Terms of Reference: get your ducks in a row to waddle ahead

International school businesses are not alone in having to manage the double whammy of the world neither resetting to the November 2019 ‘normal’, nor moving into hoped for stability and growth in 2022. New investors are looking at markets, looking again, and reconsidering their timing. Experienced investors are avoiding markets that had been considered strong in 2020, a caution in stark contrast to the optimism that fuelled the 500% expansion of English medium international schools in the 20 years before Covid[i] [ii]. That growth continued even as signs mounted over the second decade of saturation in some markets. Many school owners have been challenged by covid, and what many had previously accepted as viable long-term options (e.g. profit from pre-school used long-term to carry losses in high school) is now considered untenable.

We have seen an upsurge in International school businesses seeking the support of our experienced consultants and managers for a wrap-around business and education consultancy. Some school boards have clear goals in mind and know what they want us to do for them. Others have goals, but are unclear as to how to go about achieving them, or they simply want to hand over the work of achieving those goals to us.

To price our work for you we refer to Terms of Reference (TOR), and scoped projects. If you haven’t written these before, and most education businesses haven’t, then we can do this for you. The TORs put your ducks in a row, and once agreed by you, it is possible to more accurately estimate the price of the consultancy and management of the project.

The TOR details everything that you want us to achieve (the deliverables) through the project; they identify the tasks (processes) that need to be done to achieve those goals (e.g. feasibility study written, project management of a new build and opening, delivery of clerk of works). The TOR also identifies the personnel, and third parties necessary ensure the tasks are fulfilled, to achieve those goals.

The Project Scope identifies the schedule (timeline) and order of operations, so that the tasks identified in the TORs are dovetailed together to achieve the project outcomes. These will also include where the personnel, and third parties fit in, as well as communication plans, purchasing plans, and decision gates (e.g. whether the whole school is built and opened, or the buildings are opened in stages) to achieve those goals.

To write the Terms of Reference (and later Project Scope) the following points identify some of the matters that will inform the Terms of Reference:

1.       The deliverables: what do you want us to achieve for you and with you?

2.       The tasks that will need to be done to achieve the goal?

3.       The report writing, feasibility studies, communication plan – what needs to be written

4.       Staffing: the skills, people, companies, third parties needed to achieve that goal. Which will you provide, which will we provide?

5.       Your timeline. When does the work need to be completed? What is the start date?

6.       Financing your project. Will you be asking us to source investors?

Once the Terms of Reference have been submitted and accepted these can be used to get more accurately priced quotes for the work you need doing. These same Terms of Reference, along with the Project Scope, can form the basis of the MOU and any contract.

Whether you need consultancy or management, managers in-situ or online (our next article will discuss the advantages of the latter), solutions for straightforward matters, or solutions for more complex ones, please get in touch. We are able to help.

[i]  K-12 international school enrolment surpasses four million worldwide - ICEF Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment

[ii] Best Costa Rica International Schools? Parents Vote with their Feet (criacademy.com)