FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cognition Consulting Opens New Market in Middle East
New offshore contract augers well for ongoing international success of educational organisation
NEW ZEALAND, Friday, 3 November 2006: Cognition Consulting Limited, an exciting new entity focused largely on
international education consulting projects, has continued to expand its operations in the Middle East with a new school
support project in Dammam, a city in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Des Hammond, Chief Executive of Multi Serve and Chairman of Cognition Consulting, says the Saudi contract involves the
provision of support to teachers and school leadership for the Al Bassam Group, a significant private education provider
in the region.
"This is an important and powerful contract, given that the consulting support our team on the ground is providing has
the potential to facilitate an improvement in the long term quality of life for children in the region," he says.
Executive Director Middle East for Cognition Consulting, John Tait, and Education Consultant, Andy Worrall, are the
Cognition employees involved in the contract. They are initially working in the Boys Section of Al-Bassam Private School
over the next nine months with Yousif Al-Bassam, the owner of the Al-Bassam Schools and Operator of Abu Baker Asedeeq
Independent School in Doha, Qatar.
It was the excellent work of the Cognition consultant team in Abu Baker Asedeeq School over the 2005-06 school year that
prompted Mr Al-Bassam to consider using Cognition Consulting to provide support for his education vision for his own
schools in Dammam, as well as his commitment to education reform in a wider context. Both companies are confident that
this partnership will enhance business opportunities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the results in the Al-Bassam School of the ideas which Cognition can bring to our
teachers and senior staff for the benefit of our pupils and am particularly interested in the influence that the
partnership with Cognition might have on the wider school sector in the Eastern Province," says Mr Al-Bassam.
This venture into Saudi Arabia represents a new and challenging direction for Cognition Consulting. The company has
swiftly capitalised on its very successful operations in Qatar in order to create additional opportunities and
anticipates that this will be the beginning of even wider operations in Saudi Arabia.
"It's an exciting project on a number of levels, specifically because it is building on a successful school that has
progressive ideas and is keen to be at the leading edge of education in Saudi Arabia," says John Tait.
"It's likely that there will be widespread interest from education officials and other schools in the quality of the
practices and programmes that develop in Al-Bassam School and these will provide a working model for school development
in the state education sector," he adds.
Cognition Consulting is already build upon the success enjoyed by its parent shareholder, Multi Serve Education Trust,
which since its inception in 1989 has become New Zealand's leading independent education services provider and exporter.
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