Today is an amazing day @ JWGecko. It is 18 months since we released our VET Gecko products onto the unsuspecting RTOs of Australia. Since then one product has become ten, ten features have become one hundred and fifty and sales of training online has grown from a ‘couple of grand a month’ to a record in March 2011 of $223,007.

• As I write our sites have broken through the $1,000,000 mark in 2011, a month ahead of projections.
• Our client’s sales are growing at 29.5% per month.
• By anyone’s measure this is an extraordinary development.

How have our clients achieved this?

1   Timing

Australia has lagged behind the USA, Europe and even our Kiwi cousins in the take up of online purchasing. After a decade of tabloid type scare mongering the Australian population has decided they are savvy enough to take the step to buy online. The lack of spare time in people’s lives and the need to retrain due to longer working lives and a restructuring economy has put RTOs in an excellent position to sell training online. Our RTOs are taking advantage of the growth and the technology to reshape their businesses.

2   Reduce Costs & Increase Sales

The VET Gecko product set does two things that should stop any RTO in there tracks …

>> Increase Revenue & Reduce Costs <<

Website Maintenance: Our websites are easy to maintain and often can be updated via the student management system, update your training software and the website is updated automatically. This saves money and external costs.

Online Enrolment: Online enrolment is not a simple thing as it may look at first glance. How do you sell training if you don’t know how much funding you will receive? Members receive a discount, some people pay by credit card, other may use a purchase order. We have versions of our enrolment application for fee for service, various funding models, employer enrolments and job networks. We have payment by credit card, PayPal, payment plans and purchase orders, all customisable for your RTO’s specific requirements. This saves money and internal costs.

Email Confirmations: What do I bring? Where do I go? How do I get there? Any RTO doing a telephone audit will know that these questions take up a lot of time for your admin personnel, in fact studies have suggested that more than 60% of the cost of training is incurred before the event. The VET Gecko smart confirmation portal allows the RTO to automatically send out email confirmations that include maps and directions, receipts or invoices, Learner’s Handbooks and study material. This saves money and internal costs.

RTO Friendly Web Developer: VET Gecko is a part of JWGecko. We have been developing websites that reduce cost and increase sales for more than a decade. We understand search engine optimisation, design and content development. In the past four years we have learned a LOT about the VET market; we understand a lot about AQTF 2010, AVETMISS reporting, LMS and Online Learning, even blended delivery … and the importance of compliance.

For an RTO developing an online presence we are simply … a lot easier to deal with.