Results

SOS Latin America Education Consultancy offers a wide range of consultancy and practical assistance for international education clients and governmental organisations.   Recent work has included the arrangement of logistics for many inbound ministerial visits and higher education student recruitment and networking delegations (both for international officers and for researchers), and outbound familiarisation trips.   We look after all of the logistics, ensuring that visits are seamless, worthwhile and enjoyable for participants.

SOS Education Consultancy represents education clients at all levels in Latin America, whether it is participating in an Instagram live presentation, training agent groups, or acting on behalf of clients at governmental level. Years of experience in the Latin American region has yielded wide ranging and high level contacts with whom great relationships are maintained.

SOS Education Consultancy has organised many international education and research networking events, as well as virtual recruitment events in Latin America since the beginning of the global pandemic. In September 2021, SOS Education Consultancy created and executed Canada Careers by Hi Bonjour, a virtual student recruitment event for students from Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico), in partnership with Hi Bonjour student agency, with the participation of 15 Canadian universities and colleges. The event was a resounding success, attended by more than 3,000 students, from a total of 18,000 registrations acquired through a mixed marketing approach across the target markets. This strategy included social media campaigns, radio and newspaper content placement, and a focused communications strategy throughout.

An expert in the field of international education, Sarah O’Sullivan, founder of SOS Education Consultancy, is regularly invited to join panel and round table discussions at international education conferences in Latin America. Parallel networking meetings are organised for SOS education and research clients during the main proceedings of conferences. For example, during the Faubai International Education Conference in Belém, Pará in 2019, SOS hosted a networking event for five Irish universities to engage with 12 universities from the state of Minas Gerais, under themes of mutual interest (biotechnology & engineering; agriculture; education; linguistics & humanities; mathematics; and environment and renewable energies). At the same international conference, the SOS director spoke on the concept of “Global Community Engagement” for international universities and educators at one of the conference plenary sessions.

Sarah O’Sullivan headed the international news team for the International Congress of Mathematicians, held in Rio de Janeiro in 2018. This role involved managing a team of international journalists in liaison with a team of Brazilian media professionals, to ensure coverage for the most important international math event in the world. An important aspect of this role was to ensure that complicated math concepts were made accessible to a wide audience. SOS also worked as logistics manager for RTÉ Sport during the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, ensuring the flawless execution of complex reporting schedules all around the city, managing minute logistics for a large editorial team.

SOS Education Consultant organised a Brazil Ireland Science Week in 2015, as part of a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) fixed-term investment in research partnerships between Brazil and Ireland. The event resulted in the largest ever science mission from Brazil to Ireland, and important cooperation agreements were facilitated between SFI and FAPERJ (Rio de Janeiro state level research funding agency), as well as between SFI and Confap (umbrella organisation that represents all state level funding agencies in Brazil). More than 80 principal researchers from Brazil, and three funding agency presidents joined the mission, along with a large representation of Irish based researchers, members of the Research Brazil Ireland consortium of Irish universities and research centres.

SOS Education Consultancy advises on regional actions that will increase education brand visibility in Latin America.  Institutional sponsorship does not need to cost a fortune, and can do a lot to help to build brand recognition.  Support in-market events that align with your education institution’s strategic goals. Similarly, participation in academic conferences in target markets by key academics allows an international university to develop an ownership of certain topical issues, and is strongly advised.

In a recent report on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Latin America, showing results of a survey of more than 3000 people, education emerged as the most important action that local people want to see big companies invest in, and three out of four people across six countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru) said CSR impacts their opinion on a brand. International universities can do a lot in the Latin America region, both brand building and investing in progress. At SOS Education Consultancy, we love to help clients find ways to make a real difference. Everyone’s a winner.

Mary Immaculate College is a small liberal arts university in Ireland that enjoyed great success in Brazil in recent years, successfully developing its unique brand around quality teacher training. SOS Education Consultancy was instrumental in arranging an inaugural weeklong visit to the faculty in Ireland in 2018, in partnership with Brazilian Federal funding agency CAPES. This activity directly led to a partnership with the funding agency and the development of a scholarship programme for Brazilian school leaders. (read more client testimonials)

To further align governmental organisation Education in Ireland with students and faculty in the broad area of literature and humanities, and avoid too much focus on hard sciences, SOS Education Consultancy arranged for sponsorship of literature events celebrating Irish author James Joyce in several cities around Brazil, in partnership with local universities. Sponsorship did not cost much, and allowed for greater institutional visibility for the government brand in literary circles in Brazilian academia.

With years of experience in the region, SOS Education Consultancy enjoys a wide ranging contacts ranging from education agents to high end private schools, as well as local universities and senior personnel in federal funding agencies and government ministries. SOS Director is regularly invited to speak at international education conferences and events in Latin America.

Sarah O’Sullivan (SOS) is an experienced journalist and social scientist, understands the brand building capacity of efficient communication in target markets, and enjoys good contacts with education outlets and journalists in the region. SOS Education Consultancy offers specialised research and data analysis services, which can often move slightly outside the education space, creating resources that are relevant to any international entity that has a stake in Latin America.

Talk to us today regarding your communication needs. We will help to identify the concise message you wish to bring to the market, and can help ensure that it gets maximum exposure in the best media outlets.

Scroll through the images in the galleries below, to get a snapshot of some of our results in Latin America in recent years.