eBECAS Training

The purpose of this documentation is to give some background in the areas covered in eBECAS training.

Usually we will meet on the first morning and review the ideal setup options for your College. We will initially review the Faculties that will be provided (probably ELICOS for all English language programs and a separate Holiday program faculty) You may choose to add a separate Academic faculty.

The courses offered their prices and fees need to be specified in detail and entered. The Colleges holiday (term) breaks will need to be entered for each faculty so that the course end dates can be calculated for each enrolment. Agents details need to entered (address, email and employee / counseling staff with commission arrangements).

We review the student details. Students with local and overseas address and contact details, citizenship, native language spoken, pathway options, diary entries, visa and eCoE details, and photo of the student.

The structure of the training should be small groups based on operational areas. Training is often provided at one of the staff members desks with 2 or 3 staff who work in the same area around them, or a room with a computer and connection to eBECAS in a room connected to a projector would be good.

The style of training we like to provide is where we show users what to do, then get staff to show the trainer what they do and how they can do it in eBECAS. We like all the staff to be given access to eBECAS so they can explore what information is where before training commences and for them to review the online manual on our website so they are familiar with the screens. Initially presenting eBECAS can be confronting, as there is not only the screens and where the data is located, but also how to navigate around the system. Simply familiarizing the users with the screens means that they can go beyond what is displayed into conceptually using the data provided. This accelerates training immensely.

The operational areas that usually covered in training are (with only staff working in these areas present):

Admissions - Agent details including commissions and contact details, use of diaries, holidays period and a utomatic enrolment end date calculations, pricing of courses (use weekly rates and price books) and integration of commission payments listed in course offers, use of offer area in eBECAS to generate proforma invoices, scheduling fee due dates (order of offer entry important), entry of homestay requests and airport transfers, insurance, conversion of offers to accepted enrolments.

Marketing - Following up offers by offer date, course start date, homestay request and airport transfer, use of offer status (preparing / offer made / accepted / cancelled and withdrawn), agent performance reports, country reports, student weeks in period, period comparison reports, agent accounts, use of diary and online review of students send from agents and agreed contract performance.

DOS and teaching staff - Language levels (measurement of entrance level and progress), Classing (assigning classes for sessions / teachers / rooms and students to classes), Rolls and marking attendance and entering absences, calculation of attendance percentages (progressive and overall and by eCoE), use of Diaries for student counseling, entering results and printing certificates.

Management - setup and reporting option by faculty, key performance indicators: students by week, revenue by period for faculty/courses/agents/countries, credits and discounts in period, reconciliation of banking, Financial Activity (invoiced, credited, paid, debited, transfers) in period, teacher/room utilization and class numbers, country / mix of students, outstanding fees aged, outstanding payments to agents (for payment gross), payments due to homestays, unscheduled payments made for homestays, review of student / homestay / agent diaries and complaints.

Homestay - Entry of homestay family details (categories of house/family/bed, contact details, public and privates notes, use of diary, address, phone, bank details, family members, beds available with descriptions, integration of placements and scheduled payments. Use of provisional offers with homestay requests, and definite starters enrolments. Placement and finding available homestay families for student request, placement printing and emailing homestay placement letters to students and families, scheduling payment of homestay fees to family, changing placements and changing scheduled payments , adding extensions and new homestay requests.

Financial - use of offers for proforma invoice and conversion to accepted enrolments, invoicing, difference between invoice date and fee due dates (scheduled due date of fee payment especially part payments), credits/discounts/debits, outstanding fees, revenue reports and integration with accounting packages using journal entries.

Separately it is ideal to have an "expert person" that is familiar with Ms Word that can be trained to tailor templates and use the eBECAS bookmarks.

It is ideal in my opinion for staff to only have at most 1-1/2 hours training per day, so they can assimilate the information provided. This is why it is best best to have small groups, even if I have to repeat and have several sessions on the same topic. It is also useful to have staff to immediately use even a small part of what they have been trained in, so ideally they will identify what will be valuable to start using immediately and review this the next day and ask and exchange more detailed information in further training the next day.