APAC 2017 Australian Enterprise Awards

10 APAC / Australian Enterprise Awards 2017 , AE170021 Best Children’s Education Franchise 2017 KipMcGrath Education Centre is a franchise with amajor focus on tutoring children from Reception to Year 12. We invited Carol Lawrie to tell us more. Operating as a franchise as part of Kip McGrath, Carol, who supports the centre alongside three part time teaching staff, discusses how she draws on her vast experience in education to support her clients. “Working as part of the Kip McGrath franchise, we offer tutoring and education services to our clients, as well as supporting children from refugee or migrant families who have been resettled in our area in their endeavours to learn English. “As a teacher and parent of a learning-disabled child myself, working with many learning- disabled children, I saw an opportunity to address their needs. As a result, I established KL3 as a separate business entity (to get around the franchise contract) in 2012 with the view of providing remediation services to students with learning difficulties. There were virtually no support services for students with learning difficulties in the surrounding rural area – up till the last 12 months we had no speech therapist (the nearest previously, a 200km round trip), educational psychologist or other support (the nearest previously being Adelaide an 800km round trip).” The Kip McGrath Education Centre’s tutoring is the only one truly based in a rural centre. The other Centres in the state of South Australia are based in Adelaide or in larger regional centres such a Victor Harbour or Mount Gambier. Working in such a rural area, Carol and her team have to work hard to ensure that they offer clients the very highest standard of support as they will not be able to go elsewhere, as she emphasises. “As the services I provide are unique and not commonly found in a rural community I always aim to provide students with the support they need to go far. It does require travel and commitment to keep the training up-to-date and relevant as this always means a trip to a major regional centre or capital city. I do get to keep contact with the students after they leave the centre and can follow them through their primary/ secondary and tertiary schooling. In fact, I am now working with the children of some these former students as the learning difficulties are hereditary.” Looking ahead, there is continual demand for the service and a continuous supply of students, offering many opportunities to expand the centre and offer a wider range of services, as Carol concludes. “Fundamentally, every child does not need to be disadvantaged if you are prepared to get in and make change one step at a time. Every child who is helped to achieve their personal potential, can break a family cycle of illiteracy or social disadvantage and through education make a better life for themselves and their future. Every child who can have their self-esteem and self- confidence restored and learn the right skills and processes for success, is a child who is kept out of drugs, juvenile crime and unemployment. “As such, here at Kip McGrath Education Centre we are determined to continue building on our current success and supporting our clients to go further and succeed. There are many new avenues for us to explore; while we have included adults and post school leavers on a small scale – there is a need to explore the extent of this market and the demand for our services. In addition, there is room to expand the business and its services to other smaller country towns. This is a serious discussion we are having at present, and we are also looking at cost feasibility of moving in this direction.” Company: Kip McGrath Education Centre Contact: Carol Lawrie Contact Email: [email protected] Address: 190A Smith St, Naracoorte, SA, 5271, Australia Phone: 0061 8 8762 4161 Website: KL3.com.au