Caye-Leigh Du Plessis
Cape Town
Summary
Experienced Student Success Manager with proven leadership skills in a fast-paced educational setting. Skilled in designing and implementing effective student support strategies, I bring a strong mix of emotional intelligence, operational precision, and clear communication. With expertise in capacity planning, stakeholder engagement, and driving cross-functional initiatives to improve student outcomes, I am dedicated to creating systems and policies that benefit both the organization and the students.
Overview
7
7
years of professional experience
Work History
Student Success Manager
Valenture Institute
08.2023 - Current
- Responsible for leading and managing the Student Success Team, including Communications and Student Success Leads.
- Responsible for the day-to-day and longer-term operational priorities and needs of the Student Success Team, ensuring that operational blockers are overcome.
- Involved in devising and implementing process improvements, premium support solutions, and efficiencies that enable the team to provide support to learners and guardians at scale.
- Oversees the Communications Team and is responsible for the communication strategy across offerings.
- Responsible for defining the performance benchmarks for student success and engagement, and ensuring that ongoing measurement and monitoring is in place to meet target SLAs.
- Responsible for continuously evaluating Student Success areas for opportunities to improve efficiencies and implement automation, collaborating with key leaders to identify tech roadmap priorities and facilitate the creation and submission of tech roadmap briefs to the Tech team.
Student Experience Support Lead
Valenture Institute
10.2021 - 08.2023
- Monitor and oversee a team of dedicated Support Coaches. This includes ensuring that my team are meeting their target KPI's.
- Ensuring the success of all of our learners by offering optimal support for learners and guardians.
- Being involved in the creation of new processes and policies that benefit our team and customers.
- Overseeing the smooth implementation of new processes and policies within the broader Student Success Team.
Student Success Mentor
Valenture Institute
10.2020 - 09.2021
- Offer high-quality and consistent mentoring support to students.
- Host group sessions with students (including Home Room sessions and Learning Compass Sessions).
- Develop and update individual student growth plans on a weekly basis.
- Monitor and update data reports and student tracking sheets.
- Provide prompt, effective support and personalised communication to student and parent queries via email, phone, and on the Online Campus.
Student Success Administrator
Valenture Institute
08.2020 - 09.2020
- Supporting the Student Success team with daily administrative tasks and requirements by reviewing reports, and assisting mentors in implementing weekly check-ins to keep our students on track.
- Assisting with communication across departments.
- Data validation checks which enables mentors to use the data reviewed to help students.
- Administrative related duties include but are not limited to; data checks, sending out bulk and personal emails, assisting with telephone queries, preparing warnings, and filtering inbound tickets.
- Content creation for Learning Compass sessions.
Admissions Administrator
Valenture Institute
11.2019 - 07.2020
- Administer all paid applications through collection and filing of their documents.
- Administering placement assessments for all applicants.
- Assist Head of Admissions with the creation of Admissions flows, Admissions policies and Admissions Handbooks as well as assess and improve Technical stack within the Admissions team.
- Proactively engage with parents and students via email and telephone.
- Work across various departments to ensure a smooth flow of all of our students.
Student Support Officer
College of Cape Town
02.2019 - 10.2019
- Provide support to all enrolled students at the campus through debriefing, external referring and academic interventions.
- Give students academic and psycho-social support through enrichment classes.
- Coordinate Health Activation's on the campus.
- Mentorship of the campus SRC, Peer Buddies and Young Motivators at the campus.
- General office duties and administration such as filing, data capturing, record keeping and report writing.
Career Development Officer
College of Cape Town
09.2018 - 01.2019
- Provide career guidance to students at TVET level who are unsure of a career path as well as assist in making informed career choices.
- Conduct and facilitate Placement assessments for prospective students.
- General office duties and administration such as filing, data capturing, record keeping and report writing.
Education
Bachelor of Arts Honours - Psychology
University of The Western Cape
Cape Town, South Africa12-2018
Bachelor of Arts -
University of The Western Cape
Cape Town12-2017
Skills
- Team management and leadership
- Data Driven decision making
- Integrated communication strategies
- Process improvement and development
- Transition and retention planning
- Student lifecycle management
- Mentorship and coaching
- Adaptability and flexibility
- Resilience in fast-paced environments
Timeline
Student Success Manager
Valenture Institute
08.2023 - Current
Student Experience Support Lead
Valenture Institute
10.2021 - 08.2023
Student Success Mentor
Valenture Institute
10.2020 - 09.2021
Student Success Administrator
Valenture Institute
08.2020 - 09.2020
Admissions Administrator
Valenture Institute
11.2019 - 07.2020
Student Support Officer
College of Cape Town
02.2019 - 10.2019
Career Development Officer
College of Cape Town
09.2018 - 01.2019
Bachelor of Arts Honours - Psychology
University of The Western Cape
Bachelor of Arts -
University of The Western Cape
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