The English Language Company based out of Australia has opened a purpose-built campus at a Vietnamese university, to help meet the demand for English language learning.
The school, which opened in this month at Hutech University in Ho Chi Minh City, has enrolled 1,300 students in its inaugural intake.
ELC set up its partnership with Hutech in April in order to help increase English language learning provision among the 35,000 students on campus.
“The number reflects the huge demand in a country like Vietnam”
David Scott, managing director of ELC, said that it was a “very quick process from contract signing to school launch”.
“The first students started studying in mid-August and by September 5, we capped enrolments at 1,300,” he told The PIE News.
“It’s been quite a challenge to build the campus, put in all the resources and staff the college in three short months but we managed to do it.”
Initially the number of students enrolling in the campus was expected to hit 500 in its first intake, and the high demand created a few logistical challenges – such as holding placement tests for 750 students in a day.
“The number reflects the huge demand in a country like Vietnam,” Scott said.
“We only recruited students from the freshman year. They are all new students this year at Hutech and we have found that most of them have a low level of English, exiting high school with an average A2 level. So the demand is definitely there.”
The school offers a variety of English courses for all levels, including general English, Cambridge English programs, IELTS preparation and academic English.
It also offers customised English programs for university faculties.
The school’s senior management comes from ELC Sydney, with teachers joining the campus from ELC’s Vietnam teaching internship program.
The school is aiming expand to enrol 2,000 students for the start of 2018, with future plans to grow to a second campus.
Hutech will also be opening an international high school next year, and ELC will offer extracurricular English language programs for those students as well.
“In total we expect to be teaching up to 5,000 students within five years,” said Scott. “But there is potential for this number to be much higher.”
