Sometimes you see an opportunity, and you take it. You see a need, and you have to fulfill it. Ex-students Jordan Gain, James Anderson and Luke Davis-Rae have done exactly that with the development of their new business venture, EXCEL Tutoring.
A familiar name to some, this is not to be confused with our in-school Peer Tutoring Programme also named Excel Tutoring. James, Luke and Jordan are looking to specifically support students who desire extra assistance in their NCEA studies.
‘It was a random get together of friends where we had this idea to create the business, rather than simply supporting those that knew us through other networks. We spent hours talking about the possibilities and even when we departed the event, we spent hours communicating over social media about where this could go,' says James, 'it was all quite exciting and motivating.'
‘We all found it quite difficult making the transition from NCEA to Uni and with actually learning how to study,’ says James who has been providing tutoring services around Dunedin for the past few years, ‘we felt that this was an area that we could provide support in, given that all our tutors are university students. I also noted that last year I had quite a few people come up at the end of the year and students needed to get focused earlier - keeping up to date with the study. We can help with that’.
‘We also want to remove the stigma of asking for help. We do not only tutor students who are maybe struggling but also students who want to strive for the higher grades’ Luke adds.
‘We thought we had all the solutions but then found as we got started we had no idea how to start the business. We met up with an accountant who explained everything we needed to get started. It has been interesting to apply the lessons I have learned in my own study’ says Luke, who is currently completing a commerce degree at Otago University.
The group currently have a group of 10 tutors available whom all attended local Dunedin schools. The tutors cover a diverse range of subject specialties, which ensure they have tutors across a wide range of subjects. This also ensures that they are able to work whenever or wherever is convenient for the tutor and the student. They are able to tutor groups and individuals, but they prefer to meet and work with individual first and assess whether a group setting might work for them.
At this stage the focus in on NCEA study, but they have plans to go into IB tutoring later in the year. ‘We also intend on running NCEA ‘Crash Course’ at the end of the year, before NCEA examinations begin in November. These courses would work as a ‘workshop’ providing notes and examples with a question and answer session’.
As part of their learning curve into business, understanding marketing has become one of the areas to develop. This has included developing a brand and generating a social media presence. You can access this @Exceltutoring on Facebook.
The group welcomes questions and interest from students and parents and you can contact them at exceltutornz@gmail.com
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