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.