A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(October 2023) |
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Education |
Founded | 1965 |
Founder | Bertil Hult |
Headquarters | , |
Key people | Philip Hult, Chairman Eddie Hult, CEO |
Number of employees | 52,000 [1] |
Website | www |
EF Education First (abbreviated as EF) is an international education company that specializes in language training, educational travel, academic degree programs, and cultural exchange. The company was founded in 1965 by Bertil Hult in the Swedish university town of Lund. The company is privately held by the Hult family.
As of 2017, EF had approximately 52,000 employees in 116 countries. [2]
Bertil Hult dropped out of college to launch EF in 1969. He had earlier dropped out of junior high and gone to work for a ship broker in London, where he learned English by immersion; he had been unable to learn it in school due to dyslexia. The company started selling a French language course to Swedish students seeking to study in France, but he thought English was a bigger market and started offering services throughout Europe. In 1972 a friend convinced him to open a school in Japan, just when English-language keyboards were introduced there, and the company experienced explosive growth. The company expanded to the US in 1983, first establishing headquarters in California and then in Boston in 1988. [3]
Hult never took outside investment and instead grew the company through revenue. [3] By 2014, EF had approximately 37,000 employees in 55 countries. [4] By that time, Hult had stopped running the company and had passed leadership to his sons. [3] [5]
EF Learning Labs publishes the annual EF English Proficiency Index, a ranking of English language skills by country. [6] [7]
EF has developed a standardized English test called the EF Standard English Test. [8]
The company also offers an e-learning program for adults called "EF English Live," which was formerly known as "EF Englishtown." [9] EF English Live program has been certified for pedagogical quality by the Education Alliance Finland. [10] Through a division called EF Tours, the company offers educational tours, service learning tours, [11] and conferences. [12]
In 2019, seven of its English teachers in Xuzhou allegedly tested positive for drugs. The case ignited discussions about EF's hiring practices, leading to its suspension from China Association for Non-Government Education. [13]
In 2020, a former teacher of EF was charged for exploiting a previous pupil in China. The defendant, an American national, threatened to post video footage of the student's sexually explicit conduct online unless she sends him more images and a video of herself engaged in similar acts. EF said that the alleged crime happened after the man returned to the US when his contract in China had already been terminated for violating the company's code of conduct. The company's spokesperson declined to explain the specifics of the violation. He has pled guilty in a Missouri court to sexual exploitation of a minor and to receiving and distributing child pornography. [14]
EF has been highly criticized for the maladministration of students taking its courses. On 17 February 2022 Claudio Mandia an Italian student participating in the program of the EF Academy in New York, took his own life after four days of punitive isolation in a White room, in which he had been placed waiting for his expulsion after being caught copying a math homework. [15] The school has always denied the circumstance that the young man was in a state of confinement, the room "was not locked" and "could have social interaction", was the reply of the Academy of Thornwood to the accusations of Claudio's family members. [16] However, according to the family and friends Claudio was told by school staff that he "did not have permission to leave the room and that the corridor had CCTV".
Following the story of Claudio Mandia, the Italian television show "Chi l'ha visto?" have brought to light many testimonies from students who participated in the EF Academy study trips. Among the testimonies, there are cases as students being hosted by drunk parents, and even one host parent that shot a neighbor. [17] [18] [19]
In 2018, they became the owner and title sponsor of the Slipstream Sports cycling team, which then became known as EF Education First–Drapac p/b Cannondale. [20]
Language education – the process and practice of teaching a second or foreign language – is primarily a branch of applied linguistics, but can be an interdisciplinary field. There are four main learning categories for language education: communicative competencies, proficiencies, cross-cultural experiences, and multiple literacies.
Gulliver Preparatory School or simply Gulliver Prep, is a private co-educational school. Its management offices are in Kendall, a census-designated place in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Its four campuses are across the county.
Bertil Eric Hult is a Swedish billionaire, known for founding educational and language school company EF Education First in 1965, and for being the patron and namesake of Hult International Business School. In 1971, he moved from Sweden to Germany, and in 1977, he established EF's head office in Lucerne, Switzerland, where he now lives. He served as the company's CEO until 2002 and as chairman until 2008. Today, he is semi-retired. Two of his four sons serve in the company; his oldest son, Philip Hult, as company chairman and his third son, Edward Hult, as CEO of North America. Under Bertil Hult's supervision, EF grew to a multi-billion dollar corporation with more than 40,000 employees in 53 countries.
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Hult International Business School is a private business school with campuses in London, San Francisco, Dubai, New York City, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Hult is named for the school's benefactor Bertil Hult and is affiliated with the EF Education First Group.
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The EF English Proficiency Index attempts to rank countries by the equity of English language skills amongst those adults who took the EF test. It is the product of EF Education First, an international education company, and draws its conclusions from data collected via English tests available for free over the internet. The index is an online survey first published in 2011 based on test data from 1.7 million test takers. The most recent edition was released in November 2023.
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