Samuel Beckett bridge, Dublin
Dear Friends,
I hope this finds you well and enjoying 2023.
It’s a new year, and Bennett has big news to announce: WE HAVE INCORPORATED IN IRELAND!!!
Our subsidiary, Bennett International Education Consultancy, Ireland, Ltd. was established Monday, January 23rd. Please join us in hanging up the green, white, and orange streamers and raising a celebratory glass!
As many of you are aware, Bennett has been expanding its outreach in Europe over the past couple of years. Many of our clients are based there, and it is both the origin and destination of much of our work, so it has seemed fitting to increase our physical presence there. In taking this step, we are emphasizing our commitment to our European customers and building a foundation for long-term growth in the region.
Last year, some of you joined us in June as we celebrated our partnerships with two outstanding European education consulting firms: Young Expat Services (YES) in The Netherlands and Educatus in the UK. If you’d like to savor memories of our partnership festivities, please read our July travelogue blog here: Bennett Celebrates Collaborations on the Road!
Additionally, we now have a Client Services representative, Leticia G. de la Rasilla (leticia.gdelrasilla@bennettinternational.com) based in Madrid, who can be reached during European morning hours before Bennett’s US team is online. She is available to field urgent requests and inquiries from our European clients, and her presence is much appreciated. Additionally, she is responsible for providing ongoing education updates to our clients and industry colleagues through webinar discussions, and the next one, scheduled for Feb 8 happens to be about Ireland and its challenging education landscape for relocating families. Please register here.
So, setting up an actual entity in the EU was a natural next step for us, and Ireland was an obvious location for all of the reasons that most of you will guess: many of our clients are either already established or heading there; we do a significant volume of work there; and the country welcomes and accommodates foreign businesses.
And, as those who know me personally may suspect, there was another factor that put Ireland at the top of the list of contenders: yes, the irresistible tug of my distant Irish childhood! Half Irish, I spent a formative portion of my childhood in a lovely coastal town in County Cork, and as an Irish friend and colleague said to me recently, “we Irish have a very strong homing instinct.” I hope to spend more time there in years to come and so, as we tend and grow our Irish business, I’ll be doing so on familiar ground.
We have tried to anticipate the questions that our colleagues and clients may have about our new entity, so please see below to find some answers.
In signing off, I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you who have helped grow Bennett in recent years. It is timely and fun that this announcement coincides with the five-year merger of Bennett and former School Choice International and we can’t wait to see what this next chapter will bring!
Go raibh maith agat agus níos mó go luath,
Elizabeth & Team
Answers to some questions you might have:
If we want to reach Bennett Ireland directly, what is the best way to do so?
Please continue to reach out to our Client Services team with all queries regarding our products and service initiations. They can be contacted at clientservices@bennettinternational.com. For telephone numbers and regional hours of operation, kindly refer to contact us.
Does this require an adjustment of contracts with Bennett?
No. Our Irish entity is a subsidiary of “larger” Bennett such that our existing contracts do not require amendment.
Will Bennett now be able to invoice in euros instead of dollars?
Yes—in due course! Please let us know if this is of particular interest to you.
Are Bennett’s services in Ireland the same as elsewhere?
Our service menu for Ireland has been, and will remain, the same as it is everywhere else—we have a globally-consistent suite of services and fees that guarantees the same deliverables in Dublin as in Paris…or anywhere else on the globe.
What does "Go raibh maith agat agus nos mó go luath" mean?
In Irish, it means roughly, "thank you very much; may you be blessed."
Bennett International Education Consultancy works directly with hundreds of families each year across the globe. We support families by helping them make informed decisions about the best-fit schools for their children; with our guidance, they secure placement in preschools, private day schools, public/state schools, boarding schools, colleges & universities, including schools with particular programs, such as special needs support.