The move is in line with its goal to become the best provider of information communication technology and ICT-enabled education in Asia.
STI senior vice president for Education Management Division Peter K. Fernandez told reporters yesterday negotiations are underway with private investors in Vietnam, China, Jedah and Singapore.
"In China, Vietnam and Jedah, we were approached by companies there. In Vietnam, we have a local partner, Scibase, an IT company whose expertise is on database. The schools to be put up in Vietnam and Jedah will be franchised," Fernandez said, adding that each school, would cost from P5 million to P7 million.
In general, STI eyes countries with high concentrations of youths from low to middle-income families. STI said earlier it plans to build 50 to 65 schools in Vietnam and as many as 165 schools in Indonesia, which has a population thrice that of the Philippines.
Locally, STI has a total of 103 schools and training centers nationwide, 20 percent of which are company-owned and the rest franchised.
"Our expansion effort is now more on the international scene. We believe that we have covered enough here in the Philippines," Fernandez said.
On the home front, STI plans to open two new schools next year and another five in the next two to three years in several key cities in Luzon. The company is also studying the possibility of putting up a school in the Bicol region.
STI’s education program is information technology-based, expanding into curricula such as health care, education, engineering and business administration. It also opened STI prep schools, iAcademy and Education Centers offering baccalaureate, non-baccalaureate and short courses. It has also ventured into recruitment and placement via its sister company Global Resource for Outsourced Workers Inc. where students are trained and educated for jobs abroad.
Fernandez said the company’s objective is to be known as a nursing school in in the next five years. " In five years time we envision that the ratio of our nursing students will equal those of our IT students," Fernandez said.
STI currently has 21 nursing schools, including STI Delos Santos with more than 4,000 nursing students enrolled this year.
STI aims to operate its placement agency hand in hand with its expansion in other countries, particularly in the US, to look for employment opportunities for its graduates in the Philippines.