GEOS in trouble

[Ol Dirty Gaijin]

Thousands stranded in college collapses
The Age February 2, 2010

AUSTRALIA'S international education industry has suffered another massive blow with the collapse of eight English language colleges, leaving 2300 foreign students around the country in the dark over their future. The single largest group affected is in Melbourne and has an estimated 530 students unable to complete their courses. Some had just one more week before the end of their course. A total of 390 employees have lost their jobs.
Japanese-owned GEOS, which operates a global chain of English language schools, closed its Australian operations late yesterday.

Industry insiders said the global financial crisis had hit GEOS hard and its Japanese operations were in trouble.

Any whispers on the local operations?

[Mulboyne]

Any whispers on the local operations?

I haven't heard anything but now that this news is being reported in the Japanese press, it will make prospective students wary of signing up which could cause problems for GEOS even if they aren't already in trouble.

[Behan]

LetsJapan might be a good place to look for info.

[Ol Dirty Gaijin]

LetsJapan might be a good place to look for info.

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

[wuchan]

Any whispers on the local operations?

I sometimes go drinking with a guy who works for them. He has been saying for a while now that GEOS has been hit hard by the economy. I wonder how the other "schools" are doing.

[Osakadave]

Any whispers on the local operations?

Yes. I have it on good authority that Osaka Geos management was in contact with a certain labor organization as far back as last October (when the almost wer unable to meet payroll) regarding possible bankruptcy...

I know at least one other of the remaining major eikaiwa has stated that they're in somewhat similar straits....

This turn is not at all surprising.

[james]

iirc, geos in matsue closed a year or so ago. it was apparently quite the sweatshop in terms of lots of unpaid overtime, very poorly managed and from what i heard, the writing had been on the wall for awhile. good riddance i say.

[bolt_krank]

Got some mates running ryu-gaku centres in Sydney. They're in the shit now too for introducing the students. Especially the ones that have paid for residency which is dependent on them completing certain courses.

There's gonna be lots of bitter ripped of people going home this year.