Teacher turned Entrepreneur steps education up in South Africa!

Owner and co-founder of Step Up Education Centres, Cindy Glass is a qualified teacher with over 20 years’ experience in helping children grow and develop into the best version of themselves. She started her career at Yellowwood Park Primary in sunny Durban and moved on to open her first after-school tuition centre in 2005 in Port Elizabeth. Two years later she had grown to three branches across the windy city, securing the world record for the fastest growing first-year Education Centre internationally.

After almost a decade in Port Elizabeth, Cindy moved to Pietermaritzburg where she and co-founder Fiona Lake, decided to open another after-school tuition centre, only this time, under their own brand, Step Up Education Centres. This, Cindy says, gave them the freedom to develop and customise the course material for the South African market and saw them become the first South African company to develop a world-class remediation after-school tutoring service for learners based on CAPS system.

Fellow teachers got wind of the course material and loved the fact that in addition to the localised content, it had a unique ability to demonstrate flexibility in learning which catered for the needs of a variety of learning styles and personalities. As a result Cindy and Fiona sold their first four franchises within eight months of opening. “When we opened Step Up in Pietermaritzburg, we never even thought about franchising. Now, just over a year later we have five centres in three provinces around the country,” Cindy explains.

Passionate about education and the upliftment of others, Cindy is not only committed to helping children reach their potential, but also to revolutionising the the face of education. She believes that Step Up English, Afrikaans, Maths, Physics and Accounting courses are ideally suited to play a substantial role in the fight against illiteracy in South Africa.

Furthermore, Cindy has a heart for struggling communities and spent two years assisting Ubuntu Education Fund in Port Elizabeth creating an afterschool programme to assist learners in remediation in English and Maths skills. More recently she has trained teachers and helped Grade 12 learners in Greytown, “We managed, in a miraculously short period of time, to improve their Matric pass rate from 14% to 43%,” she proudly exclaims.

This mom of 2, Dylan (16) and Ethan (7) is not only involved in the day-to-day running of Step Up, but she also writes course material for both children and adults on Study Skills and Emotional Intelligence and then sells it through Step Up’s parent company, Arum Academy. Cindy admits that juggling it all is not easy and shares that being a momtrepreneur can be challenging, “There are days where creativity just eludes you, you’re struggling to get feet through the door and you’re simply exhausted. It’s in those times that you need to believe in the law of averages which proves that if you keep working at something you believe in and are passionate about, you will break through!”

Cindy has big dreams to be education trendsetter. She wants to assist people in courageously making better life choices because Step Up Education Centres gave them the inspiration and even tools to do so. How does she plan to do this? By continuing to do what she loves – uplifting others!

Established in 2016, Step Up Education Centres is a dynamic after-school remediation and tutoring franchise with a difference. Step Up offers children an opportunity to succeed in a schooling system that is, at times, very unsympathetic. From the moment, a child walks through a Step Up Education Centre doors they feel different. They no longer feel silly or stupid. They no longer feel misunderstood. They no longer feel judged. After just one lesson they feel hope. They see possibility. After a few sessions, they walk taller, feel smarter, do better. Why? Because Step Up believes that every child has potential…and our passionate educators will not give up until they reach it!

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