Brent Kreuger
After a lifetime of “not fitting in” to mainstream institutes, I found my calling as a business owner. I struggled all through my school years with the traditional paper and pen methods of study finally finding a niche in a visual form of study at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University)
In 1994, after 10 years as a business owner, I returned to school to finish a degree in Education, then went on to complete a Masters in Distance Education. We knew that we wanted to incorporate new and innovative methods of training into the company and decided that along with the credentials, the knowledge and experience was an important part of that move.
Our training approach is practical rather than academic, and based on adult learning principles so the traditional textbook/workbook method is rarely used. We find that as we become more flexible and cater to the individual learning styles of the client, the client's comfort level with education in general, learning & retention, and eventual success of their enterprise increases. And because our flexibility caters to client needs on an individual basis, no one has to feel they are “not fitting in” here. It is not uncommon to have clients with Masters or Doctorial Degrees working right along with other clients who haven't complete grade six.
As part of our growth strategy, and to keep ahead of the curve, we know we have to adapt to changes in the business environment, particularly changes in technology. In keeping with our personal philosophy of fostering entrepreneurship wherever possible, and with always wanting to offer the best, we periodically form alliances with other companies or entrepreneurs. Many of these alliances are with clients who have completed the Entrepreneurship Program and are now operating their own enterprises. We are constantly moving our company forward to embrace the very best of new developments.
One example of this is the fact that while we have always used technology to support our face-to-face programs, in the fall of 2003 we implemented an online program to further support various learning styles. One of the things we noticed is that certain components of our particular Distance Education model worked so well that we incorporated those segments into our face-to-face classes.
We believe in continual learning, creativity, and innovation and look forward to working with new ventures and colleagues who share in this vision.