Education Agent Certification – the way forward

Parsonson R1

1ISEAA – INTERNATIONAL STUDENT EDUCATION AGENTS ASSOCIATION LIMITED

This workshop outlines the need for a certification course for education agents in Australia, aiming to address the lack of professional development and knowledge upgrade in the field. The proposed solution is a certification course administered by a non-profit organization, which will ensure that agents are equipped with the most current and relevant knowledge and skills

The  core purpose is to improve advisory service delivery to students and providers by:

  1. Developing a certification program in conjunction with all relevant stakeholders
  2. Certifying Education Agents have a benchmark minimum knowledge to provide advice to international students intending on studying in Australia.
  3. Upskilling Education Agents with annual professional development programs
  4. Promoting certification as a benchmark of quality and encouraging Providers to use agents with the certification
  5. Maintaining an open list of certified agents for the public to view, and removing certification should any agent be found in breach of the applied standards
  6. Acting as a single source of truth for information and updates relating to the industry of international education advice and related government policy

The workshop aims to get direct feedback on the model from the ISANA Conference participants to use in the final framework and content.

Biography:

Robert Parsonson (Executive Officer ISEAA) has 30 years in education working in Australia and internationally in the development and execution of international student marketing and offshore market entry for ELICOS, VET and higher education. Currently, Rob is GM of Superior Training Centre – a trades training RTO for apprentices and international students. His previous clients include StudyNSW, assisting with the IET Strategy for StudyNT, an education agency strategy for StudyQueensland and a VET study with education agents for the SA Government.

In 2017 Rob facilitated the first education agent symposium in Australia – The Symposium on Leading Education Recruitment (sympled.com.au)