About Us

Institution Profile

Institution profile

Inspire Centre for English and Chinese began as Inspire Centre for Higher Development when it commenced operations in Vientiane in March 2005.  It was started by Kok Liang and Lesley YEOW from Singapore together with two other partners to provide educational services at advanced level for Laotians, in particular, government officials and professionals.

Inspire’s clientele are both private and corporate. In the years since they set up the company, Kok Liang and Lesley have taught English and communication skills to government officials, NGO staff, staff of the University of Health Sciences and other working adults. Major clients have been the UN World Food Programme, the GTZ (German Technical Cooperation or Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Technische Zusammenarbeit, now GIZ), the Lao Human Resources for Community Health Project sponsored by the University of Calgary, the UNDP, the WHO, Oxfam Australia, Handicap International (now Humanity and Inclusion), the European Union, the MCNV (Medical Committee Netherlands Vietnam) and the Singapore Embassy.

Having been in Laos for more than eighteen years now, Kok Liang and Lesley speak and read Lao moderately and are thus familiar with common difficulties faced by Lao learners of English.

Experience of the Institution

Since its inception in 2005, Inspire Centre for Higher Development has been running general English courses at various levels and offering special courses in business English, writing, speaking and presentation skills.  Our courses are tailored to the learners’ requirements and often involve consultations on students’ business writing in class discussions, one-to-one and over email.  From 2011, scholarship exam preparatory classes have also been offered.  In September 2013, a Chinese programme was started.  The following table lists the major programmes of English training that Inspire has been engaged for, in addition to our general English courses:

Major Programmes

From 2005 to 2009	Inspire ran ten terms of English courses for academic staff of the University of Health Sciences.
	Writing, speaking and presentation skills courses were also run for staff of the SSO (Social Security Organisation), GTZ and UNODC (United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime).
From July 2005 to December 2007	Inspire ran almost 250 hours of writing skills courses, continued English training and English language testing for programme assistants and administrative staff of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Vientiane.
From 2006 to 2009	Inspire was engaged by the Singapore Embassy in Vientiane to teach refresher English to alumni of the Singapore Cooperation Programme.  We have taught more than seven batches of government staff, including senior government officials and their wives, some for several courses.
Since 2006	Inspire has been offering business English courses, with emphasis on business correspondence, to both local and foreign middle management individuals, including a business writing course for a group since 2008.
In 2007	Inspire was engaged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore, to teach a course in English for Lao government officials in the southern provinces for one month in Savannakhet Province.
From August to December of 2008	Inspire was engaged to train speakers and officers of the Lao National Assembly to prepare them to host the 17th Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum in January 2009.
In August-September 2010	Inspire conducted a month-long intensive course for community development staff of the GTZ from Sainyabouli Province,
From August to November 2010	Inspire ran a three-month pilot course for two groups of staff from the Prime Minister’s Office, again under the Singapore Embassy.
From April 2011 to 31 May 2015	Inspire was engaged by the UN World Food Programme, Laos to provide an online English consultation service (OECS) via email for the organization’s more than eighty national and expatriate staff.  The OECS ran for more than four years.
From July 2011 to December 2012	Inspire’s teaching staff taught five classes of the Lao staff of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Vientiane, over six ten-week terms.

In July, August, September and November 2011	Inspire ran intensive and special courses for small groups of staff from the UDIN (Upland Development in Nonghet, Xiengkhouang) Project of Helvetas Laos (a Swiss NGO), the MMG LXML (Minerals and Metals Group, Lane Xang Minerals Limited) Sepon, and the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund).
In November and December 2011	Inspire was engaged by WHO Lao PDR to conduct a six-week English writing skills training course for thirty of its Country Office staff in two groups in the areas of email etiquette and formal correspondence.
From March 2012 to present	Inspire has been conducting the year-long English skills training course for Cohorts 4 to 14 of the Field Epidemiological Training course trainees for the WHO, USCDC and NCLE.
From 2012 to 2013	Inspire ran five- to nine-week preparatory courses in Mathematics and English for the Singapore Scholarship and ASEAN Scholarship exams.
In January 2013	Inspire began general scholarship preparatory classes for students for secondary school and university abroad.  Classes had reached the 23rd and 15th terms respectively.
In July 2012	Inspire ran a two-week English writing skills course for the managers of Oxfam Australia
In September 2012	Inspire was asked to run a business writing course for  the staff of Room to Read Inspire was considered for 12 to 16 hours a week of teaching for the staff of a large organization (MMG) in their Vientiane office Inspire was invited to tender for providing ongoing English lessons for the Lao staff of the UN WFP, which has offices in Vientiane and several provinces
In October 2012	Inspire was engaged to teach Beginner and Elementary English to 55 of the factory and laboratory staff of ALS (Australian Laboratory Services) Minerals Division for four weeks and was considered to provide further lessons.
In July 2013	Inspire ran courses for a Pre-Intermediate group and an Inter-mediate writing group of Oxfam Australia staff for two weeks.
From October to December 2013	Inspire conducted a course for five Oxfam Laos staff on proposal reading.
In October 2013	Inspire began Chinese courses to adults, students and children
In November 2013	Inspire began one-on-one and small group writing courses for staff of the World Food Programme. Inspire was also approached for a translation course for a select group of staff from the Lao Women’s Union.

