are sure to include the well-known landmarks, such as Buckingham Palace, Tower of London and the London Eye. Other exciting adventures could include a trip on London’s only cable car, which crosses the River Thames just five minutes from the O2 stadium or (for the brave-hearted), maybe a 40 second descent down the world’s longest tunnel slide newly opened at the Orbit in The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford.
However, a more historic journey back in time can also take international students to a different Stratford – Stratford On Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare or the fields where the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066.
Hosts International offer a progressive programme of daily English lessons, provided by trained EFL teachers for 16-18 year-olds of all ability levels at summer school during the normal holiday period. It’s a homestay combination that looks sure to also stand the test of time for countless numbers of young international students who want to come and study English in the UK.