Equip Schools

We help students become independent, confident, and resilient learners.

The reason we do this is that many Australian schools (whether private or public) fail to impart students with practical life skills. We believe that this is evidenced by high university drop out rates and serious health issues experienced by students.

For example, what proportion of high school students do you think are feeling clinical levels of stress in their last two years of school? The answer is approximately 4 in 10 students – the highest levels of anxiety and depressive illnesses ever in this age group. Did you also know that 1 in 10 youth-suicides are HSC related?

Eddie Gandevia, the founder of Talent Generation, started Equip Schools after noticing many schools were contributing to these problems by focusing on the size of curriculum content instead of engaging in consistent and effective academic and personal skills development.

Amazingly, few or no companies specialized in providing more than just workshops to combat these concerns whilst improving student marks and attitudes at the same time. Equip Schools was thus created to offer the service of dramatically improving student performance and preparedness for life while enhancing the school community.

Much of the company’s success has arisen from its dedication to creating real student change. Typical student development programs in schools happen once a year and, according to research, are ineffective in creating lasting change.

The Equip Schools Program is different.

It creates real and lasting results by constantly engaging with students via text books, online resources, weekly teaching materials, and student workshops each term (on critical topics such as ‘Stress Management’, ‘Exam Strategies’, ‘Assignments’). Equip Schools has proven itself to be an invaluable investment in students’ lives.

Our People

Our Philosophy of student development

	Combining expertise with innovation All the Equip Products are derived from our unique Equip Schools Curriculum. Developed over many years, this curriculum of skills and mindsets is based experience with over 30,000 students nationwide, as well as extensive research into student motivation, learning and performance.
	Developing students with intention and strategy We have developed a model of student responsiveness, identifying the behaviours and beliefs that inhibit or produce confident, independent, and resilient students. This model not only identifies the stages from evasive, to passive, to reactive, to proactive, and ultimately to adaptive learners; it sets out the particular strategies and skills required to move students forward.
	Preparing students for life, not just school We committed to investing in students the life skills they require to succeed at school and beyond. By developing skills such as time management, organisation, learning strategies, planning and reflection, students are not only equipped to reach their potential at school, but they are trained in the skills they will need in the future of work and training.
	Radically improving student performance Too often the approach of schools and families when faced with poor student performance is to teach more content, more often. Unfortunately, this rarely leads to results. However, we have found that investing in a student’s learning strategies, exam preparation approach, project planning, motivation, organisation and time management, students can redefine their performance. And we are committed to producing these results for families and schools.

Our products

Our products are founded on extensive educational research, technological expertise and practical results.

	Educational Foundation: The EQUIP Curriculum The genesis of the EQUIP Curriculum and Program is founded on over 8 years of educational training, research and student engagement. The EQUIP Curriculum has been developed by Eddie Gandevia, with on-going research being conducted under the guidance and supervision of leading educational academics from the University of Sydney as well as the first hand expertise of Simon Breakspear, our Educational Director. The combined educational experience, research and innovation is embedded in the EQUIP Schools Program (EQUIP Online, the EQUIP Handbook and the EQUIP Workshops). Each element exhibits an intentional and sophisticated pedagogical approach to student motivation and performance.
	Technical Foundation: EQUIP Online EQUIP Online is a software application for students, teachers and parents and lies at the heart of Talent Generation’s Equip Schools Program. This cutting edge system is both sophisticated and customisable, providing students with the tools to effectively manage their time, refine organisational skills, and adopt good habits in planning and reflection. The system’s comprehensive data reporting capabilities allows schools to better foster and strengthen their educational partnership with students, parents and teaching staff. This online software application has been designed and developed utilising the latest in Self-Reflective data collection and Web 2.0 technologies.
	Statistical Design and Self-Reflective Data Analysis EQUIP Online and the entire EQUIP program has been designed under the guidance of statistical experts from a range of research institutions. Statisticians associated with both the University of New South Wales and the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute have provided advice and input on the techniques and methods within the self-reflective online application, EQUIP Online. This expertise will be relied upon in an ongoing way as data is analysed and provided to schools and students as regular semester reports on growth, performance, and usage.
	IT Software Development EQUIP Online is built using one of the most sophisticated Content Management Systems available in the global market. Experts in software development combine the latest in Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies to create an interactive, fast and usable platform for students, parents and teachers. The same platform provides social networking and global commerce interfaces for international clients with outstanding results. Talent Generation seeks to unite first class expertise, whether educational or technological, with innovation and enthusiasm in a way that connects with young people. To this end we feel qualified to present to you the EQUIP Schools Program with confidence in its vision and results.
	Practical Results: Experience with over 30,000 students nationwide (and soon to be international) It is one thing to be grounded in theoretical and technological expertise. It is quite another to deliver powerful results. Over the last 8 years, members of the Talent Generation team have been working with students and teachers all over Australia, currently working with schools and students in NSW, VIC, ACT, NT, WA and SA, and is on the frontier of working with schools in South East Asia and the European Union.

