February 4, 2025 • 32 mins
Ever wondered how immersive, real-world learning can redefine higher education? Join us as we engage with Brandon Busteed, the innovative CEO of BrandEd, as he unravels the transformative power of work-based learning, especially during disruptive times like the Trump years ahead. Brandon shares his unique vision for BrandEd since his 2024 appointment, highlighting partnerships with prestigious brands such as The New York Times, Sotheby's, Manchester City and Vogue. These collaborations offer students extraordinary hands-on experiences that bridge education and career mobility, from pre-college programs to custom master's degrees. Get ready to unlock the potential of global collaborations in education. We'll explore how BrandEd teams up with industry giants to provide students with behind-the-scenes access and professional insights. By integrating experts as educators and leveraging real organizational spaces, students gain unmatched exposure to their fields of interest. We spotlight the pivotal role of early industry exposure in pre-college programs and the ever-growing impact of technology and AI. Our discussion also highlights BrandEd's commitment to diverse, inclusive education through significant scholarship initiatives, ensuring learners from all backgrounds are empowered. Looking ahead, we delve into BrandEd's role as a strategic partner for educational institutions worldwide. Discover how their institutional partnership team is crafting connections with schools and colleges to offer distinctive programs like the Vogue and Manchester City Sports Business School. Through Brandon's personal anecdotes, we emphasize the joy and engagement in learning. Wrapping up, we invite you to explore the dynamic educational landscapes BrandEd offers. Visit their website for more details, and stay connected with us for enriching conversations that redefine learning.
https://branded-edu.com/
https://www.4leggedmedia.com/
eloy@4leggedmedia.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (00:10):
Hi, I'm Eloy Ortiz-Oakley and welcome back to
the Rant Podcast, a podcastwhere we pull back the curtain
and break down the people, thepolicies and the politics of our
higher education system.
Welcome to the second in aseries of episodes that we're
doing focused on leading highereducation through the Trump
years, and I want to emphasizethe word leading, as opposed to
(00:33):
just laying low and hopingnobody notices you over the next
four years.
Leading to me means stepping upand showing up for learners of
all backgrounds, particularlythose learners who have been
underserved.
In this episode, I highlightthe importance of work-based
learning and embedding economicand career mobility into
(00:56):
programs of study.
Learners of all stripes expectvalue from their post-secondary
experience.
Value from their post-secondaryexperience and seeing how their
learning connects to the newworld of work is exactly what
institutions need to be doing Tohighlight work-based learning.
I talk with Brandon Busteed, CEOof BrandEd.
(01:16):
BrandEd partners with some ofthe world's most iconic brands
and provides uniquepost-secondary experiences to
learners throughout the globe.
I talk with Brandon about hisrecent move to take the reins at
BrandEd and his plans for theorganization.
We also talk about BrandEd'sone-of-a-kind model and how
(01:37):
learners benefit from theirdirect experience of working and
learning with such name brandsas the New York Times.
Experience of working andlearning with such name brands
as the New York Times, Sotheby'sand Vogue.
So, with that backdrop, enjoymy conversation with Brandon
Busteed.
Brandon, welcome to the RantPodcast.
Brandon Busteed (01:59):
Thank you, Eloy .
I've always wanted to go on arant, so I'm glad to be on The
Rant and it's a pleasure to seeyou.
Thanks for having me.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (02:03):
Well, you picked the right place to rant,
so welcome to the podcast.
It's great pleasure to see you.
Thanks for joining me.
Welcome to the podcast.
It's great to have you, Brandon.
I know how busy you are a lotgoing on these days in your part
of the world.
But let me begin by asking youyou recently took on the role as
CEO.
I believe it was somewherearound early 2024.
(02:24):
Tell us about what you weredoing before you landed at Brand
Ed and since you've been here,what do you think about the
organization and what do youthink about doing with the
organization?
Brandon Busteed (02:37):
Yeah, there's a lot in there.
But you know I'm coming up onalmost a year, so it'll be a
year, you know, at the top ofthe top of the year of January
and you know, look, there's acouple of.
So it'll be a year.
You know, at the top of the topof the year of January and, and
you know, look there's.
There's a couple of things I'llsay about it.
It's been an incredible year oflearning for me, right, even
though I've been in the highered and the broader education
landscape for a long time.
