---

“Going to tutorial centers has become a status symbol for those who want to get ahead not only in school, but in life,” says Rosanna L. Llenado, president of AHEAD Tutorial & Review Center, during her recent guesting at ANC’s Shop Talk.

The days when people looked down at students who go to tutorials are gone. Today, they are seen as students who want the best in life and are doing everything to get it. Llenado believes that AHEAD has a lot to do with this change of heart.

“We have always attached our services to the idea of success and winning,” she explains. “We feature our best students on our brochures, billboards, web sites, and other materials. We use taglines that signify excellence and leadership.”

Excellence and leadership best describe AHEAD’s customers. Half of the students, Llenado says, are running for honors. Some are maintaining their grades while others know they can achieve more with help from AHEAD.

Sure, the students come from well-to-do families, but that’s not what AHEAD is most proud of about its students.

“They are the thinking class,” Llenado goes on. “There are a lot of centers, but they chose well. Parents of these students want assurance that their children can compete with peers academically. They want only the best for their children, even if it means spending and sacrificing more.”

After all, good education is priceless.  It’s the best gift a parent can give his child.

Learning by Doing

Instilling good study habits, Llenado believes, will turn students into self-starting learners.

“We promote learning by doing,” she says. “We teach students good study skills and habits, so they can eventually learn on their own, without a tutor. We give them a lot of exercises according to what they are learning in their respective schools. Tutors constantly motivate students to be their best by sharing with them the benefit of getting good grades and staying on top of the class.”

Llenado has 15 years of AHEAD quality tutorial services behind her. She has dealt with all kinds of students from the excellent to the problematic ones. However, these achievements never made her complacent.

“I attend seminars on teaching and learning almost every month, and train my team accordingly,” Llenado shares. “We also have a lot of consultants from different institutions in different parts of the Philippines and even abroad. They help us maintain the highest standards in supplementary education.”

The road to success is not easy, of course. Llenado talks of teacher piracy and other tutorial centers which copy AHEAD’s program and materials, tearing up its tarps and removing its billboards.

AHEAD moves on. Llenado reports that five of its branches are now franchises. This means AHEAD has been helping other entrepreneurs with a passion for education run successful businesses.

Going Global

AHEAD’s plans of going global are already in place.

“We’ve started teaching students in California and Canada through our online tutorial service. We’ve been fine-tuning the system for over a year now, and we’re ready,” Llenado says.

“Students with internet connection can see our tutors here as if they’re face-to-face,” she explains. “We’re using technology developed by a Filipino company. We see this as a way of keeping our Filipino teachers in the country because they don’t have to go abroad to earn a good salary.  They can use their teaching skills with international students.”

By exploring new opportunities in the education industry, AHEAD Tutorial & Review Center is not just helping students, it also giving a hand to Filipino teachers and homegrown technology as well.