Sylvan Learning Summit Speakers: Emily Levitt on How Franchisee Input Shapes The Company’s Education Offerings

Emily Levitt, the vice president of education at Sylvan Learning, a supplemental and enrichment education franchise with 750 points of presence across North America, spoke to Nick Powills, the publisher of 1851 Franchise, a trade publication in the franchising space, to explain how franchisee input shapes her company’s education offerings at Sylvan Learning’s virtual franchise summit.

Levitt said that even though the brand has more than 40 years of experience tutoring children, a big part of her job is listening to franchisee input and using that to shape the brand’s education product.

In 2020, Levitt heard the system’s franchisees loud and clear. The center owners needed help staying afloat during the pandemic and options to take their education product online. Luckily, Sylvan had been investing in tech for some time, and the pandemic only accelerated the brand’s tech innovations and made its offerings more relevant in today’s market. 

Levitt has seen the brand grow and change over her 10 years at Sylvan, and she’s remained enthusiastic about making sure Sylvan’s franchisees go into the marketplace with education tools that are proven to outperform competitors every time.

“It really does speak to how passionate we are about what we do, and how much we love the company,” said Levitt. “We really do come to work excited every day. For the education team, we spend the bulk of our time making sure the education programs are of high quality and they’re being implemented well in the centers.”

When Education is About Listening

Levitt sees her job only as half done if she’s simply handing down directions to franchisees. Levitt spends her day listening to franchisees and employees to make sure the groundbreaking educational programs she designs are working where the rubber meets the road.

“If teachers or directors have any questions about the programs or an individual student’s progress or they need recommendations, we support them,” she said. “We like to say we want to hear from the centers as much as possible. We don’t want to get into a situation where we’re just handing down what we think the centers should teach, it’s definitely a two-way street. We want to hear what the centers are experiencing, what their kids need and how we can help.”

Levitt said that she thinks Sylvan has become positioned to experience a boom in home tutoring as the top player in the industry. While Sylvan has always helped kids who fall behind in class, now a whole generation of children are falling behind, and according to Levitt, Sylvan has the tools to make it right.

“We’ve always seen that students who might be a little behind or from a disadvantaged socio-economic group traditionally have a harder time catching up,” she said. “Personalized tutoring has been the one thing that’s proven to be effective. Well, now we are an entire nation that’s going to need to catch up, and personalized tutoring is again being shown through studies and federal recommendations as the key to catching up an entire nation. We feel we’re positioned really well.”

“We’re really proud and excited to help our kids to get to the other side of the 2020-2021 school year,” said Levitt.

Watch the full video here.