(02:57):
It's such a fascinating andunique organization and model
that, uh, that I've I've reallyenjoyed the learning curve for
me, and I'll say more about thatlearning curve because, as you
know, we work with iconic brandsin different industries, and so
I've also just been learning,quite frankly, about new
organizations and industriesthat I'd had previously
relatively little exposure to inmy own background.
(03:20):
But I joined BrandEd for areally specific reason, when I
looked at what the organizationwas doing, the kinds of programs
it was delivering.
This is across the board.
We offer pre-college programsfor high school students,
programs for undergraduates,study away, study abroad type
programs, and then, at leastwith Vogue and with Sotheby's,
we offer very bespoke master'sdegree programs.
(03:43):
So we're really running thegamut of non-credit pre-college
programs all the way up tomaster's degree programs.
But the theme throughout all ofour work is that I have never
seen better industry immersiveeducation than what we do across
Brandit.
And when I say industryimmersive education, I mean it's
not just immersive with thebrands that we have partnerships
(04:05):
with.
It's really understanding theindustries they operate within.
It's understanding the jobs androles across those industries,
things that most students,regardless of age, quite frankly
, have had very little exposureto.
They get to work on hands-onprojects, they get to interact
with real industry experts.
They get behind the scenesaccess to these iconic
(04:28):
organizations, and so it's thisreally incredible blend where,
quite frankly, you look at theseprograms and you say I wish I
could do them right, or I wantto do one of these programs, and
so to me, that was the realappeal.
That was the real appeal.
I've always believed in thevalue of work-integrated
learning.
When I looked at what Brand Edwas doing, I just said to myself
this is the best stuff I'veseen and I would love to be part
(04:51):
of it.
So it's been a lot of fun.
We got a lot of work ahead ofus, but for me it's just been a
fascinating learning curve.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (04:58):
A lot of what you mentioned really is all
about this immersive experiencein a workplace.
It's what we call work-basedlearning.
Basically, it's immersingyourself not only in the
education, the learning, butalso being able to, as you
mentioned, work hands-on in aparticular industry in a
(05:19):
particular workplace.
There's a lot of talk todayabout workplace learning, but
that's something you've beendoing for a long time there at
BrandEd.
Tell us about how thoseexperiences work for the learner
.
Brandon Busteed (05:36):
And you know a little bit of this is my own
origin story in terms of kind ofhow and why I got to BrandEd.
So I'll just briefly say one ofthe things that I did prior was
I was a Kaplan right globaleducation organization and one
of my roles there was globalhead of learned work innovation.
So anything that sat in thatspace, you know, I got involved
in, and before that I was atGallup, the famous research
organization that is theexecutive director of education
and workforce development, and Isay that in that there's been a
(05:57):
real theme in my career.
All those have been verydistinct at different roles and
organizations.
That theme of sitting at theintersection of learning and
work has really been part of it.
And I go back to some of thebig studies that I helped lead
when I was at Gallup.
Looking at you know what reallyabout an education experience?
What about it leads to successlater in life, whether that's
(06:20):
work, whether that's overallwell-being, et cetera.
And it was at the corework-integrated learning
opportunities, an internship, aco-op experience, right,
something that was a long-termproject where a student had to
work on it over multiple monthsand get iterative feedback, et
cetera.
So things that mimic workexperience.
And so I say that as a backdropbecause, as we get to what
(06:43):
Brand Ed is doing, we work rightnow with four iconic
organizations the New York Times, with what we run in
partnership with them, theSchool of the New York Times.
We work with Manchester City,the famous football club.
We run the Manchester CitySports Business School, and then
we run Vogue College of Fashionand Sotheby's Institute of Art,
(07:04):
and so obviously very differentindustries sport, fashion, art,
you know, journalism, media butyou know, consistently, across
all of those, it is reallyin-depth exposure for the
business of fashion, right, tounderstand the different roles
(07:25):
that somebody might be able todo in these industries and then
to have some real, actualexperiences.
So it's not an internship, right, we're not running internships.
I actually think we're runningsomething that might be better
because it's fully curated.
All of our programs areessentially co-taught between
industry experts, people who arein the job right now, and
(07:46):
educational experts, what youwould think of as teachers or
faculty, and so it's not just aninvited guest lecturer who
comes in and visits, right.
