A Cardiff language academy has won a contract with the Libyan Government worth over half a million pounds that will see 120 of the country’s top civil servants travel to Wales to study English.
WE Bridge International Ltd was established in 2009 and specialises in training for executives, managers and academics from across the world who want to develop their English language skills and improve their international business acumen.
The academy already has clients from across Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and will start rolling out its training programme to Libya’s civil service towards the end of the year. The programme is expected to last around ten months.
The business is being supported by Business Wales, the Welsh Governments’ business support service, which helped it to secure grant funding to cover business rates for the next three years. This has freed up the time and resources that has allowed WE Bridge International Ltd to focus on developing new clients and growing the businesses internationally as well as at home.
David Henson, managing director, said: “I have been very impressed by the professional conduct, determination to help and personal approach of Business Wales. The team has helped us to recognise the opportunity that the Enterprise Zone Business Rates relief programme could offer us and see past the overwhelming application process.
“We began our application very late in the day, but the team at Business Wales kindly made themselves available, even at unsociable hours, to ensure our application was as good as it could be. Our business rates are covered for three years and we have secured further finance to cover rates on additional space if we extend. In short, more than £137,000 has been awarded to us to use if required.
“This result gave us the right information and confidence to move forward and pitch for big international contracts such as that with the Libyan Government.
“The financial support has also helped us to facilitate job growth, apply for a Tier 4 Visa licence to enable give us a greater international reach, and finance building work to increase our classroom space to enable us to receive more students.”
WE Bridge International Ltd was established in 2009 by Troy Blankenship with the objective of providing TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) at a high professional standard, aimed at non-English speaking businessmen and their families, and at students. It became accredited by the British Council for the teaching of English in the same year.
It has enjoyed a steady growth, and by June 2010 the business was large enough to move into its first corporate premises. It has now established itself in the East Wing of the 10th Floor at Southgate House, Wood Street, with the expectation that this will now be its permanent home, employing 13 members of staff.
Mr Henson, who has more than 15 years of commercial and cross-cultural experience in international management, leadership and training and coaching roles, became the managing director in January this year. He is also a co-owner of the business, together with Mr Blankenship.
The men formed their business partnership with the objective of bringing their skills and experiences together to enable them to reach a more global clientele, and to diversify the products of the academy to include international leadership skills and cross-cultural understanding.