The center staff is integral to delivering Sylvan's great products and services.
Pros
Such a fun & much needed approach to education! Every child getting their own individualized program to meet their needs, and I get to help each of them meet their academic goals. One day you are at the beginning of school helping a student learn to read and the next day you are helping another student prepare for their college of choice through SAT prep. And when that student or parent lets you know that Sylvan made all the difference you can't help but feel really proud to be a part of the solution. Certified teachers who care about our students as well as being the best teacher they can be for them. The best Sylvan instructors completely believe in the 3:1 model and eat up every table management strategy they can in order to create that perfect balance of guided practice & independent practice. They know our students have to become independently successful so that they don't have to come to Sylvan forever, and we don't have to go to college with them. On a personal level, Sylvan has given me the chance to learn many of the ins and outs of such a wide range of education. As a person who only taught 3rd grade before Sylvan, now I mostly work with our 9th through 12th grade students and help prepare them for life after high school. I am so happy that I've had the opportunity to learn how Advanced Reading Skills, Study Skills, Test Prep, Upper Level Math, & College Writing can ease that transition from high school to college, military, or the job market for our students. Our Sylvan of Portsmouth families, my co-directors, our great staff, the other directors of our district, & our district manager are responsible for all the "Pros" of working at Sylvan.
Cons
For a well-established company it seems strange that many training processes are still in the works. The solution is often an hour long online webinar on a topic. In the years that I have been here, I feel like there has only been one training that was set up for success. It was an in person training over days, not an hour, followed by 10 weeks of follow up and retention checks. I know there is no one at Sylvan who believes selling is the only important part of our company, so I am not sure why there are not more trainings set up similar to our sales training. Systems and software could be more intuitive and user friendly or there could be more timely training and technology support in place. The center is a busy place every day, time spent on hold with tech support, waiting for a "level 3" technician to get back to you, or leafing through an incomplete online help guide can be frustrating when you would rather be monitoring student progress and improving customer service. Compensation does not seem reasonable in comparison to similar jobs at other companies. I feel that great directors and teaching staff should be compensated as so. I completely understand the need for prices of services and our products to increase, but not when compensation stays as is year after year.
