COPEI was created in 1997 as an educational program by Colegio Particular Experimental Politécnico (COPOL), offering a set of English learning related services to the community . Both COPOL and COPEI were established by FUNDAEM, a non-profit foundation of Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral to promote and share innovations in teaching methods and processes thus contributing to the improvement of the country's education system. The massive and favorable response that COPEI has obtained with its innovative, high-quality services, has ranked it as one of the best English teaching programs in Ecuador.