What is UNOSEL ?
Created in 1978, UNOSEL is a non-profit association, with currently 57 members who are organizers of educational and language stays, and summer/holiday camps. Members commit themselves to 4 core values : Trust, Ethics, Security and Education.
To become a UNOSEL member, an organization has to follow a labelling process which may take several months. If all criterias are met and their inspection is passed, they obtain the UNOSEL Quality Label. Accredited members are then re inspected every 2 years. Our inspections insures that all members meet the required standard of quality.
UNOSEL members who are acting as agents are considered fully responsible for every aspect of a course/stay. Therefore partner schools/providers are also required to meet all the standards defined in the label.
A major role in the profession
For more than 40 years, UNOSEL has been active in the development of educational provision for young people and adults. It is the largest federation of language schools and of language and educational tour organisers.
UNOSEL sits on the NF-Service Special Committee (“Comité Particulier”) for Language Study Tour Organisers.
As an expert in the field, UNOSEL took an active part in the creation of the European Standard for language tours and language courses under the aegis of the European Standards Committee (CEN – Comité Européen de Normalisation).
Members of UNOSEL are a mixture of large and small structures, companies or non-profit making organisations who, within the association, all have an equal say in decision making. For operational purposes, members work on three committees : Educational Tours for Schools, Language Study Holidays, Educational Tours for Young People. These committees meet very regularly to examine and discuss each sector’s problems, to invite experts in the field for their opinions, thereby making progress in the quality of each sector.
These committees are UNOSEL’s life blood. It is within them that the majority of decisions are taken, and the Federation’s positions on different matters are decided. They also provide a forum for members to exchange information and ideas about the way their activity is evolving and developing.
UNOSEL’s Mission Statement
UNOSEL was founded to advise and protect participants of language study holiday and educational tours for young people and adults by ensuring that their expectations were satisfied. Among other things, this pre-supposes that the client deals with a professional organisation that complies with current French legislation.
UNOSEL helps the profession to develop, and thereby enhances its image ; defends its interests and ensures that it is properly represented in France, in Europe and throughout the world
UNOSEL maintains regular contact with prescribers, ministries, tourist information offices, local authorities, multi-national companies, professional organisations, parents’ associations, consumer organisations, and workers’ council representatives. This ongoing search for dialogue enables us to be aware of each others’ problems and to contribute to finding possible solutions.
UNOSEL is a strategic and technological observatory over the language learning business. This enables us to collect important information about markets, products and consumer expectations.
UNOSEL encourages the development of relations between existing institutions to attain common objectives.
