Memberships

Bildungsurlaub Approval

Bildungsurlaub Approval is a program funded by the German government that allows employees to take paid leave in order to participate in educational programs, including language courses.

FEDELE schools hold this official recognition within the German educational leave program “Bildungsurlaub.”

As the winner of the ST Star Service Provider Award 2025, the company has earned international recognition for the high quality of its services, its industry expertise, and its commitment to simplifying the complex German approval process for language schools worldwide.

Through its platform Bildungsurlaub-Approval.com, the company offers comprehensive guidance on the specific requirements of each German federal state, ensures the preparation of accurate and regulation-compliant documentation, and helps institutions strengthen their online visibility among German professionals seeking Spanish courses accredited as Bildungsurlaub. This combination of regulatory expertise and digital optimization enables FEDELE member schools to obtain faster approvals, increase their presence in the German market, and attract a greater number of Bildungsurlaub students.

As a FEDELE partner, Bildungsurlaub Approval plays a key role in promoting Spain as a leading destination for high-quality, officially recognized Bildungsurlaub programs. The company connects Spanish language schools with thousands of German professionals seeking certified educational leave opportunities, contributing to the sustainable growth of FEDELE members in an increasingly competitive international education market.

ALTO

FEDELE is a non-profit member of ALTO (Association of Language Travel Organizations).

FEDELE, thanks to this membership, is part of a professional forum in which the main challenges are discussed, and great experiences of language tourism are shared. This forum also includes linguistic agencies from all over the world and schools dedicated to language teaching. FEDELE represents the schools in which Spanish is taught as a foreign language.
The members of the forum or managing board of ALTO are firmly committed to developing an honest collaboration to offer a real value to each of its members.

ALTO gives FEDELE the opportunity to be present in a global platform for leaders and professionals of the language sector in which to develop their professional network, increase and improve the Spanish sector in Spain, develop professionally and exchange ideas and experiences.

In addition, FEDELE enjoys the following benefits:

• It is part of excellent educational and language development opportunities and develops great professional ties in the sector.
• FEDELE can participate in events and workshops together with great professionals of the language tourism sector, promoting the Spanish in Spain brand in-person and through the ALTO website.
• FEDELE is part of future proposals to improve the organization of workshops and training sessions with the aim of ensuring the continuity and sustainability of the increase of the international linguistic industry and, in particular, safeguarding the quality of teaching Spanish in Spain.

GAELA

]Gaela (Global Alliance of Education and Language Associations), founded in 2000, has representatives of the language tourism sector and teaching of languages from around the world who share the objective of making stays in countries around the world to learn a foreign language. GAELA members meet at least once a year to contemplate the main trends in the language tourism sector. This meeting always takes place the day before the AGM ST Alphe UK celebration.

FEDELE as a member of GAELA and together with FELCA, have a prominent role in the language tourism industry. The schools that GAELA and FEDELE represent, are a group of language centers with high-quality standards in which students get the confidence and security to enjoy their stay while learning a language. Although the centers belonging to GAELA and FEDELE are rivals between them, the union and common commitment developed by both entities, make the schools much more productive and safeguard the language sector and, in case of FEDELE, safeguard the teaching of Spanish in Spain.

The objective that GAELA and FEDELE share are:

• Strengthen links between associations that promote learning a language through studies and stays abroad and provide a meeting point for the exchange of experience and improvements among professionals in the sector.
• Promote the learning of languages as a foreign language along with a linguistic and cultural immersion.
• Establish quality standards in language teaching with the aim of guaranteeing students an adequate service.
• Present to administrations and public entities new proposals that help regulate and safeguard the quality of teaching and learning a foreign language based on reports that collect information about the management of their schools.
• Share initiatives to continue developing the professionalism of the staff.
• Establish communication with organizations and entities that represent linguistic travel agents and with which they can share topics of mutual interest, with the objective of improving the quality of the service offered to the students.

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ICEF

ICEF, founded in 1960 in the heart of the international education industry, facilitates access to strategic relationships, expert knowledge, and high-quality training to drive the growth of educational institutions, student recruitment agents, and associated service providers. Its main mission as an organization is to promote excellence in student recruitment for international education, working to improve student outcomes and experiences worldwide.

To achieve this, ICEF created the ICEF Agency Status (IAS), a comprehensive accreditation and quality assurance program that ensures transparency and integrity among international education agencies. With over 2,200 agencies from 127 countries listed in our open-access online directory, IAS has become the largest and fastest-growing independently accredited agency network in the industry, setting the internationally recognized global standard for quality.

The ICEF Agency Status (IAS) has received overwhelming support from more than 300 key industry stakeholders, including education providers in the language sector, service providers, government agencies, and destination promotion bodies. All of them are committed to global self-regulation and dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of best practices in international student recruitment. Among them, FEDELE has joined and supports this program as an IAS Supporter.

As an IAS Supporter, the Federation is committed to safeguarding the language education sector through a secure network of agencies monitored under the umbrella of the ICEF Agency Status program and its organization.

The program is composed of: