Trần Tuấn Huy completed a master's degree in educational management. In 2000, he became Deputy Director of HỢP TÁC TRẺ Trading and Services Co., Ltd. He is currently Director of the YMCA Living Values and Life Skills Training Center.
With an energetic personality and a desire to contribute to society, he has actively worked in many roles and organizations to gain experience and seek opportunities. “During 4 years working for the British children's relief organization, The Save Children Fund, and more than 5 years volunteering with YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association), I had many opportunities to take training courses:
- Project management.
- Outreach, case management and team development skills (organized by Save the Children UK).
- Social drama.
- Shadow and hand puppetry, organized by SCF.
- Community education through the A Ha method, taught by British experts.
- Gender and Development Issues (Health Education and Communication Center).
- Leadership skills (in Malaysia).
- Living value and Life skills training (in the USA)
- Strategy development and people development (in Switzerland).
- Human resource management (in Japan)”
Once fairly well equipped with knowledge, finances and personnel, he began building his own business.
His entrepreneurial idea arose “from society's need for an arena where children and parents can practice skills, equip children with effective learning skills, and work with families to create the best environment for children's holistic character development (mental, physical, intellectual, ethical and social relationships). As a father myself, I also worry about finding a quality educational environment where my children can develop their character comprehensively.
Recently, the press has often said Vietnamese education is heavy on knowledge but light on teaching people how to live. Juvenile delinquency is rising; children lack motivation to learn and social skills to cope with harmful influences. Family education also faces difficulties because parents have little time to teach their children. We therefore believe the SKILLS PLAYGROUND FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES will directly help parents and children and, more broadly, build a Vietnamese community with heart, virtue, and talent.”
One might think that so many years of experience would make the entrepreneurial path smooth. However, like many others, he encountered numerous difficulties and challenges. When he and 6 founding members applied to establish HỢP TÁC TRẺ Trading and Services Co., Ltd. in 2000, he faced many difficulties because he lacked experience in setting up an office, managing personnel and markets, finding customers, production and services, etc. Undeterred by difficulties, he and his colleagues gradually overcame them and became established the YMCA Living Values – Life Skills Training Center.
The main service the center offers customers is A skills playground for children and families
Method: Based on the educational method of the worldwide Scout movement (Boy Scouts)
The Scout method: The founder of the Scout movement, Robert Baden-Powell set the goal that Scouts would become ‘healthy, happy and helpful citizens..
The method is summarized as follows:
- Education Through Action
- Use the Law and Promise as guides for every action
- Outdoor activities
- In small groups (6-8 children/group)
- Progressive activity content, from basic to advanced through the proficiency badge and rank system
- Self-governing patrols: children manage themselves within their teams
- Symbolic framework: Scout uniforms, ceremonies, traditions, symbols, educational stories…
- Youth leaders accompany and support children.
3 principles of Scouting: duty to oneself, others and spiritual faith.
5 environments for educating children:
– Parents: participate in parenting-skills workshops and training to work with the coaching team in providing the best educational program for children.
– A team of professional coaches.
– Activities in a natural environment.
– Small-group activities: interactions among children help change their awareness, attitudes, and behavior. Each group of 10-15 children has a lead coach and 1 assistant to support and guide them.
– Social projects: Children participate in social activities to develop a sense of responsibility toward themselves, their families, their schools and society.
Educational content: developing life values, life skills, effective study methods, career direction, and children’s talents and abilities to their fullest potential.
Activity schedule: 2-4 hours per week, throughout the year.
Participation in these activities helps develop five aspects of children's personalities: mental, physical, intellectual, ethical and social relationships.
The center has achieved considerable success in its training fields:
- Life Skills Training: decision-making, problem-solving, communication, relationship building, positive thinking, critical thinking, creative thinking, emotion management, time management, financial management, relationship building, effective learning, self-discovery, goal setting, planning, report writing, resource management, teamwork,…
- Living Values Training: peace, love, respect, inner peace, responsibility, trust, happiness, cooperation, solidarity, empathy, …….
- Training of trainers (ToT)
- Training of trainers (ToT) in developing career guidance processes for students.
- HIV/AIDS educational communication skills.
- Outreach and case management skills.
- Teaching communication skills.
- Parenting skills.
- Communication skills for sex and reproductive health education.
- Active learning methods: role-play, games, group discussions, puppet theater, community theater, artistic performances such as folk chants and motivational songs, poster drawing…
- Managing and coordinating volunteer activities.
- Project management.
