History | IALC
The driving force behind IALC was Alberto Sampere (1929-2005), a pioneer in teaching Spanish as a foreign language and the owner of Estudio Sampere in Madrid. Together with other language school directors, he founded IALC in 1983.
Founding aims
- To promote cultural & professional exchange through studying modern languages in the countries where they are spoken
- To represent and convey professionalism and expertise in the teaching of foreign languages
- To protect and maintain worldwide the existence of high quality independent language schools
Founding members
- Cial Centro de Linguas, Lisbon, Portugal
- Estudio Internacional Sampere, Madrid, Spain
- Gran Canaria School, Gran Canaria, Spain
- Instituto Michelangelo, Florence, Italy
- The Language Centre of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
- The Montreal Language School, Montreal, Canada
- Pitman School of English, London, England
- Rennert Bilingual, New York, USA
Milestones
- 1983 First meeting in Madrid
- 1984 First IALC Agent Workshop
- 1988 Approval of Constitution, Code of Ethics and Bylaws
- 1990 Incorporation as a not-for-profit company
- 1999 Strategic review
- 2000 Creation of current Quality Assurance Scheme
- 2007 Winner of the first STM Star School Association Award
- 2008 Creation of Partner Agency Scheme
- 2008 Shortlisted for STM Star School Association Award
- 2009 Winner of STM Star School Association Award
- 2010 Winner of STM Star School Association Award
- 2011 Shortlisted for STM Star School Association Award
- 2011 Strategic review
- 2012 Creation of new mission, vision and values
- 2012 Shortlisted for STM Star School Association Award
- 2013 30th Anniversary Workshop in Lisbon
- 2013 Shortlisted for STM Star School Association Award
- 2014 Winner of STM Star School Association Award
- 2015 Winner of STM Star School Association Award
- 2016 Achieved STM Super Star status
- 2017 A record 20 IALC schools shortlisted for the StudyTravel Star Awards 2017
- 2018 IALC is shortlisted for the ST Leading Star Award 2018
- 2019 IALC is shortlisted for the ST Leading Star Award 2019
- 2020 IALC is shortlisted for the ST Leading Star Award 2020
Presidents of IALC
- 1983-1986 Alberto Sampere, Estudio Sampere
- 1986-1989 Renato Borges de Sousa, CIAL Centro de Linguas
- 1989-1992 Cesar Rennert, Rennert Bilingual
- 1992-1995 Mary Towers, The Language Centre of Ireland
- 1995-1999 Juan Manuel Sampere, Estudio Sampere
- 1999-2002 Sonia Di Centa, Centro Internazionale Dante Alighieri
- 2002-2005 Odile Migieu, Cork Language Centre International
- 2005-2008 David Diplock, LSC Language Studies Canada
- 2008-2011 Walter Denz, Liden & Denz Language Centres
- 2011-2014 Alexandra Borges de Sousa, CIAL Centro de Linguas
- 2014-2017 Celestine Rowland, Galway Cultural Institute
- 2017- 2020 Giorgia Biccelli, Linguaviva
- 2020 - Robin Adams, Centre of English Studies
IALC has been shortlisted every year since the study travel industry awards began and is now a ST SuperStar School Association.
Current IALC ST SuperStars
- IALC: School Association
- Dilit
- French in Normandy: French Language School
- GLS German Language School: German Language School
- Liden & Denz Russia: World Language School
- Malaca Instituto: Spanish Language School
- Linguaviva
IALC is very proud to be supported by our IALC Corporate Partners Guard.me International Insurance Services.