The Impact of Brexit on the ELT Industry Management

It is not difficult to understand why it is convenient for a nation to have a large group of educated, motivated and often wealthy young people as influencers once they have returned in their home countries. The English Language Teaching industry has always been led by the United Kingdom but this primacy is today in danger: the other Anglophone countries, understanding the value of these students to their own systems, try to attract them elsewhere by taking advantage of the inconveniences caused by the Brexit. In countries like Australia and Ireland it has been policy at the highest level to build the ELT sector, knowing that the students tend to remain loyal to their temporary home when choosing higher education.  
In this climate, all competitors need an even more explicit welcome to all potential students who wish to learn our language and experience our culture for themselves. Let‟s have a look at this excerpt of the already cited English UK‟s report “International English students & their value to the UK”: 
We are concerned that the end of freedom of movement for EU nations does not cut us off from our key markets, which represent 60 per cent of our members‟ business. We would like to see visa-free travel for students from Europe, and ideally a mechanism for teenage groups to be able to come for courses on a joint travel document without the need for passports. Without this, we fear an accelerated decline for this important industry as potential students choose Malta and Ireland instead.  
Experts in the sector are clearly concerned about the future of the British ELT industry. But what is going on, more precisely? What are the specialists‟ forecasts and hypotheses? Before further deepening the subject it is necessary to give a smattering on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, on what it is, how it works and which will be the consequences if it finally will be approved. 
The term “Brexit” refers to the process of the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union. The process began with a referendum which took place on 23rd June 2016 in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar. The referendum ended with a vote in favor of leaving the EU with 51.9% of the votes - against 48.1% who voted to stay. The split in Great Britain was immediately evident: in Scotland and Northern Ireland, in fact, the "Remain" won, while the "Leave" won in Wales and in deep England. On 29th March 2017, the English Parliament informed the EU of its decision and the path of the State's exit from the EU officially began. As regulated by Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty on European Union, the country leaving the Union and the authorities of the Union itself has two years to negotiate the terms of the separation. This is why, in the same year, the European Parliament in Strasbourg adopted the resolution setting the limits of the negotiations for Brexit, which should have lasted at least until 2019. Postponements, rejections, political reversals, agreements reached and then fallen on deaf ears: the farewell of the United Kingdom to Europe has turned out over time to be much more complicated than expected. We will briefly retrace the steps that have characterized this path so far.