IDP Education broadens reach in region

Philippe Caron, regional manager for Southeast Asia at IDP Education, said Thailand was an important member of the Asean Economic Community, and to make this country more competitive in terms of English communication skills, IDP was committed to supporting institutions that want to make a difference and equip the next generation of students with the English skills they need.
As IDP is a co-owner of the International English Language Testing System, it has expertise in preparation programmes at the IDP English Centre and is a provider of IELTS tests.
IDP Education is a global company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and reported revenue of almost 400 million Australian dollars (Bt1.03 billion) in its 2016 financial year.
The company has just acquired Hotcourses, a website students can browse for university programmes all over the world. The acquisition is in support of IDP’s strategy to accompany students through their whole international study journey until their first job, the company says.
“We are already a presence in all Southeast Asia countries, except Myanmar. We plan to start IELTS operations in Myanmar [within] the next three years to meet the market needs for globalisation as the country starts supporting its talents to get education abroad,” Caron said.
He said IDP Education also had strong IELTS operations in Vietnam.
“Currently, we have 10 English centres in three particular countries in Southeast Asia, consisting of Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
“For Thailand, IDP first operated its English centre at CP Tower on Silom Road for more than 25 years. We recently renovated the centre and launched it in October last year. We have a solid purpose on focusing the excellence of our resources to deliver the knowledge [to help] Thais perform better in IELTS tests.”
He said IDP Education Thailand started operations in 1988 and opened its IELTS centre in 1989.
The centre has three main business activities to support students, which are: Student placement to help them choose the right university for those wishing to study abroad in an English-speaking country; an English Teaching Centre to help them acquire the minimum level of English required to study abroad; and the IELTS Test Centre to help students meet universities’ minimum English requirements.
IDP Education Thailand has three office in the Kingdom currently, in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen. It offers IELTS test sessions in Bangkok four times a month and in the provinces once or twice a month. It plans to offer test sessions in Nakhon Ratchasima in July and is currently studying the potential for Phuket.
Caron said he was a pure product of the IELTS generation in a more globalised world. He is a French citizen working for an Australian company and living in Bangkok looking after the Southeast Asia market.
“I worked for many different companies. At the beginning, I worked in the fashion industry, and then for education firms. I worked for the British Council for more than seven years when I was in France. After that, I worked in Malaysia for three years, and then in Hong Kong for Oxford University as ... a manager for Southeast Asia. I then travelled back to London to work for a state university. It’s exactly all these opportunities that you can grab.
“So I [have more than 15 years’ experience] in the education field. I [understand] what the student needs,” he said.
Caron said IELTS was mainly used for students wishing to study abroad or people who want to migrate and work in English-speaking countries. But a new use of IELTS is spreading fast: International schools add it to their curriculum to make sure that their students are ready for international studies. “Plus with the IELTS test preparation, students learn how to develop employability skills and improve their critical thinking,” he said.
Caron said IDP’s business direction for Southeast Asia was to emphasise expanding partnerships, which consist of three different aspects:
Registration Partner: “We are aim to work closely with English tuition centres and student placement agencies in helping students reach out to us if they need to apply for IELTS tests.”
Test Partner (Non-Public): These are groups of stakeholders such as international schools and universities.
Test Partner (Public): Universities collaborate with IDP as a public test centre.