I've no experience with running a private language school, but I've always felt this dichotomy intensely. Profit, or happy students?

Students bring money by means of paying the course fees, expecting to learn as much as possible in as short time as possible (perhaps spending as little as possible). If we consider a happy student the one who let's say finishes one FCE preparation course, gains enough experience and skill to become an independent learner and doesn't have to come back for more courses, than it may seem a contradiction in terms. We lose a student by making them happy, thus losing profit.

If I exaggerate a little, this may mean that being an effective teacher could also result in losing students after shorter time (even though the students are naturally quite happy about it).

Now, let me share a personal experience from a school I've taught in, where the bonus system for teachers was seemingly preposterous. The teachers were not given bonuses according to positive feedback from the students, but solely on a basis of a percentage of returning students to their courses. The school term was divided up into trimesters and a teacher whose students returned to the same course in highest proportion was awarded. This was considered to be the most effective way of not only keeping "customers," but also eliminating paper work. And to this day I can't really tell if this was the most terrible exploitation of teachers, who were desperate to keep their "old" students for as long as possible, or if it was an example of a brilliant marketing strategy, in which the only unhappy, or less happy part were the teachers.

Right. I'm not sure if I made my point clear, but you've definitely proposed a good question.

Looking forward to more reflection on this.

Sn 

I'd say the answer was both.  I know that's a bit of a cop out, so perhaps I should explain further: I think that having a sustainable school is about keeping customers happy (both external - students, parents, companies etc; and internal - teachers and other staff)  Now that way of working may not result in short term increases to the bottom line, so it's not really about getting the biggest possible end of year profit in any particular year, but the biggest possible end of year profit within a long term strategy that makes your school one that is attractive to good teachers and attractove to students.  I hope that doesn't sound too utopian, but I really believe that this has to be the aim of a manager in our field.

I do agree with Andy,with an additional comment: you can't have one without another. Satisfied staff and students don't mean much in terms of creating a sustainable business unless there is at least some financial gain which would be used to develop the school. On the other hand, focusing merely on profit and trying to increase the profit margin while neglecting either external or internal clients/customers is a very short-sighted approach.

There are financial plans which should have profit as a desirable outcome, and there are CPD plans that should focus on staff. They're both within the scope of a (school) manager's work.

It seems to me that a language school is no different to any other business. As such, you can go for profit at the expense of keeping customers and staff happy. This will probably result in high staff turnover, or at least dissatisfied staff, and little repeat business or word-of-mouth recommendations. If you can continue to make a profit in this way, go ahead. But most successful companies do look after their staff and their customers. As a result, they have lower staff turnover, thus reducing costs, and word-of-mouth recommendation and other ways of marketing themselves that reduce marketing effort.

I don't think this is utopian, just normal business practice.

Kevin

Hi all,

I´m María Graciana, from Argentina.

It`s a real treat for me to be able to read and learn from experienced authors and trainers on the subject. I´m grateful for that.

This topic made me imagine a small town- probably in my country- where two small language schools coexist, catering for the same market.

One place is called "Profit" (probably "profit and state of the art marketing and lots of publicity", etc). The second place is called "Pedagogy" (maybe not so pushy). They both work, hire teachers and keep them, and attract students through their different views of the teaching field. Sometimes those students come, and go, and come back.

In the long run (this being mainly a place in which word-of-mouth works and people finally get to  know each other), "Pedagogy" takes over and becomes "Pedagogy (and profit)".

A simplificatin of a complex issue, I know. But my choice throughout the years, anyway.

Cheers,

Garciana

Hi Maria

 Nice story, but imagine the small town where there is only one language school for teachers to work in and only one language school for students to go to!

What would we call this language school???

And how happy would the teachers and students be???

Best

Nik

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking for some time on this forum, but this thread has made me pitch in :) I am the DoS at a small language school in Kyiv, Ukraine. When I read about profit vs pedagogy, about losing students by making them happy and so on, the biggest question in my mind was not this contradiction between making them happy and keeping them. (I heartily agree with those who value good reputation above any short-term profits.)

The question, or rather problem is: even if we make students happy and teach efficiently, how many can we expect to keep by the end of the course? In other words, what are the dropout rates at language schools under normal circumstances? People do sometimes tend to lose their enthusiasm for studies (or for fitness sessions, for yoga, for anything), even if the teachers provide all motivation and support they can.

You see, we as a school are only starting, and I would greatly appreciate advice from experienced colleagues.

Dear Diana,

thank you very much for your warm welcome.

My experience as a teacher also shows that beginners tend to come and go. And yes, it would be really nice to have some statistics. I wish I could find some research articles about this on the Internet, but no luck so far. So, let's hope some DoSes come and fill us in on their personal experience.

I haven't participated in this SIG before but did run a school for a number of years (so, hi everyone).

Interesting discussion, and maybe the foundation question for private language school management. A couple of observations and a question:

1) unfortunately we have to differentiate between pedagogic qualty and perceived pedagogic quality. Many Ss have wrong expectations about what needs to happen in class. The idealistic "quality leads to profits" (which I agree with) doesn't work if the pedagogic quality isn't percieved. We tried to do this via learner training but it was a challenge.

2) Especially with in-company BE, results are slow and frustrating, even with the best teaching. So "superficial" things like appearance and demeanor play a huge role in percieved quality (addressed in another thread here).

3) A question, for Marian: what do you find "preposterous" or "exploitive" about having return customers as one metric for teacher performance?  I could see that as one measure among others in a "balanced scorecard" approach, in principle at least....I'm curious why you seem so against it.

Hello Maria and all

I dont think that only "by word of mouth" would  work in this day and age when marketing and advertising achieved almost a "scholarly" high academic status / suggested reading - Hidden persuaders by Vance Packard , not sure about the precise title but google for it if you wish/

I do recall a slogan I ve read elsewhere by an advertising guru or I think the founder of Nike said: "Work hard and ADVERTISE! /I may be wrong on the source who said this?/

Natasha

   I have to agree with Kevin, ELT management is the same as any other business; the only difference is that we offer a service, not a physical product, and that's why we must empower our teachers to be able to satisfy the needs of our customers (the students!).

   Even if there is only one language institute in a small town (Profit, Pedagogy or a mix) it is up to the student to choose to study or not according to his needs being fulfilled or not and that's why for me the most important issue for an ELT manager should be to have happy students which is only possible with happy professional teachers with a life-long learner passion.  I know it is also important to be profitable, otherwise, there is no reason to have the business but if we do not have happy returning students we will soon be out of business.

   I also believe it is important to advertise (and not only word-of-mouth) but I think we should open a new thread for this subject to include target market, media, competition, creativity,  advertisement agencies, etc.

Carla