Autumn outreach: the season most institutions skip

The intake lands, the team is exhausted, and Vietnam goes quiet until the spring. Meanwhile the Year 12 cohort that will apply next year is starting to form its list.

What is happening in-country

The Vietnamese school year has just begun. Counsellors are planning the year's guidance programme, and families with a child entering the final year are beginning to look seriously. It is the most receptive moment in the calendar and the least contested, because most institutions are not there.

What is worth doing

• School visits, while counsellors have time and are deciding which institutions to feature.
• Parent evenings for the new Year 12 cohort, before the shortlist narrows.
• Agent refreshers with the new intake's actual outcomes — evidence you did not have in the spring.
• Alumni conversations, using students who have just arrived and can speak to the transition first-hand.

The cost argument

Autumn presence is cheaper than spring presence, because there is less competition for attention and for diary space. An institution with a modest budget gets more from one autumn season than from a second spring fair.

The discipline it requires

Doing recruitment work in the weeks after an intake, when everyone wants to stop. That is precisely why the window stays open.

Autumn season planning: In-Country Outreach →