ILA VIETNAM: Modern education starts with humanity at heart

Studying at ILA helps students gain skills, knowledge, and improves their thinking

A serious investment in education

In the late 1990s, Vietnam opened its doors to the world. It was the golden time for the country to develop, there was only one requirement – English for people to be able to communicate with internationally fellows. Small classes taught by Vietnamese teachers with dry and old-fashioned textbooks could not handle the societal needs at the time. ILA established a pioneering international-level English language education model – setting a new standard in education with the first line-up of fully native teachers in Vietnam. This new model quickly received a great deal of attention. From a single tiny classroom, ILA quickly grew and became the leading provider of English language training in Vietnam.

Reflecting ILA’s two decades of development, ILA CEO Tran Xuan Dzu shared, “We have always taken the time and resources to invest in improving the quality of our curriculum. We deeply understand that success is when we can fully realise the effectiveness of every single ILA class, so that our students can truly learn something new each day and through this, they grow. That effectiveness can only be measured by students' skills, knowledge, and thinking that develops and is proven through interacting with teachers and friends in a safe, communicative, and collaborative environment, which they would not get by themselves.”

This explains why ILA is to this day both a leader and a pioneer with an innovative and international-standard curriculum. They are not only focusing on English education but also supporting students to develop 21^st century skills and thinking, helping them to be ready for a “future-change-fast".

To assure the ongoing professional development of their academic workforce, ILA fly their staff to prestigious international conferences globally to further study and understand the educational systems in Northern European countries, Australia, or the US. Furthermore, ILA is committed to investing in independent feedback from all customers, to ensure feedback is objectively gathered and that they are able to maintain a measured and open viewpoint on their teaching practice. This is not a minor investment, proven through the total expenditure of VND60 billion ($2.6 million) in 2018 for this commitment. ILA does this for their long-standing and never-changing belief: investing in learning programmes forms the core and determines the survival of an educational organisation.

Students are excited to join ILA@Live online classes

20 years of moving forward

In the past month, in addition to health and safety, children's learning has been a great concern for the majority of Vietnamese parents. ILA – a truly passionate educational organisation with many years of experience in the use of technology in teaching – promptly responded to this concern by implementing the Online Learning Ecosystem, including ILA@Home and online classrooms called ILA@Live, exclusively for ILA students.

In this ecosystem, students not only study English directly with their teachers and friends, but also practise self-paced learning and explore activities with family members. This ecosystem has received numerous positive feedbacks: “It’s been a great support. The kids are still studying with their teachers, there are also many videos, exercises, and activities for children to do all day without getting bored. I can also join my kids and I am learning how to support them from home,” a mother of student learning at ILA said.

This has proved that success comes from a high level of professionalism, smart allocation of resources, deep research, and most importantly, empathy with the needs of the students and respect for the first and best teachers any child has – their family.

ILA’s teachers play a key role in this ecosystem. Joel Swagman, one of ILA's senior and most experienced teachers, said, “The high standards at ILA have constantly made me want to teach better. Because of the continual expectation of high quality, I have grown a great deal in my profession. Only at ILA have I studied specific courses about cultural differences and how to teach Vietnamese children. We’re really proud of this ecosystem. At this challenging moment, we are still provided with the best conditions by ILA to focus our expertise where it matters – on our students and for their parents."

Clearly, the calm and thoughtful manner of ILA's implementation of online learning platforms has solved three difficult problems simultaneously: maintaining the joy of learning for students, providing peace of mind for parents, and keeping up the enthusiasm and energy levels of all staff.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep our balance, we must keep moving,” said one of the world’s most respected innovators and compassionate educators, Albert Einstein. ILA’s two-decade journey have created meaningful milestones for English education in Vietnam and have contributed to growing young Vietnamese generations who are confident and able to change the world through applying both deep skills and a true understanding of global citizenship.