From January to March 2014	Inspire offered preparatory classes in English and Maths for the Singapore Scholarship exams 2014.
From May to December 2014	Inspire conducted English training courses for three classes of staff of the Investment Promotion Department of the Ministry of Planning and Investment
From May 2014 to November 2020	Inspire taught writing and speaking classes for Lao staff of the European Union delegation in Vientiane, Terms 1A to 6A, two terms per year.
In June 2014	A two-week Chinese language camp was run for 27 children, and annual ‘camps’ or classes in summer have continued.
In July and August 2014	A seven-week intensive Chinese course was run for adults and students preparing for university admission in China
In August to September 2014	Inspire provided English classes for three weeks for staff of CARE International in Khua District, Phongsaly Province.
In February and March 2015	Inspire was considered for courses for staff of RMA Laos and for editing services for World Vision Laos.  Classes for the DGRV (German NGO for cooperatives) went into a fourth term.  Inspire ran a speaking course, mainly for two staff of the UN World Food Programme and other professionals.
In July to December 2015	Inspire ran a Pre-Intermediate class for staff and an Upper Intermediate writing class for managers of Handicap Internat’l (now Humanity and Inclusion)
In June/July to August  2016 & 2017	Seven-week intensive courses in Chinese were run for children and adults, after two-week camps for kids in 2014 and 2015.
From July 2016 to January 2017	Inspire was engaged for English project communication courses for the VDBA (Vocational Development for the Blind Association, the ADWLE (Association for the Development of Women and Legal Education) and the LBA and DECA (Lao Biodiversity Association and Development Environment Community Association)
November 2016 to June 2017       October 2017 to February 2018	Inspire conducted a six-month intensive preparatory English course for twelve candidates (Cohort 1) of the Master of Public Health Programme, under the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Health Sciences, and the MCNV (Medical Committee Netherlands Vietnam) Inspire conducted the course again, for three-and-a-half months for another twelve candidates (Cohort 2).
December 2018 to Apr 2020	Inspire was involved in editing the theses and manuscripts of both cohorts.
October 2020 to May 2021	Inspire conducted IELTS-type thesis writing preparation for the seven candidates of Cohort 3.

May to October 2018	Inspire’s teachers taught Elementary English to a group of DRDC (Department of Rural Development and Cooperatives) government staff under the DGRV (a German NGO)
February 2019 to February 2020	Inspire conducted English training for 16 staff and lecturers of the administration and student affairs departments of the University of Health Sciences
Since May 2019	Inspire has been doing English classes for staff of the Microbio-logy Lab in Mahosot Hospital under a project by LOMWRU (Lao Oxford Mahosot Wellcome Trust Research Unit), now in four groups and possibly beginning a fourth year.
From July 2019 to May 2020	Inspire taught English to 16 production staff of 5NPlus, a metals plant outside the city
June to October 2020	Inspire was to be involved in assisting CMED (Consultancy in Medical Education & Development) in preparing fifteen health professionals from various provinces of Laos for training in Thailand.
February 2020 to February 2022	Through the time of the Covid19 pandemic, Inspire continued to teach its English and Chinese classes by remote, over WhatsApp, Facebook and mainly Zoom.  To this day, students can still join our classes remotely if needed.
June 2022	Inspire taught a three-week Business English Speaking course for staff of the T-PLUS phone service provider company.
October 2022 to Apr 2023	Inspire has been engaged for a conversation course for the Land Learning Initiative for Food Security Enhancement (LIFE) Project, Village Focus International
March to May 2023	Inspire taught an initial term of English classes in three groups for 40 staff members of the Institut Pasteur du Laos
Other courses:	General English, Business English, speaking and writing, and IELTS preparation continue to be offered (small groups or one-to-one)