GEMS announces strategic partnership to provide world class international career and higher educational counselling

GEMS Education today announced a world class strategic partnership with Intelligent Partners, the leading ‘study abroad’ and university advising consultancy in the Middle East. This partnership will complement existing college and university admissions advisers within the GEMS network.

With the new association, GEMS Education and Intelligent Partners will bring together the best practice from GEMS schools in the UAE, and provide more value to the college and university selection process through access to leading international university partnerships and admissions ‘know how’. 

As a result of this partnership, both GEMS and non-GEMS students will benefit from a wide range of comprehensive services which will support the four pillars of student counselling; career assessment, study abroad options, student standardized assessment and financial aid and scholarships. 

The enhanced career assessment services will start in the early years of secondary education. Students will have access to productive one-on-one counseling and focused psychometric testing based on personality type, learning style and leading modes of intelligence, which will enable them to identify their future careers and plan their study path accordingly. 

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On the study abroad opportunities, services will include the building of relationships with universities worldwide thereby opening the doors for students to apply with confidence, complete application processing and support documentation including references and essays as well as organization of travel and visa arrangements. This will be a comprehensive out of school and into college service. In addition, most university applications have to be supplemented by accepted standardized tests such as SAT, TOEFL, ACT, UKCAT, BMAT etc. so students will be provided learning and testing support of the highest standard.

Finally, realising the financial implications of studying locally or abroad, this strategic partnership will set up a scholarship and financial aid subsidiary which will ensure that deserving students are not limited by economic hardships from pursuing their studies in their chosen institution of higher education. GEMS will be supporting students at every stage with assistance at every level to ensure they can choose the correct university and realise their potential. 

GEMS schools will continue to offer services and counseling as they have done in the past, but now with a centralised resource the GEMS team will be able to enhance these offerings.

Dino Varkey, Chief Executive Officer, GEMS Education, said: “At GEMS we work very hard to ensure that our children are developing to their fullest potential. We are proud of our track record of outstanding academic achievement and over the last five years GEMS students have been accepted into over 1050 universities in 53 countries, including the Ivy League in the USA and the Russell Group in the UK. The ever growing impact our 20,000 alumni are having on the world is testament to the faith and trust placed in us by parents.

“We are very excited that this important partnership extends the depth and breadth of the support we are able to offer our GEMS students as they take their next steps in their academic journey.

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“Given the more complex applications and counseling needs for our multi-cultural, multi-lingual student population, it is clear that a new model is needed.  This strategic partnership will help ease the burden of this complexity and deliver a world-class total educational solution to ensure that every GEMS student will be able to achieve their dreams for higher education at leading universities,” added Varkey.

Sanjeev Verma, Managing Director, Intelligent Partners, said: “We are extremely excited about forging this strategic alliance with GEMS Education which shall take education counselling and advisory services to a new level offering holistic solutions aimed primarily for the benefit of students and parents.”