I mean, these things are I'lluse the word curated in a
co-teaching fashion between theexperts and the educational
guides and advisors, and so Ithink that's a lot of the magic
of what we created here.
(08:07):
We create internship-likeprojects for students to work on
, but in many cases theyactually get better and more
substantive feedback in ourenvironment than they would in
an internship environment thoseof you who've had internships
right now.
They're good ones and there arenot so good ones, and you know
it hinges on did you have a goodmanager in that role?
Were you given a meaningfulproject?
(08:28):
Did you get any valuablefeedback on that project, as
opposed to just being handedsomething and you elements of
meeting and understanding peoplein the various jobs and then
getting iterative feedback fromthose types of folks in the
(08:50):
context of our programs.
You know that is consistentacross all that we do.
That's a lot of the reallyspecial secret sauce, if you
will, about why students reallylove these programs and we have
students who come to ourprograms and one of the most
common refrains is oh my gosh,that felt so different than
school.
This is not like anything elseI've ever done before.
(09:11):
So you know you're hitting themark when it really feels so
distinguished to the studentswho experience it.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (09:17):
Well, you certainly are coming of age at a
perfect time, because everybodyis talking about this kind of
experience, everybody's tryingto replicate this kind of
experience, and so that'sprobably a lot to learn from
what you all have alreadydeveloped.
Now, a big part of this, as youmentioned, a big part of the
(09:37):
secret sauce of a qualityworkplace learning opportunity,
is the employer's involvement,and I know lots of institutions
are trying to find that rightemployer partnership.
You mentioned the four brandsthat you're working with.
Big brands, big names.
What does a partnership looklike with that organization and
(10:01):
what's their commitment to thelearning experience?
Brandon Busteed (10:05):
Yeah, it's a great question.
I think you know there arecertainly lessons that have been
learned in the context of BrandEd, but actually, in sharing
them, I think you know they'repotentially applicable to other
organizations you know,including colleges and
universities or high schools whoare thinking about trying to
ramp these kinds of experiencesup for students.
And I'll say, you know, clearly, all the partners we work with,
(10:27):
one of the you know consistentthemes across them, even though
they're totally differentindustries right, and came to
BrandEd in unique, you know,very bespoke ways.
They're all very deeplyinterested in the talent
development pipeline for theirindustry, not just for their own
organization, but for theirorganization and the industry
(10:48):
writ large.
And I think they've all takenthe view that they need to think
about the broader talentdevelopment for the industry,
not just their own organization,because what it requires is a
real investment of time andenergy to, you know, to invest
in that future generation.
And it's not as simple, as youknow, just doing it at the
(11:08):
master's degree level, that'svaluable, or the undergrad level
valuable, but earlier andearlier, younger and younger in
somebody's educationaltrajectory, giving them more
exposure to the art of thepossible, as we always like to
talk about.
And so to your question what dothey contribute?
Certainly, it's their brand andthe knowledge that's inherent
(11:31):
in these iconic brands.
Organizations that have beenaround for hundreds of years
have a global footprint andrecognition, but it's access to
the folks who work there, right?
So we have, in many cases,faculty in our programs are
folks who are employed at ourpartner organizations, who are
lending their time to teachingstudents and interacting with
(11:55):
students in terms of creatingprojects, giving feedback on
those projects.
We also get behind the scenesaccess to facilities,
headquarters you know, theSotheby's Auction House, or to
visit the New York Timesheadquarters, whatever the
example might be.
The students coming into ourVogue programs are going into
the Vogue photo shoot studioswithin the Condé Nast
(12:17):
headquarters, right?
I mean, they're accessing realthings within these
organizations, and so it reallyis a pretty profound commitment
to our partnership.
We're operating these programs,we're running these programs on
behalf of the brands, but thebrands are very involved and
also play a pretty big role inshaping the ultimate design of
(12:38):
the programs, right?
So our teams will create that,but we do it very much in
partnership with the brands thatwe work with, and so it is a
true partnership type offramework in terms of how we
think about it.
But I really give credit to youknow each of them for taking
what I call the long view ontalent development.
Like, if we really want toinvest in talent, we can't just,
(13:07):
you know, start at a middle ageuh, you know, worker.
