EPeeps Olivia Young | Professional Development and Events Manager

Kia ora! I’m Olivia Young and I am the Professional Development and Events Manager at Education Perfect! I am based in Ōtepoti, Aotearoa (Dunedin, NZ) and have been working at EP for the last 7.5 years! I have two young children, York and Yoko, and a cute puppy called Ludo! In my spare time I love to read, spend time with friends and family, crochet and dance. 

Before joining EP, I worked as the Head of Languages at a high school in Melbourne. I absolutely love working in education and really enjoy supporting teachers and students across Australia and New Zealand.

Why do you love working at EP?

Education Perfect is such a dynamic, exciting company and it’s been absolutely thrilling to have seen the development and change of the company over the last 7 years. From when I started in 2015 to now, there has been massive growth and development in not only our platform, but in the types of events we can offer to teachers and students. The team at EP is full of passionate people, who all have the same goal and focus in mind – to foster a love of learning in students and to humanise technology! I used Language Perfect (before it became Education Perfect) and it was an incredible tool to support my students’ language learning. With all of the changes made to the platform over the years, I almost want to jump back into teaching to use it again!

What does a typical day look like for you in your role?

With all of the events and professional development courses going on, it’s hard to say what a typical day would be! If we have one of our World Series

Events coming up, it would be setting up the competition, creating the emails to send out to teachers, making sure that we have our prizes lined up for our lucky winners and then starting the countdown to the event! It’s always so great to see thousands of students take part in our competitions.

Some days I am organising Professional Development courses for our wonderful EP Educators across the globe. So that means talking to course facilitators, supporting the development of their content on our platform, organising the marketing and communications for the event and bringing it all to life for the duration of the course! It’s great to be able to offer courses like this and we hope to plan and develop many more over the coming months.

 

How did you find transitioning from your previous role into an EdTech role?
I absolutely adored teaching, but after seven years decided to take a year off to travel overseas. Before embarking on my trip to Europe I was spending a bit of time at home in New Zealand with my parents and on a bit of a whim ended up buying a house in Dunedin (my hometown). This altered my plans of going back to teaching and when I moved to NZ after several months overseas, I was on the lookout for a job. When I heard that they were looking for people at EP I jumped at the opportunity to work there! Having used it in the classroom, I knew just how effective and powerful the platform could be and was really excited about working on the other side of it. I have loved shifting into an EdTech role, because I am still very much involved in education, I talk to educators on a regular basis and set up engaging competitions and events for students. I have also learnt so many great skills in this job, from spreadsheet formulas to website skills!

What are you most excited about?

There are so many exciting things coming up! I am currently organising two EPIC conferences to be held in Melbourne and Sydney that are jam packed with great speakers and sessions! I am also working on several upcoming competitions for students, including the EP English Championships and the Whakataetae reo Māori. Personally, I am excited for Spring and Summer! This winter has been brutally cold in Dunedin so bring on blue sky and sun!