Join Firat Education’s team of educational consultants to grow an independent educational consulting practice under the Firat Education brand.
The Firat Education Educational Consulting Business Apprenticeship covers everything an educational consultant needs to build and grow an educational consulting practice. The Business Apprenticeship will accept a cohort of 5-7 educational consultants from across the country to start a 10-week apprenticeship on March 15, 2021.
The 10-week curriculum will include:
- Weekly Zoom(s) modular classes ranging from 1-1.5 hours per session
- Weekly online discussions and chat boards moderated by Firat’s Market Development Manager
- Weekly pre and post class work to apply knowledge learned
- Graduation in Week 10 and promotion to Educational Consultant at Firat Education
- Continued post-graduate monthly council meetings amongst the cohort and leadership to continue business and personal growth.
Welcome to the Firat show! If you are an Independent Educational Consultant looking to grow your business and become an established counselor under a nationally recognized brand, this Business Apprenticeship is right for you! We are looking for self-motivated educators who want to take their business to the next level but need the guidance and support from a well-established educational consulting firm.
Requirements to Apply:
- BA/BS or advanced degree
- Entrepreneurial, self-motivated, go-getter
- At least 3 years of college advising, school counseling, or similar experience.
- Provide independent educational or college counseling services as a favor or side job
- Working towards a steady influx of student clientele each admissions cycle
- Excited by the idea of generating new clientele through innovative means
- Long-term goal of owning a successful independent educational consulting practice
- Excellent communication skills, verbal and written.
- Excellent interpersonal skills, amiable personality.
- Excellent time management, detail oriented, results-oriented and excellent organizational skills
- Extremely familiar with technology (MS Word, MS Excel, MS PPT, Apple, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Webex, Zoom, Basecamp, Gmail…etc)
- Meets all the requirements to become an Associate Member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association.
If you already own your own educational consulting business and are interested in merging or working under Firat Education, please visit our Expert Acquisitions page.
Over the course this program, you will gain entrepreneurial skills and techniques that you need to grow and market your educational business. You will have the opportunity to build a national network of other entrepreneurial consultants like yourself, whom you can turn to for advice and support. Lastly, you will be supported by Firat Education’s resources, credibility, and administrative staff and as you transition into one of Firat’s Independent Educational Consultants.
The 10-week Modules are outlined below:
Week 1: Orientation
During Orientation, you will be introduced to Firat Education and leaders within the organization. You will also become familiar with educational consulting industry and entrepreneurship.
Week 2: The Firat Way
Over the last 13 years, Firat Education has developed a great team, a robust set of services, and a streamlined way of providing those services to our clients. As you join Firat’s team, you will learn what makes our operations so successful.
Week 3: Your Why and Your Exit
Just like we do for our students, we will start with the end in mind with you. What is your ultimate goal with your educational consulting practice? And unlike most entrepreneurs, we will think about and plan your exit strategy out of your practice. We will also share with you Ibrahim and Josephine’s exit strategy.
Week 4: Opportunities in Your Market
The entrepreneur is continually identifying and assessing opportunities in his or her market. Using the foundation of Firat Education’s marketing strategy, we will discuss how to identify your opportunities in your market. After identifying those opportunities (and risks), we will teach you the steps to assess those opportunities for taking action.
Week 5: Your Customer & Building Relationships
We will share with your Firat Education’s buyer personas and then adjust those buyer personas for your specific market. We will discuss our customer’s journey and how to utilize those as tools for marketing communication. We will end with sharing with your Firat’s strategy in developing long-term professional relationships that help build your practice.
Week 6: Messaging
Firat Education uses multiple types of messaging to reach and communicate our value to clients. This week we will discuss our customer value proposition and how to translate that into clear messaging for our target clients.
Week 7: Communication Tools/Platforms
This week we put into practice our marketing communication messaging to our buyer personas by working on communication tools and platforms. This week our apprentices start promoting.
Week 8: Your Leadership and Communication Style
As an educational consultant for Firat Education, you are considered a leader. You now work with an exceptional administrative and business team. You work with an exceptional group of colleagues. Understanding your leadership and communication style will make you a more highly effective leader, at Firat Education, in your practice, and in your community.
