Our regular followers may already know about our 2026 apprenticeship programme, but for those who are just getting to know us, we wanted to share a little more about ETHOS and the work behind our journeys.
ETHOS are a women-led, community-based organisation based in Sa Pa, working alongside Hmong and Dao guides, artisans and families to connect tourism with local livelihoods, education and opportunity. We also offer treks, cultural experiences and motorbike loops across five Northern Provinces. Our apprenticeship programme builds on cross-cultural relationships, combining formal study with practical experience and long-term support. We wanted to offer an update after the first six weeks and give some insights as to how that commitment takes shape in everyday life.
The Beginning
When Pang, Sinh and Ta May arrived at the ETHOS Apprentice House on 1st September, they brought the clothes, bags and everyday belongings that would help them settle into a new home, alongside their own experiences, expectations and questions about the months ahead. Their arrival marked the beginning of a thirty-month programme bringing together formal education, English, practical training and working life within ETHOS, although those first days were also about something more immediate: finding their way around, getting to know one another and beginning to feel comfortable in unfamiliar surroundings.
Providing that sense of stability is an important part of the educational commitment we have made, because learning asks people to take risks, admit uncertainty and attempt things they cannot yet do confidently. Having somewhere secure to live, people to turn to and time to practise helps create the conditions in which those small steps become possible, particularly when moving away from home also means adjusting to new responsibilities and expectations.
The apprentices bring a great deal of knowledge of their own into this process, shaped by their languages, families, communities and the practical demands of their lives. Our responsibility is to recognise that foundation while helping them develop the additional skills, qualifications and confidence that will allow them to make informed decisions about their futures.
One of their first shared activities was a treasure hunt around Sa Pa, designed to help them explore the town together while beginning to understand how different parts of it function. Their route took them from the museum and market to the entrance halls of five-star hotels, fast-food restaurants and the temple, encouraging them to notice the contrasts between places shaped largely by tourism and those more closely connected to everyday local life. Along the way, we asked them to consider where they might find reasonably priced food, which spaces felt peaceful, where crowds gathered and what might make a particular place useful to someone living in the town. These are practical questions when you are settling somewhere new, but they also encourage the habit of looking carefully, comparing what you find and making decisions based on your own observations. Exploring together gave the apprentices opportunities to solve problems, share ideas and begin building relationships that would continue into their lessons and daily routines.
Their first English lessons began with the language of meeting guests and introducing themselves, giving them something they could immediately connect with life around the ETHOS office. Being able to say who you are, explain where you come from and welcome another person provides a starting point for conversations that will gradually become more detailed, personal and independent. We spent time discussing how that progress would happen through regular practice, repetition, questions and corrections, with each lesson contributing to a much longer process. English is spoken around them every day, creating opportunities to hear familiar words in different situations and gradually connect classroom learning with real exchanges between people. Learning to notice those connections, ask what an unfamiliar word means and try using it again is part of becoming more active in their own education.
After around twenty hours of beginner English, the apprentices took part in a series of video challenges that asked them to bring familiar vocabulary and sentence patterns together. They could introduce themselves and their home, welcome a guest, describe a familiar place or help someone with a simple problem, choosing language they had already encountered and deciding how to use it to communicate something of their own. Recording themselves gave them time to prepare and practise, with the opportunity to help one another before speaking independently on camera. The educational value lies in choosing words, making themselves understood and continuing when a sentence becomes difficult, while allowing pauses, uncertainty and self-correction to remain a natural part of speaking.
Those recordings also give us material to return to as Pang and Sinh continue learning, helping them recognise what they can already communicate and identify a manageable next step. With teacher guidance, they will review their own work and each other’s, notice examples of clear communication, discuss useful improvements and select vocabulary or pronunciation to practise again. Learning to give a partner thoughtful feedback requires careful listening and kindness, alongside the growing ability to explain why something works or where further practice might help.
The same attention to listening and reflection has shaped their study of why some children sell to tourists in Sa Pa, a subject that invites strong opinions and requires considerable care. Through independent study and discussion, the apprentices have been asked to distinguish between observation and assumption, examine the evidence behind different explanations and consider how children, families and visitors may understand the same situation differently. Our role is to help them investigate, recognise gaps in their knowledge and feel able to reconsider an opinion as they encounter new information. A visitor questionnaire brings additional perspectives into that work, giving them material to examine alongside their own understanding of the communities and places involved. For young people preparing to work in tourism, developing a considered response to a difficult question matters because they will increasingly find themselves explaining local circumstances to people whose experiences may be very different from their own.
Community activities provide further opportunities to practise these skills, including our recent visit distributing reading glasses to older Hmong and Dao community members. Ten pairs were distributed during the visit, with participants taking time to try different strengths while examining embroidery at their usual working distance and explaining what felt useful to them. For the apprentices, this kind of activity connects communication with a practical purpose, requiring patience, attention and respect for the person describing their needs. It also brings their learning into contact with the textile skills and knowledge held by older generations, creating opportunities to understand how everyday difficulties can affect work that remains important within families and communities. Vietnamese recording sheets support the project by documenting which glasses are distributed and helping us make more informed purchasing decisions as the work continues.
These first six weeks have also brought a change to the programme, as Ta May has chosen to seek alternative employment, with our thanks for her participation and our best wishes for what she decides to do next. Ta May chose to leave because the programme’s expectations and long-term commitment no longer aligned with her personal priorities. Her contribution remains part of the early activities shared here, while Pang and Sinh continue with the same commitment from ETHOS to their education, accommodation, practical training and ongoing support.
As their learning continues, we will keep returning to the relationship between understanding something in a lesson and being able to use it in everyday life, whether that means asking a question in English, listening carefully to a community member or explaining the reasoning behind a decision. The next stage will give Pang and Sinh further opportunities to revisit their work, practise what remains difficult and recognise progress through things they can increasingly do for themselves.
For those who travel with ETHOS or support the programme, these updates offer a closer view of the time, relationships and daily work involved in sustaining an educational opportunity. We will continue sharing that process through our Shared Programme Updates, following Pang and Sinh as their experiences, skills and ambitions develop over the months ahead.
