EQuest Education Group
EQuest Group is a private educational group in Vietnam consisting of 16 member units in 4 main operating sectors: K12; University, college and vocational school; English As A Second Language (ESL); Education Technology (edtech).[1] EQuest also has member schools that include kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, high school, colleges, universities and study abroad connections. As of July 2020, EQuest Group has 35 educational institutions in Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City; There are 215 courses, 2,500 lecturers and staffs; 80,000 currently enrolled pupils and students.
Private | |
Industry | For-profit education |
Founded | 2003 |
Founders | Nguyen Quoc Toan |
Headquarters | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |
Key people | Nguyen Quoc Toan |
Website | equest |
History of formation and development
EQuest has two predecessors, EQuest Academy, founded in 2003 in Hanoi and Institution of American Education (IAE). At the beginning, a group of Vietnamese intellectuals studying master and doctoral programs in the United States came together to come up with the idea of creating an original organization with the goal of bringing Vietnamese students to America to study. Therefore, EQuest Academy was established and provided a package of services for studying abroad in the US, including international certificates training such as TOEFL, IELTS, SAT, soft skills, documents preparation, schools and scholarships information, ... This was an important service for a long time when EQuest was first established.
In 2007, EQuest Academy opened its first campus in Ho Chi Minh City and gradually shifted its focus to the Southern region.
Before, in Ho Chi Minh City, another group of Vietnamese and American educational investors had established Institution of American Education (IAE) in 1999. IAE developed for a while and had some affiliated educational units such as American Polytechnic College, BTC ... Later, while expanding operations in Ho Chi Minh City, shareholders of EQuest and related companies carried out the acquisition of shares of foreign investment funds in IAE in the third quarter of 2013.[2] It was a backward M&A deal when a younger unit acquired and merged with another previously established unit to form a private educational corporation.
After this M&A deal in 2013, all member units of this group were restructured and operated under legal entity IAE. Until 2016, TAEL Partners - one of Singapore's investment funds has invested in IAE to help IAE expand its operations and form a completed education ecosystem.
After that, IAE has taken a series of M&A activities to form a larger scale IAE and one of them is merging with Viet My VATC Education.[3] From these predecessors, IAE continued to cooperate, invest and merge with more companies and schools to form a diversified educational group.
By 2019, IAE's education ecosystem has been quite completed with levels from pre-school, primary, secondary, high school ... to university, college and vocational training as well as study abroad connection via Broward College Vietnam and overseas study services. This ecosystem consists of 4 active sectors. In November 2019, IAE decided to change its name to EQuest Education Group (EQuest Group). The group's goal now is to become more diversified, including bringing Vietnamese high quality programs and international standard programs such as the US Common Core to a large number of Vietnamese students with the best price. At the same time, we are promoting the digital and technology application in teaching through the system of digital lessons and blended learning methods at high schools throughout the country.
EQuest's historical milestones:
- 11/5/1999, the precursor of EQuest Group - Institution of American Education (IAE) was established
- 2000: Broward College established the only branch in Vietnam and became a member of IAE
- 1999: Viet My VATC education became a member of IAE
- 2007: American Polytechnic College became a member of IAE
- 2007: iTD Academy was established
- 2009: IvyPrep Education was founded in Hanoi and was originally a center to teach English and prepare for study in the US. This is the second precursor of EQuest Education Group.
- 2012: iSMART Education was established
- 2015: English Champion was founded and organized by EQuest Education
- 2016: TAEL Partners invested in IAE
- 2017: Saigon Polytechnic College became a member of IAE
- 2018: Victory Experimental Education System became a member of IAE
- 2018: Alpha School became a member of IAE.[4]
- 2018: Phu Xuan University became a member of IAE
- 2018: Newton Grammar School became a member of IAE.[5]
- DreamLab became a member in the same year.
- IAE changed its name to EQuest Education Group.[6]
- 2019: Platform 789.vn became the latest member of EQuest Group.[7]
Products & services
EQuest Group has 4 operating sectors with 4 main product and service lines:
- 'K12': including Victory Experimental School, Newton Grammar School, Alpha School, Dong Do High School (Ho Chi Minh City).
- 'University, College and Vocational training': including Saigon Polytechnic College (SPC), American Polytechnic College (APC), Phu Xuan University, Broward College Vietnam.
- 'Educational technology': including iSMART Education and its subsidiaries: Dreamlab, 789.vn, EcoStudy ...
- 'English As A Second Language (ESL)': Including IvyPrep Education, VATC, English Champion ... The main activity is teaching English and international certificates such as IELTS, TOEFL, TOIEC ... and other activities. In 2016, two members of EQuest implemented an exclusive solution in English training based on Jewish digital technology in Vietnam.[8] Each year, the English Champion attracts more than 30,000 students and this is a nationwide non-profit activity for students.[9]
Every year, our ESL member units have English competitions for Primary, Secondary students and nationwide English Champion contest.[10]
Human Resource Policy
By 2020, EQuest Group has over 2,500 employees. There are many PhDs and masters who have studied abroad and have experience in teaching, administration and other fields .[11][12]
The member units
Vietnamese-American Vocational Training College
VATC is one of the oldest leading English center due to its good core values and is supported by students across the country. Currently VATC has facilities in Can Tho, Dong Thap, Hau Giang and is continuing to develop in Vietnam.
