Recruitment & Retention | News

2 Trade Colleges Turn Outward for Recruitment & Retention

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 06/28/10

Two for-profit educational organizations will be using the services of Education Sales Management (ESM) to woo, enroll, and retain students. Both Ecotech Institute in Aurora, CO and UEI College in Southern California are contracting with ESM for student lead qualification and transfer, appointment setting, application generation, and other enrollment services.

Ecotech Institute is focused entirely on preparing students for jobs in renewable energy and sustainable design. Its flagship campus recently launched, and Ecotech announced plans to expand across the country.

"We're delivering programs in fields that will support the new green economy, and we're experiencing great interest in these programs," said Jason Mann, marketing director for Education Corporation of America, the company behind Ecotech. "Having a partner like ESM, with its focus on exceptional customer services, ensures that our students get the support they need, while also allowing us to better qualify and enroll more students during this period of growth."

International Education Corp., which operates 10 colleges under the UEI moniker, has been working with ESM on marketing the schools, which offer programs in automotive technology, dental hygiene, and business office administration, among others. In an expanded relationship, UEI will have a dedicated team of ESM staff responding to student inquiries.

"We are looking forward to faster and more efficient contact of our Internet leads resulting in increased transfers to our campuses, while maintaining ESM's excellent customer service with our prospective students," said Hanan Mordaa, associate vice president of marketing for International Ed.

"More and more students are heading back to school, making it increasingly important for schools to deliver the best possible student experience," said Rick Fort, founder and CEO of ESM. "By acting as an extension of our client institutions' in-house teams, we can help schools more effectively and efficiently enroll students and guide them along a successful educational path."

The company recently said that its communications with prospective students via texting has resulted in an increase in contact rates by as much as 11 percent and an increase in conversion rates by 17 percent. ESM uses texting to notify the prospect about who is calling them on their cell phone.

"By embracing digital communication strategies, we can help schools more efficiently and effectively reach potential students to initiate the admissions process," Fort said. "This is an important precursor to what is to come in terms of student communication throughout the entire student lifecycle."