I mean that that's helpful ifyou're thinking about trying to
switch careers or change, get ajob or promotion.
But the issue we have in a lotof industries is is by middle
school or high school.
If students can't see it, theycan't be it, and that's a really
big commitment to understandthe world of fashion in high
school.
That's a huge leg up over, youknow, understanding it later in
(13:27):
life.
And so I'm really excited to beable to work with organizations
that take that long view andsee their role not just for
their own benefit but for thebenefit of the broader industry
as well.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (13:38):
Now there's a lot of talk about how
technology is reshaping theworkforce, it's reshaping
employers, it's reshaping thelearning environment, and I
would imagine that these fourbrands that you've mentioned are
looking at ways to harnesstechnology, harness AI, in their
businesses.
How are learners exposed to thechanges in that industry and
(14:03):
how AI is impacting thoseindustries?
Brandon Busteed (14:06):
Yeah, it's interesting.
We've had an ongoing task forceinside BrandEd that's been
thinking about AI from manyangles.
You know how do we want toteach students about it.
You know how do we want toincorporate it.
But one of the guideposts thatwe have utilized in this process
is just a very simple questionhow is AI being used within the
(14:28):
partner organizations that wework with, and to what degree
can we extract that in as realtime as possible in terms of how
we allow students to understandthat right?
So we're not going outside thelines in terms of what we think.
You know our own opinion of howAI should be used in educational
setting, in the classroom.
We're looking at theorganizations we work with,
(14:51):
understanding how they'recurrently using AI and, of
course, some are using it morethan others.
Right, there's examples wherein different pieces of their
organizations, ai is a prevalentuse case and in other parts of
the organization it's almostlike you wouldn't know it
existed, right?
So we're taking the cue for howthese businesses are using AI
(15:13):
and we're using that as the wayin which we think about how we
teach students about AI.
Certainly, technology, broadlydefined, is shaping a lot of
these industries.
I mean, you think about thenewspaper industry, which is
where an organization like theNew York Times started, versus
what their business is today.
I mean digital media andtechnology has been a major part
(15:36):
of the story of the ongoingevolution of the New York Times
you could argue revolutionary atcertain points in its history
in terms of the changes it'smade because of technology.
So our guidepost is how is thisbeing used and thought about in
the organization we work withand bring that to students in
that context?
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (15:56):
Now your students.
What do they look like?
How do they find you?
Brandon Busteed (16:01):
It's, first of all, global.
I mean we operate physicalentities, classrooms, campuses
in New York City and London andMadrid, and then in Manchester
with our partnership with manCity, so we have place-based
students.
We certainly have students whoare taking online programs that
we offer.
We launched one of our firstonline master's degree programs,
(16:22):
master in Art Business, thispast year.
There was a huge hit withstudents who can't come to New
York City or London in personfor a full-time program.
You know the story workingadults who want to act, solicit,
and so we certainly haveexamples of online offerings in
it.
But our audience is global.
About 35% of our students arestudents who live outside of the
(16:46):
United States, so still thelargest percentage of our
students are from the US, but apretty substantial international
population, if you kind of lookat it, across our programs.
And then, of course, the otherway to answer the question is
our pre-college programs throughmaster's degrees.
Those are obviously verydifferent age, demographics and
markets, and so within ourpre-college programs we have an
(17:09):
incredibly diverse set ofstudents who are coming to us
from all over the world, fromall different socioeconomic
backgrounds, race, religion.
I mean it's an incredible sightto see students in.
You know the two-week programswe run for the School of the New
York Times or in Manchester atthe Etihad campus there where we
(17:30):
run programs within Sotheby'sArt Program.
So that certainly is a big partof it.
And we've made a very bigcommitment Brand Ed has from the
very beginning long before myarrival, but something that I
have certainly embraced where weput a significant portion of
our budget every year to studentscholarship.
We self-fund it.
These are not scholarshipprograms that are being
(17:52):
supported by philanthropyexternally.
We'd love that at some point,we'd invite that at any given
moment.
But we've made a commitment andour brand partners have too
through us to saying we want tomake sure that students can come
to these programs.
If they can't afford it.