American Polytechnic College
American Polytechnic College focuses on training program that are applicable to social needs such as Health Care, Economics - Services, Foreign Languages, Design, and Information Technology. The programs are based on a credit system for 2 years and 4 months.[13][14][15]
iTD Academy
iTD is one of the Cambridge Assessment English (CAE) exam academy. iTD organizes Cambridge English exams in Vietnam such as Cambridge English Qualifications, Cambridge Teaching Qualifications, Linguaskill.
IvyPrep Education
IvyPrep Education operates in the field of English training, study abroad scholarship and American K12 online courses.
iSMART Education
iSMART Education is an educational technology unit, offering English learning through Math and Science with a smart classroom model which is applied at 165 schools across the country with nearly 60,000 students enrolled.
Saigon Polytechnic College
Saigon Polytechnic College has diverse majors and especially advanced in health care training program.
Victory Experimental Education System
Victory Experimental Education System consists of 3 levels: Preschool, Primary, Secondary School. It is also the first experimental school that combines experimental educational methods with bilingual training programs such as American primary and secondary school programs.
Alpha School
Alpha School System includes Primary, Secondary, and High School. Alpha School's educational model towards the comprehensive development of students includes: Personality education; skills and knowledge development; 8 output criteria of a good citizen and a competent person.
Alpha School has activities to train personality and leadership as well as cultural activities for students [16]
Phu Xuan University
Phu Xuan University is the first and only private university in Hue City, and is also the first university which applies "Learning Office" and "Learning Project" in training to develop the working skills for students.
Broward College Vietnam
Broward College Vietnam (Broward College) is one of 10 official international centers in the world of Broward College - Top 03 Community College in the United States. Students can choose 2 + 2 program (2 years studying in Vietnam and 2 years studying in the US) or can choose to study for 4 years in Vietnam.[17]
Newton Grammar School
Newton Grammar School is a system of schools from primary school to high school. Newton Grammar School students have a tradition of learning, achieving many achievements in national and international exams.[17]
DreamLab
DreamLab is a technology company operating in the field of high-tech applications in teaching, learning and educational management. Some typical products are: EcoStudy, iDIGI, TADA, Thilado, ...
789.vn
789 provides a platform that allows teachers to create test online as well as organize and manage them through digital platforms instead of paperwork as before.
Dong Do High School
Became a member in 2019. Dong Do Private High School is located in Binh Thanh District, operating under both day-boarding and boarding model.
English Champion
Founded and organized by EQuest Education, with professional sponsorship from iSMART Education, English Champion has become the leading academic English contest in Vietnam with the scale of 30,000 candidates participating nationwide each year.
Ivy Global School
Based in Florida (USA), currently being the partner of the leading educational units such as Mizzou Academy, Edmentum...
References
- "EQuest Overview".
- "Đầu tư vào giáo dục qua M&A, không dễ".
- "Thương vụ VATC và sự soán ngôi của nhà đầu tư nội".
- "IAE trở thành đối tác chiến lược của Hệ thống giáo dục Alpha School".
- "Tổ chức giáo dục Hoa Kỳ trở thành đối tác chiến lược của trường Newton Hà Nội".
- "EQuest Education Group đầu tư vào nền tảng ứng dụng số hoá và big data cho giáo dục 789.vn".
- "Education Group đầu tư vào nền tảng số hoá giáo dục 789.vn".
- "Ký kết triển khai độc quyền giải pháp đào tạo tiếng Anh theo công nghệ kỹ thuật số của người Do Thái".
- "30 nghìn học sinh dự thi English Champion 2017".
- "Thi tiếng Anh cho học sinh Tiểu học và THCS".
- "Ông Bạch Ngọc Chiến về làm việc tại Tập đoàn EQuest".
- "Ông Bạch Ngọc Chiến thôi việc nhà nước, sang giữ chức Phó chủ tịch Tập đoàn EQuest".
- "Trường Cao đẳng Việt Mỹ: Chọn khác biệt - chọn thành công".
- "12 tập đoàn, tổng công ty tuyển dụng sinh viên Cao đẳng Việt Mỹ ngay tại Lễ tốt nghiệp".
- "Sinh viên trường Cao đẳng Việt Mỹ được tuyển dụng ngay tại Lễ tốt nghiệp".
- "Vui Tất niên hồn nhiên đón Tết cùng Alpha School".
- "Lấy bằng quốc tế của Broward College Mỹ tại Việt Nam".