Our people

The Talent Generation Team

The team at Talent Generation have a passion for investing in the lives of others. Coming from personal successes at school and in the workforce beyond, we are committed to serving and partnering with schools and families to develop young people who are ready and able to succeed in life.

CEO, Johnny Lee

Johnny brings over 13 years business management experience to the Equip Schools team, working across a range of industries from education and insurance to biotechnology. His background in high-end corporate training and development has furthered the calibre of the face-to-face training that Equip delivers in schools around the country.

Under Johnny’s leadership, Talent Generation’s Equip programme has seen increased traction across Australian schools and interest from a range of corporate partners seeking to contribute to the education landscape in Australia.

Implementation Manager, Rohan Thompson

Rohan Thompson achieved a UAI of 98.00 and completed a combined Bachelor of Commerce & Law at the University of New South Wales in addition to a Masters of International Law from Jean Moulin III in France.

The primary focus of Rohan’s role as Implementation Manager is to understand the barriers to achievement faced by Australian high school students and provide them with the strategies and tools they need to maximize their performance in school and later on in life. This includes presenting entertaining and educational student workshops (to as many as 950 students at a time) and distributing teacher and tutorial resources to schools.

Director, Eddie Gandevia

BSc (Philosophy), LLB (Hons)

Eddie Gandevia graduated school on an academic scholarship with a UAI of 98.60, and completed a combined Bachelor of Science (Philosophy) & Law with honours. He has presented to over 15,000 high school and university students throughout Australia, and personally mentored hundreds of students.

His former role within Nextgen Learning and now as Director of Talent Generation has given him 7 years of experience as a provider of educational services, with a particular focus on innovating educational methods in the area of Self-Regulated Learning. Under the supervision of leading minds in education, Eddie has compiled the latest educational research in student motivation and engagement culminating in the publication of the academic whitepaper, Equipping Students For Success.

Under Eddie’s leadership, Talent Generation is generating Web 2.0 solutions for engaging, equipping and empowering students at university through an online software application ‘ENGAGE’. ENGAGE is designed to employ educational and social functionality into usable and innovate social-networking platform, creating the intellectual and social hub of student life on university campuses. This project has already won a grant from the world’s largest product label company Proctor & Gamble. Within just 6 months of operation, Talent Generation received nationwide print and media coverage for its innovative vision within education.

Technical Director, Josh Street

Josh has worked commercially in the web industry since 2003. His experience with website development began with front-end technologies within a variety of platforms in solo and team environments.

When he’s not busy designing or editing, Josh is passionate about accessible and standards-based online publishing, conducting training sessions and participating in industry groups accordingly. Alongside freelance work, Josh has worked within an agency context providing services to larger clients on high profile projects including Tivo.com.au, Yahoo!7 Network properties, Telstra, and more.

He brings a wide range of technical understanding to Talent Generation’s technology team, steering development across a range of projects.