Exporting education innovatively

Australia’s education exports have created a first class name. With an innovative business approach and some creativity, you too can capitalise on this name and still stand out from the pack when exporting education.

Education is a valuable commodity. Aristotle believed: “All men naturally desire knowledge.” Well, what better thing to sell than that which everyone desires?

But while education is Australia’s fourth top export and generates annual revenue of $12.5 billion, according to figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it doesn’t offer much room for SMEs to move. Or does it? While the 450,000 international students currently living and studying in Australia provide the bulk of this revenue, that isn’t to say exporters can’t explore other avenues. Education is still a roomy market; if entered with a bit of innovation, that is.

For International Coach Academy (ICA), going online was the best approach to going global. “We already knew Australia wasn’t a big market,” explains Robyn Logan, ICA strategy director and founder. “Being online, we realised there was a potential to expand.”

But what separates ICA from every other coach training school? “This is the key to our success—we localise our curriculum,” says Logan. Even now, she finds there are many companies that fly trainers into a country and deliver the same program each time with the mere addition of an interpreter. Instead, ICA visits countries it’s interested in exporting to, does market research to grasp the concept of coaching at each location, and then builds a team of experts on the ground that specialise in training, education and language. Like any other product, successful education exports need more than a one-size-fits-all approach, says Logan.

Following all that, for ICA, the lengthy translation process can begin. “But instead of just doing a literal translation, we do a cultural and conceptual translation,” explains Logan. “There are certain concepts that don’t translate well.”
ICA is also relaunching its website as a social networking site in five languages to build an online community for its students scattered around the globe. Whether it’s business, not-for-profit, or spiritual coaching, students will be able to find a contact.
ICA now has its sights set on rapidly developing countries Brazil, India and China—three of the four ‘BRIC’ economies (Russia being the other)—which will eclipse the current richest economies by 2050, according to the Goldman Sachs investment bank thesis.

For Logan, it’s really a simple numbers game. “There are 20 million people in Shanghai [alone], and then you look at the uptake of broadband in China. Australia has appalling broadband, and we’re an online training company,” she explains.
However, ICA doesn’t simply look at countries to export to, says Logan. “We’re looking at language groups. So when I mentioned China before, we’re looking at Chinese for the range of Chinese speaking people around the world.”

Austrade’s Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) has also been fundamental to the development of ICA, adds Logan. The grant reimburses up to 50 percent of export promotion expenses. “Once we got that, we were able to visit the countries,” she explains. “You learn a lot by actually being in the country and getting a sense of the people and the culture.”