Two meaningful decades for KinderWorld across Vietnam

Singapore International School graduates

After two decades of providing award-winning educational programmes, KinderWorld is continuing to go from strength to strength and nothing demonstrates that more by the successes met by its students in 2020.

The group has produced top students in the Cambridge International Examinations, both in Vietnam and further afield, at both IGCSE and Cambridge AS/A Levels.

Lee Jong In, from Singapore International School (SIS) at Gamuda Gardens in Hanoi, earned the “Top in Vietnam” award for A Level Mathematics with a 99 per cent score, as well as a “High Achievement” award for Economics.

Last year, he was also the recipient of the “Top in the World” award for a perfect score in AS Level Mathematics. After studying at SIS for seven years, Lee Jong In was accepted to Seoul National University majoring in Computer Science.

Similarly, Ngo Hoai Anh, an IGCSE 2A student from the same school, was awarded “Top in the World” for having attained a perfect 100 per cent for IGCSE Mathematics, out of over 45,000 students who took the exam internationally.

In addition, a team of four students from IGCSE 2 Science Class at SIS in Vung Tau have won Gold Certificates in the Cambridge Upper Secondary Science Competition 2020. The competition involved hundreds of teams worldwide, spending 20-25 hours on a science project with practical or investigative work outside of normal curriculum time.

Well-rounded labour force

The SIS institutions ensure that students have the opportunity to develop character and a range of soft skills by including experiential learning in the curriculum. These courses are professionally organised and delivered by Outward Bound Vietnam (OBV) in consultation with SIS to ensure students are well prepared as future global citizens.

Outward Bound, founded in 1941, is an international independent outdoor education organisation with presence in 38 countries. Besides the first base camp in Quy Nhon, OBV has a second base camp in Halong, which conducts outdoor experiential education, adventures, team-building exercises, discovery learning, and other educational services to local youths, corporate groups, and the community at large.

As part of KinderWorld’s through-train educational pathway, Pegasus International College was also established to provide quality education beyond high school. It offers Vietnamese, ASEAN, and international pathways and qualifications in hospitality, tourism and culinary arts, business and commerce, and English language programmes.

Since 2011, Pegasus has seen nearly 22,500 students, with the college opening for students from the United States, Bangladesh, South Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, and more for its Australian two-year Advanced Diploma programme and other occupational training courses.

KinderWorld places strong emphasis in staff training and development. Staff are given opportunities for professional development through various training courses, seminars, and programmes.

During the recent period of office closures as part of pandemic precaution measurement, the group scheduled a series of online corporate training which covered a range of topics based on the company’s prior training needs analysis, such as elementary finance, tech strategy, business strategy, data protection, and more.

Award-winning curriculum

Along with student success, KinderWorld as a whole continues to pick up plaudits within the industry.

In April, Dun & Bradstreet Singapore awarded KinderWorld International Group with The Business Eminence Award. The award recognises the best performing businesses not only in growth and profitability but also in their track record of corporate governance and social responsibility.

And in January, the group was once again given the Singapore Quality Class certification which recognises its achievements in business excellence standards. The Business Excellence Framework developed by Enterprise Singapore provides a comprehensive set of management standards for business excellence covering the key areas of leadership, customers, strategy, people, processes, knowledge, and results.

The awards have been piling up for years. In 2018, at the ASEAN Business Awards, KinderWorld International Group won Singaporean title for small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) excellence with the Growth Award. KinderWorld also emerged as the overall ASEAN Winner of SME Excellence – Growth amongst the respective country winners in this category.

Last year, KinderWorld Vietnam was honoured to be awarded the Contribution to Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) Award by Hanoi People’s Committee. The company has been recognised for its effort in offering quality education opportunities to children from under-privileged socioeconomic backgrounds and professional development courses to local authority personnel. Over the years, KinderWorld’s total contribution to CSR efforts has exceeded $1 million.

Opportunity and experience

Although a challenging time for people and businesses globally, KinderWorld has reaffirmed an unremitting state of operational readiness to ensure that its core functions and schools operate in a ‘business as usual’ manner. As a result, the company has in place measures such as working remotely, disinfection, and distancing protocols.

The group’s responsibility is to ensure that it continues to develop and enhance value propositions for customers towards the academic and learning requirements of children. Online lessons were delivered during school closures, credit schemes was offered to parents on school fees, and the current rate of fees will be maintained for the next school year.

The company also put in place a dedicated Business Continuity Planning Taskforce, which is working dynamically to adapt and augment plans where needed. Learning initiatives have been quickly stepped up through collaborations with several digital education providers and academic partners to enhance learning across all schools.

Despite the unsettling times, KinderWorld has expressed every confidence in the resilience of its organisation and collective ability to emerge stronger. Its core pillars of product leadership, operation efficiency, and customer intimacy has been the compass in its 35 years of business.

KinderWorld International Group believes its extensive experience in operating international schools will continue to play an integral part in the human capital development in Vietnam. The group’s roots can be traced back to Singapore in 1986 with the establishment of Changi View Child Care Centre. In 2000, KinderWorld made inroads overseas and entered the Vietnamese market following the economic crash and liberalisation of the Law on Enterprises.

Riding on the strength of the renowned Singaporean education brand, chairman Ricky Tan established KinderWorld’s first preschool in Ho Chi Minh City. It was opened by then-Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, now Singapore’s Prime Minister. The opening ceremony graced by PM Loong demonstrated a positive step towards forging strong ties between Vietnam and Singapore through education.

This was to be the start of a progressive and sustained relationship between Vietnam and Singapore. KinderWorld is honoured to continue to play a modest role in leading the way in investing resources to promote human capital development across Vietnam through its network of international pre-schools and international schools.

Over the last 20 years, KinderWorld has established 15 campuses across eight cities and provinces in the country, becoming one of the largest networks of international schools in Vietnam.