‘I love the vibe here. People are very warm, welcoming, supportive. And something I really love is how fresh the air is, and it's also very peaceful and safe. Those are the main things I love about the Isle of Man.’

That’s Thaphaung Awar, Tha for short, she’s from Myanmar and lived in Thailand for close to 13 years before moving to the island. While in Thailand, she worked in higher education and training before becoming Administration Director for LIBT in 2017. If you haven't heard of LIBT, it's a higher education organisation headquartering here in the Isle of Man that offers online courses to adults in tech subjects, business management, and the security space, which the organisation strives to make as accessible and affordable as possible. Besides UCM, it’s the only other higher education entity on the Isle of Man and the only private education provider. Tha and LIBT are well and truly embedded in the community now, but just how easy was the transition from Thailand to the island?

‘With our company we had to use a Business Migrant Start Up Visa, which obviously allowed us to move our company here and getting the visa was probably the most straight-forward part of the moving over process. We had to wait about three months for it to come but it was smooth sailing. The main hiccup we encountered was trying to find accommodation.’

This isn’t the first time accommodation has popped up as potentially the most difficult part of moving to the Isle of Man. One of the Department for Enterprise’s agencies, Locate Isle of Man, specialises in helping to make people’s move over to the island as easy and smooth as possible, which includes having a page on their website specifically dedicated to how best to find accommodation (www.locate.im/living/housing). There are also Facebook groups where people share new listings to rent or buy.

‘It was quite frustrating,’ Tha tells me. ‘With me, as a single person, it felt like just being considered was a bit of an exam. I’d say it took me roughly about a month to find accommodation, luckily, I had a friend here who helped me out.’

It’s no mean feat uprooting your life, leaving family and friends to move somewhere completely different where you barely know anyone, but Tha found that to be one of the easier parts of moving to the Isle of Man.

‘People have been so welcoming, especially in terms of liaising with different departments of Government about our business (LIBT) and the Chamber of Commerce. Everyone has been so very helpful so in that sense we’ve been given a lot of support.’

I asked Tha if there were any things in particular that she missed from home since being here.

‘JustEat’, she told me, laughing. ‘The easiness of ordering food at any time of day and night and having it delivered on your doorstep. Places shut a lot earlier over here so, in the beginning, that was quite difficult to adjust to. But it’s been nice adapting to the slower lifestyle and not being all-go all the time.’

Tha also mentioned the big one. Weather.

‘I’m getting used to it now, but the main frustration when it comes to the weather here is how often it can impact getting on and off the island. With LIBT we can have a fair amount of meetings in the UK, which we’ve missed a few of because of cancelled boats or delayed flights.’

LIBT has been set up in the Isle of Man for just over two years now. You can find it nestled on the corner of Prospect Hill across from the Government Wedding Cake building. But how has the business settled into the community?

‘People seem to be loving what we do. It's exciting. It's new. I don't think there's anyone else doing what we do here, not to the same degree,’ Tha tells me enthusiastically. ‘And the potential as well is massive. You know, it's not necessarily about what we're doing today, it's about the opportunities we can open in the future, and the benefits that can bring to the Isle of Man.’

To find out more about LIBT, visit libt.co.uk