By industry: Education and training
Admissions and operations automation for education providers.
Enquiries that turn into enrolments, documents collected without the chasing, fees that reconcile themselves, and learners who hear from you at the right time.
- First workflow live
- Enquiry follow-up, usually inside the first sprint
- Usually owned by
- Principals, directors and founders
- Built on
- Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, HubSpot
- Judged on
- Enquiry response time and Enquiry to enrolment rate
In short
Education automation means enquiries answered and followed up until they enrol, admissions documents collected and checked, classes and sessions scheduled, fees invoiced and chased, and learner communication sent on time. SBD builds this around your student information system or LMS for schools, colleges, training companies and edtech operations teams, in accounts you own.
Who this is for
Who brings us in, in education and training.
- Principals, directors and founders
- Admissions and enrolment managers
- Operations and finance leads
- Course and programme coordinators
Is this you?
If three of these sound like your week, this page is about your business.
- Enquiries arrive in several inboxes
- Nobody knows the enquiry to enrolment rate
- Staff chase missing documents by email
- The timetable lives in a spreadsheet
- Fee reminders are sent by hand
What it costs today
Where education and training loses the hours.
Enquiries go cold
Website forms, calls and open-day sign-ups land in different inboxes, and follow-up depends on who is free that week.
Admissions documents are chased by hand
Applications, certificates, ID and consent forms arrive by email in every format, and staff spend days checking what is missing.
Scheduling is a spreadsheet puzzle
Classes, rooms, trainers and cohorts are planned in a sheet, and every change means emails to everyone affected.
Fees are reconciled at month end
Instalments, discounts and sponsor invoices are tracked by hand, so late payments are found weeks after they are due.
Learner communication is ad hoc
Joining instructions, reminders and progress updates are sent one at a time, or not at all.
Reporting takes a week
Enrolment numbers, attendance and completion rates are pulled from several systems for every board, funder or regulator return.
By company size
Education and training at 10 people, and at 1,000.
- 1 to 10
The founder answers enquiries, runs sessions and chases fees on the same phone.
- 11 to 50
An admissions person, a few trainers, and enrolment tracked in a spreadsheet beside the LMS.
- 51 to 200
Several courses or campuses, intakes that peak at once, and documents chased by a team.
- 201 to 1,000
Many programmes, separate admissions and finance teams, and returns that take a week to prepare.
What we build
What we build for education and training teams.
- 01
Enquiry to enrolment pipeline
Every enquiry captured in one pipeline, answered quickly with the right course information, and followed up on a schedule until it enrols or closes.
- 02
Admissions document collection
An applicant portal or form that collects documents, checks what is missing, and reminds the applicant until the file is complete.
- 03
Class and session scheduling
Sessions, rooms and trainers planned in one place, with changes pushed to learners and staff calendars automatically.
- 04
Fees, instalments and reminders
Invoices and payment plans raised at enrolment, payment links sent, reminders on schedule, and sponsor or employer invoices tracked.
- 05
Learner communication on schedule
Joining instructions, session reminders, progress updates and certificates sent at the right point in each learner's journey.
- 06
Enrolment and outcomes reporting
Enquiries, conversions, attendance and completions in one live dashboard, ready for board, funder or regulator returns.
The workflows
The education and training workflows, and what sets each one off.
- 01 Enquiry follow-up
When an enquiry arrives by form, call or event
ThenLogged, answered with course details, followed up until it enrols or closes
- 02 Application document chase
When an application is submitted
ThenChecklist created, missing documents requested, reminders until complete
- 03 Enrolment and fees
When an offer is accepted
ThenLearner record created, invoice or payment plan raised, joining instructions sent
- 04 Session reminders
When a class or session is scheduled
ThenLearners and trainers reminded, changes pushed to calendars
- 05 Intake reporting
When an intake closes
ThenEnquiries, enrolments and completions compiled for review
The numbers we move
How a education and training build is judged.
