As the world opens up and borders lift their restrictions, opportunities for international education started gaining ground with a 50-percent surge in demand among Filipino students in 2022.
IDP Philippines country director Jose Miguel Habana said the millennial Filipino is hungry for new knowledge, opportunities that can be better provided by studying abroad.
“We have the digital capabilities and the global footprint to not only identify new trends and patterns, but to act on them quickly for our customers and clients. We will be where we need to be in terms of expansion,” he said at the opening of IDP Philippines newest office in Makati City.
Aside from international studies, the demand for overseas employment is also strong. Countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland are starting to hire Filipino workers again
IDP forecasts the market size of international students in the Philippines to grow an annual average of 10 to 13 percent in the next 5 years.
Taking advantage of the bullish outlook, IDP plans to open new offices and IELTS test centers every year, expand the reach of virtual services, and continue to invest heavily in initiatives that will improve IDP’s customer service for both its IELTS and “Study Abroad” business.
IDP plans to open 5 more offices in key cities and provinces in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, including Makati, Davao, and Quezon City, by the end of 2023.
With an annual market of approximately 49,000 international students and being one of the top 3 largest markets in Southeast Asia for IELTS, the Philippines is definitely a key country for IDP’s global operations.
In its Emerging Futures survey conducted in March 2022, the top 6 country destinations are Australia with 15,916 student; Canada with 15,545; US with 5,284; the UK with 2,640; Japan, 2,221; and, New Zealand with 1,334.
Canada is considered by 7 out of 10 students as their choice country for international education or about 70 percent, Australia closely trails Canada with 66 percent and New Zealand tied with the US with 45 percent.
Nearly 4 out of 10 or about 38 percent of Filipino international students candidates chose Canada as their first-choice destination, while 25 percent picked Australia as their first choice.
International student support and good employment opportunities are important aspects among those who selected Canada, while it was safety for those who chose New Zealand as first choice.
From the same survey, respondents identified the UK, US and Australia as centers of high quality education.
The Philippines is one of the first countries where IDP operated outside Australia. It is about this time when the Philippines began playing a major role in international education and development in 1969.
IDP opened its first office in Pasig City in 1985, making it the local pioneer in the industry with 37 years of experience. In 2008, IDP opened its Cebu office to cater to the growing interest in the Visayas.
As a co-owner of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), IDP is helping Filipinos fulfill this requirement for their visa and job application in English-speaking countries.
This is also why IDP is expanding its IELTS operations nationwide. It opened a computer-delivered IELTS laboratory in Bacolod last September and the addition of 5 more offices in 2023 will beef up the presence of IDP in the Philippines.
IDP also runs computer-delivered IELTS laboratories in Pampanga, Davao, and Bacolod bringing the world’s most recognized English proficiency test closer to Filipinos in the provinces. It also administers paper-based IELTS test in around 30 cities across the country.