More woes for Nova, gov student assistance cut
Posted by Matt Dioguardi on June 16th, 2007
From NHK news:
厚生労働省は、雇用保険に入っている人を対象に職業能力を高めようと、英会話など指定する６８００あまりの講座の受講者に最高で２０万円を助成する「教育訓練給付金」という制度を設けています。英会話学校最大手ＮＯＶＡの３２のレッスンも助成の対象になっていますが、厚生労働省はＮＯＶＡが特定商取引法の違反行為があったとして経済産業省から一部業務停止を命じられたことを受けて対応を検討していました。その結果、厚生労働省は「ＮＯＶＡは教育訓練を行う事業者としてふさわしくない」と判断し、ＮＯＶＡのレッスンを今後５年間、教育訓練給付金の対象から外すことを決めました。助成金は、すでにＮＯＶＡのレッスンを受講している人にはそのまま給付されますが、今月２０日以降にレッスンを始める新規の受講者には給付されないということです。厚生労働省によりますと、制度ができたこの８年間にＮＯＶＡの受講者に対してあわせておよそ１６０億円が給付されたということです。
I don’t think I understand this article correctly. However, here are the main facts that I think it is saying. This is rushed, so please have someone verify this.
1. There are 6800 people who currently receive some type of government help to study at Nova. Some of these people get up to 200,000 yen.
2. The money comes from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
3. For five years, this money will no longer be offered because of the recent problems at Nova.
4. Over the last eight years the money that has been granted to Nova under the above program has been 16,000,000,000 yen. [Have I added too many zeros?]
Update 1:35 PM
There is now an English article on-line from Kyodo news via Japan Today:
The government provides subsidies for those engaged in educational training authorized by the welfare ministry to improve the abilities of the unemployed and other people. In 1999, Nova’s 32 courses were approved for the subsidies program by the welfare ministry. In fiscal 2006, about 4,700 people received a total of 560 million yen in subsidies under the program. Since 1999, around 71,000 Nova students have received a total of about 16.1 billion yen in such subsidies.
The article also discusses a possible plan to issue new stocks to increase confidence in investors.
Any takers?
June 16th, 2007 at 9:35 am
16億円 should be ￥1,600,000,000, no?
June 16th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
I never can get 億 straight in my head.
However, the Kyodo article seems to confirm the figure.
June 16th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
You’ve got it basically right. Nova’s courses will no longer be eligible to receive money for the government retraining program for 5 years.
The sum you cite is correct. Garrett has missed a zero. The newspapers say １６０億９０００万円, or 16,090,000,000, so let’s call it 16 billion. An easy way to convert numbers written with kanji is to type them in Japanese (if you can), and then hit the henkan key. It’ll show you the “long form” of the number.
June 16th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Thanks for the tip, I’ll remember that!
June 16th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Sahashi owns something like 50% of the shares himself. This is like a mini-IPO, an attempt to get some desperately needed cash.
At 85 yen a share?
June 16th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Matt, as Shawn pointed out, you were absolutely right. I did indeed miss a rather important zero. Sorry about that.
I know what you mean about 億, Matt. I know full well that it’s 100 million, but I still second-guess myself. (I should have done so this morning. Or read carefully.)
I’m still surprised at the number of students I have, at a top university, who speak English pretty well, and are crippled by numbers. I guess there’s something to be researched there - maybe we don’t think of numbers in their Arabic numeral forms, but as words. Numbers are the main thing I find myself translating in my head: “千万 is a thousand ten-thousands, so that’s ten millions, which is ten million.” (Yes, it is sometimes that painfully slow, too.)
Sorry again for calling you on a mistake you hadn’t made.
June 16th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Your conclusion 1. is missunderstud.
“６８００あまりの講座の受講者” means that peaple who take course in 6800 odd schools.
Dont criticize my English,please, because I learned English in NOVA.
June 16th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Dude,
About the government assistance. I think its usually called Kyufukin. To qualify for this government aid, the student has to have been in employment for the last 5 years, I.E. paying into the National insurance and stuff. Then they qualify for a max of 200,000 yen of aid from the government. it used to be higher. All eikaiwas offer this program. The government liscences individual courses, making them eligible for the aid.
The students pay the full whack up front, and when the course is finished, all 1 year courses, they need to have an 80% attendance rate, and pass a diddy English test, just to show they took it seriously, and actually learned something. They can then apply to the government for the 200,000 yen aid to be re-inbursed. The cash actually goes to the student. Of course, its very beneficial to the eikaiwas too, bringing their courses into a more competitive price range.
June 19th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
That’s the only thing that matters. Market studies show that issues like scheduling convenience, price, location, even advertizing come above quality of instruction or actual English study in potential customers’ rankings of what’s important in choosing a school. If Nova can’t compete on price, it really has nothing to offer.