Week 9: The Money and Your Metrics
Let’s talk about what Firat Education measures in terms of your success, and what does the money piece look like? We forecast, we track, and we grow revenue AND profit. What does that look like for a Firat educational consultant?
Week 10: Your Goals and Graduation
During the final week of the Business Apprenticeship, our educational consultants will set long-term goals and short-term objectives and create an action plan to achieve them. We will celebrate your completion of the program and promote you to Associate Educational Consultant with Firat Education. Past the program, the cohort will stay together and meet for monthly check-ins and continuing education.
Important Dates
Application Deadline: February 21, 2021
Interview Period (for qualified candidates): February 1 – March 12
Program Start Date: March 15, 2021
Program End Date (Graduation): May 21, 2021
Curriculum Calendar
Week 1: March 15 – 19
Week 2: March 22 – 26
Week 3: March 29 – April 2
Week 4: April 4 – 9
Week 5: April 12 – 16
Week 6: April 19 – 23
Week 7: April 26 – 30
Week 8: May 3 – 7
Week 9: May 10 – 14
Week 10: May 17 – 21
Ibrahim Firat, Chief Educational Consultant & Co-Founder
Ibrahim Firat identifies and asses’ student’s goals from high school, college or graduate school to find the best fit and provide academic assistance, test prep, and school/college counseling solutions to achieve results. Ibrahim is currently the only College Counselor in Houston who specializes in test preparation and is a professional member of the IECA.
He has visited over 200 colleges and has more than14,000 hours of consulting resulting in $32.8 million in total scholarships, over 800 college acceptances and 19 IVY acceptances.
Additionally, Ibrahim is author of the Firat Guide which is offered in two versions and is a tool for parents to utilize when deciding the best fit school for their child.
In addition to his role at Firat Education, he also serves as Chief Growth Officer for Firat Group LLC where he is responsible for providing strategic, financial, operational, marketing and tactical growth strategies to small and mid-size businesses around the globe. Additionally, he serves as a Curriculum Developer for Scale Smarter Partners providing instruction in operations management and growth for mid-size businesses that are surging.
He is currently a professor at Houston Community College where he has taught business administration for over 12 years. Ibrahim has a bachelor’s degree and an MBA with a concentration in marketing from the University of St. Thomas.
Josephine Firat, CEO & Co-Founder
Josephine has started four businesses since co-founding Firat Education in April 2008 with her now-husband Ibrahim Firat and gas taught business and entrepreneurship at the college and high school levels. She has been an Adjust Houston Community College professor teaching business courses for 14 years, was a founding faculty member of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses at HCC and Babson College, the #1 Entrepreneurship college in the country.
Her consulting company, Firat Group, now provides curriculum development and delivery for Babson’s Executive Education Center to teach current entrepreneurs all over the world how to grow their businesses.
Josephine has her BBA from the University of St. Thomas in Houston in management and two masters degrees, MBA with a concentration in Marketing and Finance, and MIB (Master of International Business), from the University of St. Thomas.
Parker Badger, Market Development Manager
As a Firat alumnae, Parker brings a unique perspective to the educational customer journey. At Firat, Parker is currently helping our College Admissions Consultants grow their business under the Firat brand in their respective markets. She specializes in helping Firat educational consultants cultivate their current relationships, transition them into Firat relationships, and develop their personal brands.
Parker graduated with a BBA in Marketing from the University of Georgia Terry College of Business, the 12th ranked public business school in the nation. Throughout college, Parker completed comprehensive digital marketing strategies based on brand and market research and situational analysis for local businesses.
David Gracia, Client Relations Director
Cost of Apprenticeship:
Investment of time and effort
Requirements:
Post-graduation, each apprentice must commit to working as an educational consultant for Firat Education for at least one year. In addition, all consultants are required to sign a five-year non-compete agreement.
Compensation Post-Grad:
Compensation is commensurate with experience. This position is a W-2 employee part-time position and the hours are all dependent on the candidate’s drive for more hours.
The pay is commission based and translates into $75-$100 per contact hour.