All-around incompetency - Academic Coach Cognitive Development Learning Centre Employee Review

Thank you for your feedback. It is unfortunate that your personal experience in the organization was not up to your expectation. Our organization will review our processes and seek to improve our future staff experience. However, we would like to highlight a few key points. In Cognitive, our training program would include proper signed documented proof as part of our training process. Training includes classroom training as well as observations, supervised coaching and daily feedback sessions. The proof of training is filed in the personal file of respective staff members. In addition, for each of our coaching materials, there are specific coaching steps to be executed for the child. Such documented coaching steps is part of our established process and is also intended for parents to learn and support their child at home. As part of personal development, staff are empowered to decide on what type of training is required. Management would direct concern staff to look for suitable external training to attend. All approved courses are sponsored by Cognitive. Such process is common among huge MNCs practices around the world. Health and safety, particularly during this Covid period, is of utmost concern to the management. Proper measures are put in place to maximise cleanliness of the environment to prevent infestation of pest; staff are always required to wear their mask, practice social distancing, and minimise physical touching of students unless there are safety issues. A designated area is provided for consumption of food. Similarly, on safety, when there is a prolong screaming and crying by a child, any staff outside the coaching area is required to go in, check and assist where needed. This is a preventive measure & a safety protocol. Once the situation is under control, the assistant will move out of the way for the coaching staff to continue their intervention. Cognitive Development was never a not-for-profit organization. It is also an organization that do not profiteer from parents. Each child coming to the Centre is given assurance of the best care possible, which include coaching parents on how to support their child at home, advisory services for parents seeking help and doing what is right for both parents and the child. Past students and long serving staff are aware that Cognitive is a responsible company. These values have existed all along and will never change. There is a proper hierarchy in the management of the Coaching Department. Education Director will communicate directly with the supervisory coach and directive is then disseminated to all staff concerned. This is to ensure proper communication and control of the department. In order not to over-ride authority of the supervisory coach, Director do not communicate directly with coaching staff unless he noted isolated cases of non-compliance, which involved the staff directly. As part of the Director’s routine management, the Head Coach will report to him on a weekly basis to be kept abreast of operational issues. He also attends some of the coaching staff meetings and review the individual educational plan of each student. Other than that, the Education Director is responsible for the strategic directions of the education department. The Director, as a founding member of Cognitive and a seasoned manager, is aware of the dire consequences of lying and saying something that cannot be delivered, which is, it would adversely affect the company’s reputation, including himself. In fact, many a times, the Director also reminded coaching staff of Cognitive’s values which includes ensuring that we can deliver what we promise. The Director’s motivation for setting up Cognitive was to make a difference to the life of children who face difficulties in learning. Time and again, he has highlighted that the children we coach are young and have many productive years and we need to be responsible in benefitting the child we coach. Regardless of frustrations felt by some coaching staff, he insists that all parents must be briefed and taught how to support their child at home, after each lesson. He had also frequently reminded staff to be sensitive and be empathetic towards the parents and students. He has gained trust from countless parents who will consult him on issues relating to children, even though they have graduated from Cognitive and no longer, paying customers. Cognitive Development values our staff and appreciate their commitment to the industry. Staff are given the liberty to express and propose coaching approaches. However, as in any structured organization, proposals need to be discussed, documented and approved by management before implementation. Our organization worked closely with entities such as College of Allied Educators to provide observation training for their students. We also gave talks to universities such as James Cook University and SIM to promote the work of Special Needs Teachers. As with any organization, criticisms of current system and disagreements are bound to happen from time to time, particularly over the direction of education. However, one must note that it is through criticism that an organization will grow and be better. Cognitive management does not believe in having systems and processes that are rigid and do not change with the passing of time. Ultimately, the Directors of the company will have to decide on the direction of the organization, after listening to the feedback of concerned staff. It is precisely that the welfare of students, parents, existing staff, and company rest on the shoulders of the Directors, that all feedback must be weighted, discussed with the relevant staff, before a decision is made. It must be appreciated that as some staff, particularly new hires, may not have the full context of the complexity of managing education, much less the whole organization, and thus, not all well-meaning feedback can be implemented. Working in Cognitive and coaching children with learning difficulties is for prospective employee who are serious about being in the industry. The management of Cognitive do not promise new hire that it is a bed of roses when they sign up with the organization. In fact, there is a reason why there is a probation period. However, management is aware of issues faced by existing staff, which is why constant discussions and adjustments were made to ensure that wellbeing of staff are being taken care of. This includes management of student schedule to ensure that sufficient time is provided for each staff to prepare their work, breaks in between lessons as well as restricting the number of students that a coach will teach. In addition, management do not encourage staff to work beyond reasonable working hours. Staff were being asked to go home on time and leave non-urgent work to the next day. Staff were also told to highlight to management should they require additional time to do their work, so that proper schedules could be adjusted for them. This is some of the many behind-the-scenes management that not all coaching staff will know. For welfare, Cognitive staff have monthly get-together sessions for food and yearly visits to concerts. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, this could only resume once situation gets better. Performance bonuses were also given to deserving staff. Increment was also designed to ensure that even during bad times, staff are assured that their salary is not being cut nor they got retrenched due to business challenges. Salary and reimbursements are paid on time and staff members do not have to worry that Cognitive does not contribute to their CPF. Existing long serving staff would know that Cognitive has gone through various major global crisis for the past 11 years and we had not once, retrenched nor reduced the salary of staff. Finally, it is also worth noting that Cognitive invested heavily in ensuring that it’s educational direction and practices are in line with best practices. This include having consultants and regular audits of its processes, policies and procedures. It is unfortunate that you did not stay in Cognitive long enough to fully appreciate the culture and values that Cognitive bring to staff member. We wish you well and hope that you will find an ideal organization that could meet your expectations. Demonizing the Director and organization; taking comments for training illustration, out of context and maliciously claiming that certain remarks were made by the director is an irresponsible and slanderous act. Nonetheless, it is not the culture of Cognitive to point out falsehood claims by ex-staff in public. As the feedback is done anonymously, feel free to contact us if you wish to allow us to point out the anomalies that you have stated and to have more constructive feedback for the organization to benefit future employees.