The location, in an industrial subdivision overlooking the Geneva-Lausanne highway, may not be the most promising for a school appealing to the international set.

But investors from Emirates are counting on opening the Gems World Academy next year to hundreds of students on the premises in Etoy, a community west of Lausanne in the canton of Vaud.

Offering instruction primarily in English, the 14,000-square-metre private school is aimed at the offspring of employees of multinational firms in the Lake Geneva region.

Boasting “world class educational and sporting facilities,” the school is to be operated by Gems Education, which claims to be the largest operator of private schools in the world.

Based in Dubai, the private company runs schools in the UK, the United Arab Emirates, Africa, China, India and the US.

The Etoy school will be the company’s first in Switzerland and continental Europe.

“The project, including the building, is worth 162 million Swiss francs ($172 million),” Rob Curtis, Gems Education marketing manager for Europe, informed The Local.

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