- Develop, manage, and evaluate training programs.
- Organize Social Events
- Team building – team work. Building and developing clubs and teams.
- Community activity skills.
- Use art in education.
- Leadership skills – Leadership training
- Teaching premarital classes at the Women's Cultural House and parishes.
Has conducted training courses for international and local organizations:
- ActionAid
- AAT (Alliance Against Trafficking)
- Save the Children UK (SCUK)
- Save the Children Sweden (SCS)
- Catalyst Foundation
- Christina Noble.
- Care International (Ho Chi Minh City, Cần Thơ)
- Room to Read.
- Handicap International
- Education For Development (EFD)
- Norwegian Mission Alliance (NMA-V)
- Unicef
- HEKS
- GIZ
- World Vision
- Saigon Children’s Charity
- LIFE Organization
- Guest on HTV7 and VTV3 television
- Social Work and Community Development Research and Consultancy Center (SDRC)
- Social Development Training Center (SDTC), Tôn Đức Thắng University
- Ho Chi Minh City Health Education and Communication Center (T4G)
- Street Youth Program (FFC).
- Ho Chi Minh City HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Committee
- Vietnam Commission for Social Charity – Under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam (CARITAS VIETNAM)
- Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam
- Ho Chi Minh City Child Welfare Association.
- Ho Chi Minh City Association for the Support of People with Disabilities and Orphans
- Ho Chi Minh City Population and Family Sub-Department
- Hyundai Group.
- TAVICO Company
- Kim Đô Hotel.
- Đà Lạt University
- Nguyễn Tất Thành University
- University of Social Sciences and Humanities, HCMC (Faculty of Education)
- Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
- FPT University
- Ispace Information Technology Vocational College (Cần Thơ Campus)
- Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai High School
- Ngôi Sao School for High-Achieving Students
- Vietnam Australia International School
- Asian International Primary School
- Sao Việt School (Vstar School)
- Gia Định High School
- TIS International School
- TITAN School
- Mê Linh Primary School
- Bạch Đằng Lower Secondary School
- Đoàn Thị Điểm Lower Secondary School (Cần Thơ)
- Thái Bình Dương School (Cần Thơ)
- Ho Chi Minh City Youth Cultural House
- Ho Chi Minh City Women’s Cultural House
- Tuổi Trẻ Newspaper (life skills project)
- Contributes to the skills sections of Tuổi Trẻ, Phụ Nữ, and Thanh Niên newspapers.
- and other social centers
Has compiled 3 books:
– 10 Ways to Teach Life Skills to Young People (Trẻ Publishing House)
– Methods of reproductive health education for lower secondary school students (teacher's materials – Women's Publishing House)
– Methods of reproductive health education for lower secondary school students (student's materials – Women's Publishing House)
Initially, the center focuses on development in Ho Chi Minh City before expanding nationwide.
Advisory board:
– Dr. Nguyễn Thị Bích Hồng, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, educational psychology
– Phạm Thị Thúy, master's degree holder at the University of Public Administration, specializing in active education methods and parenting skills.
– Dr. Trương Trọng Hoàng, Phạm Ngọc Thạch University of Medicine, behavioral science
– Dr. Phạm Ngọc Thanh, former Head of Psychology at Children's Hospital 1
The project is in the process of refining:
– Business, financial, marketing and personnel plans, distribution systems and customer care…
– A plan to train a professional coaching team.
– Build a prototype with a group of young people.
After researching many competitors, we found there was little competition serving primary school students. This was therefore an underserved market segment. The project showed many competitive advantages. We had more than 10 years of experience developing various life values and life skills training models, accumulating substantial knowledge. We believe the project is feasible.
After taking the entrepreneurship course at YUP Entrepreneurship Training and Support Academy, he gained much useful knowledge and many skills, learned valuable entrepreneurial experience from teachers, and received dedicated direct advice to refine his plan. Besides finding knowledgeable, experienced teachers and advisers, he also found like-minded people to support his project, including Lê Thị Kim Yến, Trần Minh Tiến, Trần Bích Vân, and Trần Đình Chương—effective partners in advancing and developing Huy's project.
In the coming period, the Center plans to continue:
- Recruit and train the coaching team
- Run a pilot with a group of 15–20 children
- Customer needs survey
- Organize Seminars Introducing Services
- Offer short courses for children, such as accelerated learning methods, confident communication and developing 8 types of intelligence. Use these short courses to help parents see positive changes in their children, then introduce new services.
Source: YUP INSTITUTE
