Foreign education institutions expand focus on STEM education

Students are encouraged to experiment and try new things at AEG's STEAM English programme

Recognising the need for improved educational environments that better prepare Vietnam’s future generations, American Education Group (AEG) has developed its STEAM English Programme—the world’s first and only curriculum to combine the American STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) method with English-language learning. STEAM is the next generation of STEM, with the “A” representing “Arts,” allowing for greater creativity in the programme and more personalised learning for students.

Most recently, AEG has announced its official STEM certification awarded by AdvancED—the world’s largest community and organisation of education professionals in the world. In receiving this certification, AEG has proudly become the first and only certified provider of the STEAM English programme in all of Asia.

According to Tristan Makin, AEG’s academic director, STEAM is a unique programme that allows students to learn English naturally in an environment that promotes collaboration, imagination, creativity, and critical thinking—the valuable skills of a 21st-century leader.

As a pioneer of STEAM education in Vietnam, AEG has developed a collaborative, integrated learning environment within its STEAM English programme. Partnerships and integrated project experiences align students’ work with real-world STEM applications.

Furthermore, AEG’s teachers encourage students to solve problems creatively, think critically, and collaborate extensively, using authentic learning experiences aligned with the real work associated with STEM career fields.

Another STEM education provider, Sylvan Learning Vietnam, is also betting on the Vietnamese market. Nguyen Thi Trieu Thanh, general manager of Sylvan Learning Vietnam, said that STEM programmes were introduced in Vietnam only a few years ago, but have been growing at a rapid pace. Vietnamese parents are willing to spend more on their children’s education, which makes it easy for STEM programmes to develop in Vietnam. However, at the moment, STEM programmes are competing with other arts and sports courses in terms of extracurricular time as well as money.

“It is still considered a fun programme, rather than something that affects a child’s future directly, like English and maths,” Thanh said. "However, with more parents exposed to worldwide trends, and younger parents being better educated, STEM will definitely gain priority in the next five years."

In fact, demand for STEM education often grows in parallel with various factors, such as economic growth, technological improvements, and rising demand for engineering talent to drive the growth of the technology sector.

As Vietnam is working to grow its skilled workforce for sustained economic growth and technological advancement, the demand for STEM education is poised to grow rapidly in the next few years. In this context, more STEM programmes are introduced and developed to fill a gap in the market.