Obviously a big portion of ourstudents are paying for it
themselves, or their parents arepaying for it themselves or
(18:15):
they're having it sponsoredthrough their high school or
their college as a program.
That's part of their tuition,as part of that.
But we've made a really bigcommitment to scholarship and
you see it play out.
If you showed up in ourclassrooms, if you saw some of
our programs, you'll seeincredible diversity every way.
You'll hear that diversity,you'll see in the diversity of
(18:37):
thought and interactions thatstudents are having.
It's a big part of what webelieve our DNA is and what we
think makes the programsuccessful for students as well.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (18:46):
What does success look like for your
learners?
Brandon Busteed (18:49):
The throughput is clearly we have students
coming to us for somethingdifferent that they aren't
getting at school.
They aren't getting in collegeand in some cases they aren't
getting from their paid jobright or they're not able to get
an internship.
So you know, here's a reallygood stat there were 8.2 million
college students this year inthe United States who wanted an
(19:10):
internship.
Only 3.6 million got one.
So we have this huge gapbetween supply and demand and
obviously off the charts demandfor students looking for an
internship.
Only 3.6 million of those 8.2got one.
And then of that 3.6 million,2.5 million had a quality
(19:30):
experience.
So just because you got aninternship doesn't mean it was
necessarily a high qualityexperience or internship.
I bring that up because we arereally an option to scale work,
integrated learning, in waysthat internships don't.
I'm a huge fan of internships.
I don't know that there's abigger fan of internships in the
country than I am, but I alsorecognize that they just don't
(19:53):
scale.
There's no evidence that thenumber of internships offered in
the United States has grown inthe last 30, 40 years.
And so back to your question ofhow do we measure success?
Right, it is moving students ona career trajectory, plain and
simple.
Now for pre-college students,that's I have a better
understanding of an industry.
This is definitely what I wantto do for my career, or no,
(20:16):
actually it's not what I want todo Gives me a better
understanding of what I mightwant to major in in college.
As a result of going to theseprograms, I'm already building a
Rolodex of contacts in anindustry people who will act as
a reference or a referral for me, right?
So, although our outcome for ahigh school student is that they
get a job at the end of ourtwo-week program, we are
(20:36):
definitely moving themsignificantly forward on a
career trajectory.
We're allowing them to add NewYork Times on their resume, or
Manchester City Sports BusinessSchool it stands out.
It stands out on a resume a jobapplication, a college
application.
(20:58):
Now for our undergraduatestudents who are coming to our
study away immersive experiences.
They're a little further alongand they're thinking about what
they want to do in a career.
They may have already decidedthat their major is what they
want to do in their jobs, and sothe four-week summer programs
that we offer within that realmfor undergraduates certainly
(21:18):
allows them to do some of thosesame things.
Right.
Make contacts in an industry,get a better understanding of it
, so that when they go out andpursue jobs in that industry
they sound much more informedthan the average applicant.
And then for our master'sdegree students, eloy, it's
really simple.
They want a job in thisindustry.
They come to Sotheby's Instituteof Art, they want a job in the
(21:38):
art world, and that doesn'talways mean a job in an auction
house, right?
For many of them.
They go into museum curation orother nonprofit organizations
where art is a core of theorganization.
And for those I mean, I'll justgive you a stat.
If you look at NACE data, theaverage ratio of students to
career advisors for US collegesand universities is 1,583 to 1.
(22:04):
Okay, that's NACE data, rightAverage ratio.
So for every career advisorthey are supposedly responsible
for supporting over 1,500students.
That's our national average.
At Brand Ed, ours is under 80to 1.
So we're literally 20 timesbetter than the national average
.
I don't know if that's a hugebragging point, other than to
(22:26):
say simply that we've investedconsiderable resources because
we know that is what studentsare coming to us for.
They're coming to us forindustry-specific understanding
and they want to get a job inthat industry.
So for our master's degreestudents.
We measure success by jobplacement rates and their
satisfaction with those jobplacements.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (22:47):
Well, I think you're hitting on something
that is certainly a big topic ofdiscussion right now across the
higher education marketplace.
It is economic mobilityoutcomes, measuring them,
talking about them, highlightingthem, because that's what
learners are telling us they'relooking for.
