Meet Carl Jones, Managing Director , StudyVillage
Describe StudyVillage in a few sentences
StudyVillage is a face-to-face mentoring service that helps overcome international student challenges while providing a springboard for study and career success. It’s a cycle of conversation, reflection and feedback that keeps students accountable to their own personal, study and career goals. Our program helps maximise international students’ wellbeing and success, while providing regular feedback to parents.
How does StudyVillage help students?
There’s no question COVID-19 has changed the face of international education for students and parents alike. Students find themselves more isolated and anxious in their new environment. And parents are naturally increasingly concerned about how their child will cope in this new world. In key destination countries Australia, the UK and Canada, StudyVillage offers a world-first one-one-one, student support service at the very time that students and parents need it the most.
We offer unprecedented peace of mind for parents because they stay genuinely informed about student welfare and progress. And we do it for an annual cost of less than the average cost of one failed university subject. If your daughter was studying thousands of miles away in a foreign country, and all the evidence points to her increased vulnerability, wouldn’t it be good to know that there’s a professional looking out for her? You might be surprised to know that almost no universities retain capacity for one-on-one mentoring, or to keep parents informed about their children’s progress across a range of welfare and progress measures.
Happy, Healthy and Wise is a framework for guided conversations, mentoring, goalsetting and goal tracking. With students’ consent, in every semester a progress outline is available for parents. Outlines share basic information about student welfare, confidence and progress against the goals the students have set themselves. Each semester, parents have the option to discuss progress with their child facilitated by their student supporter.
Outlines combine Student Supporter commentary with self- survey information providing feedback to students and parents;
Program transitions from an initial focus on acclimatisation to encouraging the student to optimise the value of the university experience, goalsetting and then planning for strategic transition into post-university life and/or further study.
What role do agent partners play in your business strategy?
For now, agent partners are StudyVillage’s primary distribution channel. As such they benefit from generous commissions and a host of other brand, reputational and strategic benefits.
What are the benefits for agents who work with StudyVillage?
Unlike 99% of institutions in the world, agents can package StudyVillage programs with ANY student studying in the UK, Canada and Australia, and receive generous commissions. Our commissions are paid not just on first year, but EVERY year. This makes total commission comparable to university totals. (For example, total agent commission payable on a three-year course is USD$2250).
StudyVillage programs are available to undergrad, postgrad, pathway and English language students.
Our agents also benefit from the following:
- Agents can distinguish themselves from competitors by offering genuine after sales service, many years beyond the sale.
- They are able to track basic student progress so stay in touch with the family, increasing the change of referral sales and positive reviews.
- Their students are less likely to change institutions when in their destination country, therefore denying them of commissions.
- They have a commercial solution when students fail, want to come home, or run into severe difficulties when in their destination country.
- We host weekly webinars across multiple time-zones so your promotion is augmented by our own student-facing information sessions.
- Our high value ‘DestinationPREP’ online courses are offered to any future student thinking of studying in the UK, Canada or Australia FREE.
What are you looking for in a new agent partner?
We are looking for agents with a good track record of sending students to universities in the UK, Canada and Australia. We’re interested in agents with a commitment to student welfare and success, and who can provide counsellors to remain in touch with students beyond the sale (this is not onerous or time consuming).
