STI expansion slows as it diversifies offerings

Systems Technology Institute (STI) will slow school expansion in order to develop more educational products. It hopes a wider product portfolio will make the company attractive enough for a public listing in two to three years.

 

"Locally, the viability and capacity to build a new school is not good," STI senior vice-president for Education Management Peter Fernandez told BusinessWorld in an interview yesterday.

 

However, he mentioned plans of putting up an extension to its existing Davao branch. This is feasible, he said, because of Davao's large population, and the demand for IT in the city.

 

STI, Mr. Fernandez said, is more intent on providing new products like hotel restaurant management and business administration courses. He said plans to go public on the Philippine Stock Exchange "are still there."

 

"There has to be a whole slew of products that the market will find attractive ... We will have something definite in the next two to three years," he said.

 

He then gave a rundown of STI's initiatives elsewhere:

 

  • Although previously approached by a company in China , Mr. Fernandez said his company is not that keen on that country. "We're not very keen on China," he said, citing already intense competition there, besides the people's poor English skills.

     

    Still, he noted state efforts in China to increase the number of English-speaking citizens in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The results of this drive, he said, may change STI's plans in that country.

  • In Indonesia , there are currently four STI schools: two of these are franchised and the other two in which STI has minority ownership.

     

  • STI's IT school in Vietnam is all set to open for the next school year beginning September.

     

  • In Dubai, UAE , there are plans for a school targeting overseas contract workers, not necessarily from the Philippines, since there are more Pakistani and Indian OCWs than Filipino OCWs.

     

  • Mr. Fernandez is visiting Riyadh, Saudi Arabia later this month, for talks with a Saudi national interested in putting up a school there.

     

  • So far, there are plans for only one school in the US, particularly in California . STI will likely take over an existing school. "It will be a buy-out because it would be hard to start from scratch," he explained.

     

 

Mr. Fernandez reiterated that the schools both locally and internationally are mostly owned by local partners in specific areas. "We believe the locals know the market better than we do, and there has to be the local flavor factored in," he said.

 

STI's expenditures are mostly in providing the educational content, and converting it to local needs, he explained. -- P. C. H. How