Yes, the full experience isgreat for their lifetime benefit
(23:12):
, but having an opportunity toget into a career, understanding
how to use the learning thatyou're getting to apply that to
a career, is so important.
So you know you guys are spoton.
Right now let's talk about thefuture of Branded.
We live in uncertain times inthe higher education marketplace
(23:33):
.
A lot has transpired over thelast five, six, seven years.
We've had a pandemic, we've hadglobal recessions, we've had
closing of many small liberalarts colleges throughout the
country, a lot of institutionsare struggling for enrollment
and now the pendulum is going toswing again in terms of federal
(23:57):
higher education policy.
How do you see Brand Edthriving in that uncertainty and
what do you see as the future?
Brandon Busteed (24:05):
I think you've highlighted a few of the things
in terms of you were mentioningthe headwinds and challenges
facing higher ed.
I mean, one of the biggest onesis fundamentally a question
about value, the valueproposition of a degree, and
that's a combination of a wholebunch of stuff the price tag,
you know, the outcomes in termsof career outcomes, and so all
that goes into a formula thatincreasingly more prospective
(24:28):
students and their families aremaking in a much more
sophisticated way than we havein the past.
Yeah, no doubt.
Right, the work readiness of agraduate is at the top of the
list in terms of what collegesare trying to improve upon, what
prospective students and theirfamilies are evaluating in an
institution, and colleges anduniversities, quite frankly,
(24:48):
have just struggled to scalethese things.
So it's not that it isn'thappening, it's that it's not at
scale.
So I'll use another statistic.
It's not at scale, so I'll useanother statistic.
About a third of collegegraduates in the US have an
internship that they can applywhat they're learning in the
classroom during college.
Right, about a third.
(25:11):
So it's not zero.
But the majority miss out onwhat is one of the most
important value propositions ofcollege having an internship or
a work experience where they cansee the dots connected between
their academic experience andthat particular experience.
So for the future for Brand Ed,I think it's an incredibly
bright one because we can nowact as a partner to not just
colleges and universities buthigh schools who are looking to
(25:34):
embed these kinds of programs intheir academic structure.
So prior to my arrival, wenever had an institutional
partnership team or function.
That was one of the firstthings that we created when I
arrived.
So we have a team that'sfocused on building partnerships
with domestic high schools inthe US, with international high
(25:54):
schools around the world, andthen a team that's working on
partnerships with colleges anduniversities, where we're not
replacing the bachelor's degree,we're not replacing the high
school education, we'reenhancing it greatly.
And we can enhance that for anindividual student who might
come to one of our programs,regardless of whether their
school or college is partneringwith us on it.
But imagine, you know, imagineyou're a student at a college
(26:17):
that is partnered with Brand Edand has access to a four-week
Vogue program over the summer ora January term program, right,
where you can get some reallyin-depth exposure to these
things.
It's different than aninternship, but all the ways
we've talked about, I'd arguemight be more valuable,
especially when you think aboutthe iconic brand that goes on
(26:39):
your resume.
As a result, it's certainlymore scalable, and so that's
where I think we have a verypromising future is, you know,
to be a partner to colleges,universities, to high schools,
where we enhance that work,readiness, experience for
students.
And I'll say just one thing wetalk a lot about all kinds of
things completion rates and whatour yield is, and admissions
(27:01):
and student faculty ratio andall these things.
I look at the engagement levelof students in programs as one
of the most important litmustests of the future of an
organization, and when I look atthe level of engagement that
students have in our programs, Imean, dare I say, fun is like a
word that they'll use whenthey're involved in our program.
(27:23):
They're doing real work.
They're, you know, spending thevast majority of their time on
task, engaged in something.
But I mean it is engaging, it'sfun, it's exciting.
And you know what?
I think we've lost track of theengaging, fun, exciting parts
of education as well.
I think we bring a really cooldimension of that to the table
(27:44):
as well.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (27:45):
Well, I think that's right on.
I think that's a lot of whatlearners are looking for Not
only having that practicalexperience and understanding of
how to apply your learning toyour economic future, but also
enjoying it.
I mean, it's amazing how muchbetter you learn when you're
actually enjoying what you'reworking on.
Now let me ask you one lastquestion as we begin to wrap up.
(28:09):
You've now had a greatopportunity to get to know the
organization.
You have wonderful plans forthe future.
