Successful Plan to increase Spanish students to Castile and Leon

The 2005-2011 “I Plan del Español” (Spanish Plan I) has, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, incremented the volume of students who choose Castile and Leon, Spain to study Spanish by 37%.

According to Alicia García the Spanish Plan played an extremely important role in this increase. By the end of 2010, 45,000 students came to Spain to study Spanish either in Castile and Leon or through companies registered to the Spanish region.   

Additionally, at the beginning of the initiative the region had 17 Spanish schools accredited by the Cervantes Institute. Today, that number has increased to 24.  In fact, in 2005 only 55% of the Spanish schools offering courses to foreigners were accredited by the prestigious Cervantes organization, whereas today 94% of them are accredited and fully functioning Spanish schools.

Another focus of the first Spanish Plan was to offer scholarships in order to make Spanish learning less seasonal, with the majority of students arriving in the summer. The scholarships offered used to number around 300, now the scholarships available to learn Spanish have nearly doubled.

According to the Minister of Tourism and Culture, their direct promotion efforts used to only make direct contact with 1,000 students a year, whereas today over 20,000 students are contacted in Spanish promotion efforts.

Alicia Garcia went on to explain that the city of Salamanca is at the head of Spanish teaching in Castile and Leon, attracting more than 28,000 Spanish students every year.  However, the other provinces of Castile and Leon have also seen an increase, indicated that Spanish learning has a great economic potential for the region.

Spanish Plan II

With a solid framework for the future, the Spanish Plan II initiative is on the table to promote Spanish as a Foreign Language from 2012-2015.  The plan is set to be approved in the spring of 2012.

The new program will have 2 major objectives and 3 principal strategies. The first is to bring together the public and private sector to be more competitive abroad, increase and diversify activities and create jobs in the sector. The second objective is to increase institutional cooperation and coordination to improve the efficiency and use of the resources available to the different departments of the Castile and Leon government, the initiatives of local authorities, the chamber of commerce and other participating foundations.  

Study Spanish with don Quijote in Salamanca, Castile and Leon