30 May 2013
Ottawa, Ontario
The Government of Canada is committed to increasing educational ties with other countries in the Americas. To this end, Prime Minister Stephen Harper welcomed the announcement today that 40 Chilean students will attend Canadian public high schools for six months, beginning later this year.
In November 2012, the Government of Chile launched Pingüinos sin Fronteras (Penguins Without Borders) to encourage Chilean high-school students to learn English by studying abroad. Building on the strong economic, educational and cultural ties that exist between Canada and Chile, this new education initiative will, for the first time, see Canada hosting Chilean students in schools across the country. Furthermore, the program will help Chilean high-school students improve their intercultural skills, thereby increasing their future employability and their understanding of the world. Canadian students also benefit from getting to know youth from Chile and learning about their culture.
Under the Penguins Without Borders Program, the Government of Chile pays students’ travel and accommodation expenses while they are abroad. The initiative underscores the value of student exchanges as a way to create and strengthen people-to-people linkages that will endure into the future.
Canada is currently among the top foreign study destinations for Chilean post-secondary students, who are supported by both Chilean and Canadian international scholarship programs. Chilean and Canadian post-secondary educational institutions enjoy a long-standing partnership and have a number of agreements that support student mobility, faculty exchange and joint curricula programs. Canadian post-secondary institutions hosted 500 Chilean students for periods of more than six months in 2012.