You've added wonderful featuresto the program and the
offerings.
If there was a program that youcould dive into, that you could
take, what would it be?
Brandon Busteed (28:28):
Yeah, Well, so, first of all, I'm actually in
the middle of taking one of ouronline Sotheby's courses on the
art of buying and selling atauction Not that I'm planning to
go to auction, but it's a fastreading world to understand.
I never knew really anythingabout it before I came to Brand
Ed, and so I actually amenrolled in one of our current
(28:49):
online programs.
I've sat in on pretty muchevery example of programs.
We've run Our pre-collegeprograms.
I sat in on several classesthis past summer with our school
, the New York Times, andlistened to journalists from the
New York Times teachingstudents about investigative
journalism and a, but also theteachers, the faculty, the
experts who were part of it.
You know the joy of teachingand giving something back there,
(29:11):
and so so, look, I try to sitin as an observer on as many of
these pre-college programs aspossible.
(29:31):
Obviously, I can't actuallyattend one, but I am enrolling
my kids in them.
My daughter attended one of ourVogue programs in London.
We were there over the summer,and so, look, I honestly
recommend it to anybody who hasa kid in the high school age
realm to check out our programs.
But look, it's hard to pickbecause, although I'm not a
(29:54):
fashionista, I didn't haveprevious interest in the art
world.
I find it all fascinating andapplicable to a whole bunch of
other things.
So for me it's like a kid in acandy store just knowing that we
run these programs, being ableto visit and audit a few of them
.
But yeah, I can't really pickif you were to give me the full
(30:15):
gamut, but I am excited toattend this summer.
I'm going to be able to jump inand see some of the Manchester
City Sports Business Schoolprogram stuff.
That's the only pre-collegeprogram that I haven't sat in on
, so I'll get some exposure tothat this summer.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (30:29):
That's great.
One last thing If somebody islistening in, how do they find
you?
How do they explore theprograms that you just mentioned
?
Brandon Busteed (30:40):
So our website is branded-educom, so you know
branded-educom.
You can also try to find me onLinkedIn, because I'll be a
direct source to the appropriatecontact within the organization
, but that's the best place togo on the website and and or
find me on LinkedIn.
(31:00):
There's there's only oneBrandon Busty there.
There's, at least as of today,there's only one.
There's only one of us onLinkedIn.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (31:07):
So and I guess there was no coincidence
that Brandon and Brand Ed soundsso familiar.
Brandon Busteed (31:14):
Well, I knew you and I were joking about it
and there's a lot of people whothink that you know I started my
own company, right, BecauseGrand Ed, like you, named it
after yourself.
But the truth of the matter isit just happens to be a
coincidence that my name sharesmany letters with the
organization.
But it's been a thrill to bepart of it and I'm looking
forward to a really bright,exciting future for us and for
(31:35):
the students who are goingthrough our programs.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (31:42):
Well, listen, Brandon, I really appreciate
you taking the time to join us.
It's been a fascinatingconversation.
So thanks for being on the rant.
Thanks, Eloy, it's been a lotof fun.
Really appreciate it.
All right, Thanks for joiningus everyone.
I hope you've enjoyed myconversation with Brandon
Bastide, CEO of BrandEd.
To learn more about BrandEd,you can visit their website at
wwwbranded-educom.
(32:04):
I'll put the link in thecomment section of this podcast.
Thanks for joining us here onthe Rant.
If you enjoyed this episode,hit the like button on this
YouTube channel, hit subscribe,continue to follow us on your
favorite podcast platforms andwe'll be back to you soon with
more great content.
(32:25):
Take care, everybody.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Eloy Ortiz-Oakley and welcome back to
the Rant Podcast, a podcastwhere we pull back the curtain
and break down the people, thepolicies and the politics of our
higher education system.
Welcome to the second in aseries of episodes that we're
doing focused on leading highereducation through the Trump
years, and I want to emphasizethe word leading, as opposed to
(00:33):
just laying low and hopingnobody notices you over the next
four years.
Leading to me means stepping upand showing up for learners of
all backgrounds, particularlythose learners who have been
underserved.
In this episode, I highlightthe importance of work-based
learning and embedding economicand career mobility into
(00:56):
programs of study.
Learners of all stripes expectvalue from their post-secondary
experience.
