Know why you begin
Start by understanding yourself. Turn long-term goals into choices you can act on today.
About NCET · Founded 1 June 2026
Every child.
Their own champion.
A future school for scholar-athletes.
A partner in finding their own way.
NCET Academy works with young people aged 11–18 who are serious about competitive sport, and with their families. We bring academics, sport and university planning together, while asking a larger question: how can a child find direction, learn independently and create in the age of AI—and become the person they truly want to be?
01 / Why we began
See the whole child.
Plan the whole journey.
Training starts earlier. Competition takes families further afield. The decisions become more connected. Schools focus on courses, coaches on performance, and admissions advisers on offers. Yet a child has one calendar and needs room for a whole life.
That is why NCET exists. We start with a child’s interests, abilities and everyday experience, then connect curriculum choices, competition seasons, independent learning and university preparation. By developing both sporting and academic pathways, we help a lasting passion become a source of momentum—and open up more possibilities for university and beyond.
Learn how to learn
Bring academic inquiry into training and sporting discipline into study, supported by AI and independent learning methods.
Become a problem-solver
Turn your interests into meaningful work, contribute to others and develop a wider sense of citizenship.
02 / What we believe
Our mission
Help every child become
their own champion.
Our vision
A trusted growth-planning platform for Chinese student-athletes worldwide.
The child comes first
Respect each child’s individuality and consider what every recommendation means for their long-term growth.
Independent judgement
Test assumptions against evidence. Explain the reasoning and its limits, and make progress visible.
Learn through action
Connect study, training and real projects. Use feedback and reflection to keep improving.
Honest partnership
Discuss difficulties openly, work together for the child and keep learning alongside the family.
03 / Our founder’s story
Joshua Zhang / Founder, NCET Academy
A wider world.
A new beginning.
A father of three sons. After thirteen years in education innovation, Joshua found his next starting point in the lives of young athletes.
Looking beyond the familiar
Joshua grew up in a village in central China. For his parents’ generation, a secure government job represented a good future. He kept wondering what lay beyond the world he knew.
Journalism gave him a way to find out. As a senior business-profile journalist at Southern Weekly, he researched and interviewed more than a hundred entrepreneurs. He published a trilogy on wealth, co-authoring its first volume with Rupert Hoogewerf, known in China as Hurun. Seeing so many choices and turning points led him to ask: how do people find their direction and turn possibility into something real?
Fatherhood changed the question
When he became a father, that question became personal. In 2013, he founded YouthMBA Academy, combining online learning with practical experiences. With authorisation from Stanford d.school founder David Kelley to promote design thinking in China, he brought an approach grounded in real problems and learning through action to more young people. Those experiences later informed his book, whose Chinese title translates as The World Is Our Classroom.
In recent years, he launched the AI Future School initiative in Asia, continuing to explore how educational innovation can reach everyday family life and help children find direction, learn independently and create. In 2024, he was selected for the Senior Visiting Scholar Programme at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, broadening his perspective on education and society.
Thirteen years on, a fresh start
As his three sons moved from education in China into international settings, and from classrooms onto sports grounds, Joshua saw a powerful connection: academic inquiry could improve training, while the discipline of sport could strengthen learning. He also saw how limited information and familiar assumptions could leave families treating the two as competing demands.
On 1 June 2026, he founded NCET Academy, bringing thirteen years of international education practice to a new stage of young people’s growth. Connecting academics and sport, and opening different university and life pathways, became the starting point for this new venture.
He hopes that, as children pursue the next win, they can also begin to answer: who do I want to become? And then develop the ability to get there.
Every child starts somewhere different. We would like to hear your story.
Talk with NCET about your child’s future