INTERESTED in pursuing a career in a new, but growing field? Think education marketing. It’s a new hot career area, and one which stands to yield considerable earnings.

ID Ur Career looks this week to entrepreneur Aldain Reid for details on the field. With a diploma in engineering, Reid hardly thought he would be involved in education marketing. However, his degree in management is such that he was able to spot a business opportunity when it presented itself in 2003.

Today, he is the regional director for Resource Development International (RDI), a company that caters to the needs of the mature student; and president of Eduventures Limited, which does consultancy work for a number of educational institutions while matching college-bound students together with the college or university, locally or abroad, which best suits their career goals. Eduventures is also organiser of the annual international education fair, which is scheduled for later this month at the Hilton Kingston Hotel.

What is higher education marketing?

Education marketing is about providing business support services to higher education institutions. Those services would pretty much amount to enhancing not only their business processes, but also their marketing and customer support services.

So what we do is we partner with academic institutions that are seeking to expand their reach. Increasingly individuals are becoming aware of the need for higher education, and so the reality is that options available to this increased number of people locally are limited. So we offer schools opportunities to offer their programmes to the Jamaican market. Where we come in is that we provide that avenue through which students are able to connect with the programmes they would want to do, which are either not available in Jamaica or are not available in the form they wish to avail themselves or it is available but is not accessible to them. So it is really about expanding the offerings to students locally.

Why did you get involved in the field?

It was an opportunity that presented itself. I had no specific interest or background in education marketing. But I saw an opportunity where an institution from out of the UK was seeking to expand into the region and I, at that point in time, made some suggestions about what could be done in the Jamaican market. One thing led to another, and we were able to set up a local subsidiary of the company here in Jamaica, and since then have expanded to other countries in the region – Cayman, Bahamas, BVI, and Turks and Caicos.

What is the value of the work that you do?

This is one of those business types that one can really, with a straight face, say that we are actually doing some public good. In other words, the fact that we are able to increase the number of persons taking advantage of higher education means that our company has been able to expose a vast number of students – from a high school perspective over 10,000 – to education opportunities in the UK, the US and Canada, and of course locally. The fact that we have been able to bring these institutions together with students means that we are providing a very important service, and we are making a business out of it.

How do you feel about the work that you do?

I’m pretty excited about it. I am always excited about the prospects of what is created by what we are doing now so far as business is concerned. We are always excited about coming to work every day. We meet a vast number of people and institutions each day. There are always people who want to get into the Caribbean market. Students, too, want to learn about

their offerings.

What is a typical day like

for you?

I have to do a lot of interface with customers, partners and different stakeholders within the business. Quite a bit of communication takes place via telephone and electronically. I also may have to deal with clients as well. In addition, I look at new markets and opportunities, and do quite a bit of research.

What types of earnings are there to be made in the area?

Education marketing as a career and education marketing as a business is different. The different job functions within education marketing you can make up to $1.5 million annually, depends now what role you are playing in the organisation. From a business perspective, there is no limit to what you can make. It depends on the level to which you can market yourself and how well you can execute your business plan. RDI, we are a small but ambitious company and we are growing our customer base.

What are the educational qualifications required for getting into that line

of business?

You would want to at least have a first degree. You are giving persons advice on the benefits of studying in college and so on, so you want to have at least that level to be able to relate to some obvious questions that would be asked concerning what to expect in higher learning. It doesn’t have to be any particular discipline.

Why would you encourage anyone to get into the field?

It is a new area, which is largely uncharted. It is one of those areas that really has not been given enough attention and therefore the opportunity is great in terms of getting involved in the higher education market.

The thought has been that higher education is mainly for universities to think about; really what we provide is sort of a complementary service to the community, where we augment the opportunities that exist by providing other opportunities. So there is tremendous scope to do

well. The fact is that we have an increasing number of students and people who want to study. And hopefully you can find the right schools for the right people.

NOTE: Reid is the holder of a diploma in engineering from the University of Technology (UTech), and a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Studies from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona. He is currently completing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree with the United Kingdom-based University

of Leicester.