Happy New HEC Year!

  1. Happy New HEC Year!
  2. What is HEC?
  3. Camp News 
  4. Upcoming Events
  1. Happy New HEC Year 2022-2023

The new HEC year has just begun! We want to welcome you to a new year of exciting events and building connections between ALTs and students. The HEC team has new and old members collaborating to bring amazing events to fellow Hokkadians. See who they are here.

  1. What is HEC? 

HEC is the Hokkaido English Challenge. Every year, HEC hosts a test facilitated by ALTs for their students. This test aims to allow ALTs to support their students and let the students flex their English skills in creative ways. 

Top winning students are invited to an English camp. The HEC team designs an immersive English space for students to utilise their skills. During the year, HEC also hosts other events which aim to be fun and build connections within the Hokkaido community.

  1. Camp News 

Camp is coming back! Preparations are well underway. We are planning a safe and immersive English camp for the 1st year Junior High and High School students of Hokkaido. HEC hasn’t been able to host a camp for a few years, so we are excited and optimistic about this coming year. 

HEC is also chasing interest in camp volunteers. Many roles and opportunities are available. To learn more or sign up please head here.

  1. Upcoming Events

Starting the year, we will have a killer Among Us Tournament, Yoga Flow with Megan, and a spooooky Halloween Raffle. There are more details to come, so please keep updated on our news page, instagram or facebook.

The Future of HEC for 2020-2021

The HEC team is very excited to announce that we will be continuing with the Hokkaido English Challenge for 2020-2021*!!

However, due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will NOT be hosting an English summer camp. We will NOT be awarding a homestay experience to the grand prize winner. HEC 2021 will comprise only of the speaking test that is administered by an ALT and a witness. Upon completion of the test, the student will receive a Certificate of Completion that can be supplementary towards high school and university applications.

But we’ve got some good news! We will be allowing both first AND second year junior and senior high students to participate in the challenge for the first time**! That being said, we have increased the amount of winners this year. There will be 1 grand prize plus 2 runner up winners for each grade in the junior high and senior high categories separately, a total of 12 winners! The registration fee has also been lowered to 2,000 yen for this year. 

🥇 The Grand Prize winner will receive up to 30,000 yen in English related gifts of the student’s choosing.
🥈 The second place winner will receive up to 15,000 yen in English related gifts of the student’s choosing.
🥉 The third place winner will receive up to 7,500 yen in English related gifts of the student’s choosing.

Thank you to the ALTs and their students who have expressed interest in doing the English Challenge despite the setbacks of this year. We are endlessly thankful for your continued support and we look forward to cooperating with you for another successful HEC year! Be on the lookout for more details about HEC coming out soon.

* Participation of ALTs and their corresponding Board of Education will vary depending on the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions.

**Entry of second years is currently planned to be limited to HEC 2020-2021 year only, to compensate for the current 2nd year students who applied last year when the camp was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Current 2nd year students can still apply this year even if they didn’t apply last year. Registration is open to ANY 1st and 2nd junior and senior high students.

Registration is limited to 10 students per grade with a maximum of 15 students per school.