Every build has a number written into the blueprint. These are the ones education and training builds are measured by, and how we measure them.
| Metric | Before | After | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiry response time | Hours or days | Minutes | Time from enquiry received to first reply |
| Enquiry to enrolment rate | Unmeasured | Tracked by source and course | Enrolments as a share of enquiries, per intake |
| Incomplete applications | Chased by hand | Chased automatically | Applications missing documents after seven days |
| Overdue fees | Found at month end | Chased on the due date | Value of fees overdue, per week |
Documents and records
The paperwork that generates itself.
Names and tax rules differ by country. We build for the ones you file under, whether that is VAT, sales tax or GST.
Systems we connect in education and training
What is usually already there, and what we add.
Anything with an API or a database we can read works the same way. Each tool links to its page in the integrations directory.
- Your student information system or LMS
-
Google Workspace -
Microsoft 365 -
HubSpot -
Twilio -
WhatsApp Business API -
Stripe -
Xero -
Supabase -
Retool -
n8n
Proof
Proof from builds like this.
- Customer story
Lead enrichment and sales automation
Enquiries qualified and followed up in minutes with a person in the loop. We have not built for a school; this is the pattern behind enquiry to enrolment.
Read the story - Customer story
Lightweight project management system
A lightweight system for scheduling work and keeping everyone on the same status, the same shape as cohort and session scheduling.
Read the story
The offer
The admissions starter
Thirty days to enquiries that get followed up, applications that complete themselves, and fees chased on time.
- Week 1 to 2audit of enquiries, admissions, scheduling and fees with response times measured
- Week 3blueprint, first build chosen by payback, usually enquiry follow-up
- Week 4 onenquiry pipeline, document collection, fee reminders, learner communication
- Accounts in your name, training for the admissions team, sixty days of hypercare
What this does not do
So the scope is clear before the call.
- Teaching content, curriculum design or assessment marking.
- Replacing your student information system or LMS. We build around it.
Terms, defined
Education and training terms, in plain English.
- Student information system
- The system of record for learners, enrolments, attendance and results.
- Enquiry to enrolment rate
- The share of enquiries that become enrolled learners, usually measured per intake.
- Intake
- A group of learners starting a course or programme at the same time.
Questions
What people ask about education and training automation.
Do you work with our student information system or LMS?
We connect to systems with an API or a supported integration route, and build around them. Your SIS or LMS stays the record. Where there is no API, we work from exports and the forms that feed it.
How do you handle student data, including minors?
Everything runs in accounts you own, with access by role and an audit log. We work to your safeguarding and data protection policies and sign a data processing agreement with you.
Does this suit training companies as well as schools?
Yes. The pattern is the same: enquiry, enrolment, documents, scheduling, fees and communication. Corporate training adds employer invoicing and attendance reports, which we build in.
Will AI answer applicant questions?
An assistant can answer course, fee and date questions from your own published information, and hands anything about a specific application or a learner's welfare to staff.
How long until the first part is live?
Enquiry capture and follow-up is usually live inside the first two-week sprint, because it sits beside your existing systems.
Reading
- Strategy
Automation vs AI systems: what moves the number
Stacking task automations stalls at around twenty. The difference between a task and a system, the five layers that make a system hold, and which workflow to rebuild first.
- Systems
How much should an AI agent be allowed to do?
An agent with an unscoped token dropped a production database and its backups in nine seconds. The permission model we use for every agent: read widely, write narrowly, spend with a cap, and escalate when unsure.
Related
- Function
Sales and RevOps
Reply to every lead in minutes, keep the CRM right without typing, and hand won deals over with nothing missing.
- Function
Customer support
Answer the same question once, put the order on the ticket, and let people handle the conversations that need a person.
- Function
Operations
The order moves through the business without anyone re-typing it, and everyone who needs to know, knows.
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Education and training
Talk to us about the admissions starter.
Bring the one education and training workflow your team still runs by hand. You leave the call with a yes or no on fit and the first thing we would build.
Book the call