Saturday, May 23, 2009

MEN TORS’ , ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE

The Organization
Name : Mentors’
Address : 166/1, Mirpur Road, Kalabagan, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh
Type of Business : Test Preparation & Foreign Admission Service
Telephone : +880 2 9131 828, +880 2 8127277
Fax : +880 2 9141 795
E-mail : info@mentors.com.bd
Website : www.mentors.com.bd
Contact Person : Syed Khairul Hassan
Chief Executive Officer

Services we offer
Our services are divided into two parts;

a) Academic Services: This includes our preparation courses for standardized tests like IELTS, SAT, TOEFL, GRE, GMAT and admission test preparation courses for BBA, MBA etc. This also includes our academic courses for O’ level and After School Coaching (Class III-IX). We offer a basic Spoken English course, too.
b) Foreign Education Counseling: We represent a number of UK universities and colleges. The list includes University of Dundee, University of Abertay Dundee, University of Sunderland, Newcastle College, Dundee College, London Trinity College. We help the students getting admission into the above institutions and also provide them with visa processing services.

Facts & Figures
Number of Students (July 1, 2007 till date) : 5200
Number of Academic Staff : 87
Number of Administrative Staff : 52
Number of Academic Departments : 04
Number of Courses : 12
Number of Administrative Departments : 04
Number of Affiliation : 08
Approximate Growth Rate (per year) : 17%
No. Of Branches : 13

The founders:
The co-founders of Mentors’ are Mr. Syed Khairul Hassan and Mr. Nasim Ahmed.
Mr. Khairul has completed his Masters in Economics from Jahangirnagar Univeristy and then did his MBA from the Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka. He is in his mid-thirties and a very energetic person with a clear vision for continuous improvement.

Mr. Nasim Ahmed has completed his Masters in Public Administration from the University of Dhaka and then did his MBA from the Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka. After that, he went to USA and did another MBA from the University of Pennsylvania. He is also in his mid-thirties and works more with creative aspects of the organization.

Location:
The head office of Mentors’ Education is situated in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The office is located on one of the busiest roads of the city, Mirpur Road. The name of the area is Kalabagan. Mentors’ has been operating from this location since its inception in 1996 and has become a landmark for others in the above mentioned locality.

There are two other branches in Dhaka situated at Mouchak and Uttara. There are 11 other branches spread throughout the country. We have branches in Chittagong, Khulna, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Rangpur, Jessore, Noakhali, Comilla, Brahmanbaria, Narsingdi, and Narayanganj.

Brief History:
Mentors’ Education was established in 1996. The co-founders were classmates and planned to start a business to target a very niche market of that time. They concentrated on building a service that would cater people interested to get into the most prestigious business school of the country, IBA. As both the co-founders were students of that school, it was very easy for them to get the academic structure ready. The toughest part was getting the students and excellent promotional strategy made that look easy. Mentors’ became a brand name for that specific market in almost no time and the rest is only a story of triumph. Mentors’ started offering preparation courses for SAT, TOEFL, IELTS, GMAT, GRE and became the market leader. Early in 2002, Mentors’ started offering free counselling to its in-house students for foreign admission. Mentors’ has also started giving visa advices later that year. After getting affiliated with a number of institutes from the UK, Mentors’ concentrated only on UK-based universities and colleges and became a big player in the UK admission service providing market of Bangladesh. The name Mentors’ is now very much familiar to almost every person of the higher education seeking market segment and to their guardians. Quality service and sticking to commitments have been the key to Mentors’ success.


Mission Statement:
In context of this on-going era of globalization, Bangladesh, perhaps, is one of the least integrated countries of the world; largely due to out-dated educational schemes. Nearly a decade ago Mentors’ Education ventured out to relegate such academic antiquities, like that is found in the presently available instructions of English Medium students, by means of compassionate entrepreneurship. The importance of international academic alternatives is easily perceivable, and banking on this simple conception Mentors’ pioneered tuition programs on English language proficiency tests, such as TOEFL and IELTS, and various international scholastic skill tests, SAT, GRE, GMAT and GED for example, in Bangladesh. Along with other academic preparatory programs that are also based on international academia despite their domesticated applications, Mentors’ has attuned these courses to relative perfection. Having conquered many frontiers, it is only justifiable that Mentors’ sets course to illuminate the field of English Medium Junior and High School education with an unique O’ Level and After School (class IV-VIII) solution, since we at Mentors’ Education are not here to do business only, though businessmen we are, but to serve as well, as sincere service is what we provide, and to thrive with, and only with, the learners of Bangladesh and leave the mark of our national progression on the global landscape.




Academic Structure
The academic department of Mentors’ is led by the Director, Operations. There are course coordinators for different courses. The coordinators deal with the teachers for assigning classes, reviewing performances, getting feedback from the students about the teacher and the course materials. There are a number of specialised teachers for different courses who are under close supervision of the coordinators. The coordinators report to the Director, Operations.

There is a Research and Development team working under the Assistant Director, Academics. The team consists of several teachers including the coordinators. This team is continuously working for the development and updating of the course materials. The leader of the team reports to the Director, Operations.

All the people involved in the academic team are minimum graduates from reputed local/foreign universities with subject-specific teaching background an experience.

Administrative Structure:
The administrative team is also led by the Director, Operations. There is an Office Manager for the head office and Branch Managers for different branches. There are three other counsellors in the head office and at least one counsellor in each of the branch offices. The office manager and the Branch managers deal with the Accounting and HR aspects of the organization whereas the counsellors are responsible for admission, counselling, class management etc. All the managers and the counsellors are minimum graduates with excellent communication skills.
There are a number of office assistants with predefined responsibilities. For example, there are six office assistants in the head office. One of them is responsible for keeping records of the course materials; another one is responsible for executing the field promotions like banners, posters, leaflet/brochure distribution etc. The other four also have specific tasks to perform. The educational background of the office assistants varies, but they are all able to read & write Basic English.
There is a business development team led by the Business Development Manager who works under close supervision of the CEO. The goal of this team is to generate new business ideas, execute plans for new business promotions, keeping liaison with the branches, arranging seminars etc.

Partner Organizations:
We represent a number of colleges and universities of the UK. The list includes:
1) University of Abertay Dundee
2) University of Dundee
3) University of Brighton
4) University of Sunderland
5) Newcastle College
6) Dundee College
7) London Trinity College


Business Plan for promoting foreign universities/colleges:

1) Newspaper ads: This media of promotion is considered to be the most effective in the context of Bangladesh. We have yearly budgets for our regular campaigns and seasonal budgets for foreign universities and colleges. We promote our organization along with the institutions we are related to in our advertisements. We are one of the most visible educational institutes of the country through our frequent insertions in the leading newspapers.

2) Brochures/Leaflets: We publish near about 200,000 brochures/leaflets per year and distribute them to the right places. We always keep the names of our partner organizations in our leaflets/brochures. Therefore, these institutions are also visible to the target market.


3) In-house Campaign: We have a huge number of in-house students. Among them, at least 70% are interested for studying abroad. More importantly, they always get the information what Mentors’ is doing with foreign education. We keep them updated about all the universities/colleges we represent and give them free counseling about those.

4) Seminars/spot admissions: We arrange seminars and spot admission interview sessions for the universities and colleges we represent at our own premises. We have got the necessary infrastructure and equipments to carry out a successful seminar. We can also arrange seminars and or discussion sessions in other educational institutes if required.