Being adaptable has been the key to the success of MCIE, which fought back from the brink after a change in government legislation
In 2008, Gary Coonar had an idea to establish a new private education college in Melbourne. He’d spent time looking at other providers’ facilities, and was convinced he could do it better. The only thing he lacked was the capital to make it happen.
A chance conversation with a friend resulted in Coonar being introduced to his future (and now former) business partner. It turned out they’d both had the same idea, and his partner, whilst flush with capital, lacked the skillset and know-how to pull if off.
Together, the two combined forces and Melbourne City Institute of Education (MCIE) was born. The school was an immediate hit with international students, who were drawn to the industry-recognised hospitality courses. Coonar left his job in telecoms and was working at the school full time, until disaster struck.
“In late 2009, the Government changed the rules around student visas,” he says. “It was a very hard time, a lot of private providers shut their doors, and it really put a lot of pressure on us.”
Almost overnight, MCIE’s influx of foreign students stopped and the business had to reassess its offering.
“We had to adapt and change in line with the government policy. We added new courses that were in demand among domestic students, starting with business courses that enabled people to upskill,” he says.
Of course, that too was a new area for MCIE, and a lot of groundwork was required.
“Business training was a hard market to break into,” he says. “It involved long hours and long drives – we sent trainers out to workplaces, instead of them coming to us. The furthest we went was probably Orange, in NSW. Some days, I drove the trainer myself! It didn’t make us any money, but it did give us an appreciation of the domestic market, and what people wanted.”
With the business’ finances under extreme pressure, Coonar decided to return to work, in an IT role. He’d spend his day in an office, and then head to MCIE of an evening or weekend, staying until midnight some days to finish his tasks.
“We had salaries and wages to pay, to our academic staff. I earned a wage, so we could pay them,” recalls Coonar.
There was one shining light through these times though, and that was the college’s Director of Training and Delivery, Rajiv Gulshan.
“Rajiv has been an absolute pillar for our organisation,” he says. “I often refer to him as the ‘father of MCIE’. He has a high standing in the culinary world, he’s worked in five-star hotels all over the world, and he ran his own hotel school in Mauritius.”
Despite these credentials, Gulshan had applied for around 600 jobs before he landed the role at MCIE.
“He sums up everything we stand for,” says Coonar. “We’re very much about giving an opportunity to immigrants and people from overseas. Rajiv has played a big part in the way we’re setup and run. He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to the college.”
Coonar’s partner exited the business in late 2012. He says the partnership worked well for two-to-three years, and they got to the point where they were generating positive cash flow. But Coonar was keen to reinvest in the business, and his partner wanted out. As he puts it, “we shared different visions”. By January 2013 Coonar had bought his partner out and was the sole owner of the college.
Today, MCIE relies heavily on government funding rather than student fees. Coonar estimates that funding accounts for up to 58% of their business.
“That was one lesson we learnt from the start, when the international students stopped coming – to not have all your eggs in one basket. Sometimes there’s no avoiding that, but we’ve worked hard in the last five years to diversify the funding sources for our courses and the people we target,” he says.
MCIE currently has around 1200 students, 1100 of which are domestic. The school is popular with students from Asia, but they make up a much smaller percentage of enrolments compared to those early days. MCIE is based in Melbourne’s CBD, and boasts several off-campus locations such as their commercial kitchen (for hospitality students), in North Melbourne. They continue to send trainers out into workplaces, too, and run courses in and around Melbourne’s suburbs.
MCIE continues to grow, but Coonar says it’s been a ‘managed, sustainable and steady growth’.
“We’ve pretty much been doubling every year, for the past three or four years. From a financial perspective, we started with a $500,000 turnover, then went to $1 million, then to $1.8 million, and this year we’re looking at close to $4 million.”
Coonar credits the school’s success and popularity to his staff and trainers.
“It’s all about hiring the right people, and not micromanaging them,” he says. “You have to empower your staff to make decisions, and let them make mistakes, so long as they learn from it. We like to put leaders – not managers – in supervisory roles. Plus we put a lot of focus on our people, and how we can develop them. I think the students see this, and it rubs off on them, too.”
Writer: Megan Gamble
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