Value from their post-secondaryexperience and seeing how their
learning connects to the newworld of work is exactly what
institutions need to be doing Tohighlight work-based learning.
I talk with Brandon Busteed, CEOof BrandEd.
(01:16):
BrandEd partners with some ofthe world's most iconic brands
and provides uniquepost-secondary experiences to
learners throughout the globe.
I talk with Brandon about hisrecent move to take the reins at
BrandEd and his plans for theorganization.
We also talk about BrandEd'sone-of-a-kind model and how
(01:37):
learners benefit from theirdirect experience of working and
learning with such name brandsas the New York Times.
Experience of working andlearning with such name brands
as the New York Times, Sotheby'sand Vogue.
So, with that backdrop, enjoymy conversation with Brandon
Busteed.
Brandon, welcome to the RantPodcast.
Brandon Busteed (01:59):
Thank you, Eloy .
I've always wanted to go on arant, so I'm glad to be on The
Rant and it's a pleasure to seeyou.
Thanks for having me.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (02:03):
Well, you picked the right place to rant,
so welcome to the podcast.
It's great pleasure to see you.
Thanks for joining me.
Welcome to the podcast.
It's great to have you, Brandon.
I know how busy you are a lotgoing on these days in your part
of the world.
But let me begin by asking youyou recently took on the role as
CEO.
I believe it was somewherearound early 2024.
(02:24):
Tell us about what you weredoing before you landed at Brand
Ed and since you've been here,what do you think about the
organization and what do youthink about doing with the
organization?
Brandon Busteed (02:37):
Yeah, there's a lot in there.
But you know I'm coming up onalmost a year, so it'll be a
year, you know, at the top ofthe top of the year of January
and you know, look, there's acouple of.
So it'll be a year.
You know, at the top of the topof the year of January and, and
you know, look there's.
There's a couple of things I'llsay about it.
It's been an incredible year oflearning for me, right, even
though I've been in the highered and the broader education
landscape for a long time.
(02:57):
It's such a fascinating andunique organization and model
that, uh, that I've I've reallyenjoyed the learning curve for
me, and I'll say more about thatlearning curve because, as you
know, we work with iconic brandsin different industries, and so
I've also just been learning,quite frankly, about new
organizations and industriesthat I'd had previously
relatively little exposure to inmy own background.
(03:20):
But I joined BrandEd for areally specific reason, when I
looked at what the organizationwas doing, the kinds of programs
it was delivering.
This is across the board.
We offer pre-college programsfor high school students,
programs for undergraduates,study away, study abroad type
programs, and then, at leastwith Vogue and with Sotheby's,
we offer very bespoke master'sdegree programs.
(03:43):
So we're really running thegamut of non-credit pre-college
programs all the way up tomaster's degree programs.
But the theme throughout all ofour work is that I have never
seen better industry immersiveeducation than what we do across
Brandit.
And when I say industryimmersive education, I mean it's
not just immersive with thebrands that we have partnerships
(04:05):
with.
It's really understanding theindustries they operate within.
It's understanding the jobs androles across those industries,
things that most students,regardless of age, quite frankly
, have had very little exposureto.
They get to work on hands-onprojects, they get to interact
with real industry experts.
They get behind the scenesaccess to these iconic
(04:28):
organizations, and so it's thisreally incredible blend where,
quite frankly, you look at theseprograms and you say I wish I
could do them right, or I wantto do one of these programs, and
so to me, that was the realappeal.
That was the real appeal.
I've always believed in thevalue of work-integrated
learning.
When I looked at what Brand Edwas doing, I just said to myself
this is the best stuff I'veseen and I would love to be part
(04:51):
of it.
So it's been a lot of fun.
We got a lot of work ahead ofus, but for me it's just been a
fascinating learning curve.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (04:58):
A lot of what you mentioned really is all
about this immersive experiencein a workplace.
It's what we call work-basedlearning.
Basically, it's immersingyourself not only in the
education, the learning, butalso being able to, as you
mentioned, work hands-on in aparticular industry in a
(05:19):
particular workplace.
There's a lot of talk todayabout workplace learning, but
that's something you've beendoing for a long time there at
BrandEd.
Tell us about how thoseexperiences work for the learner
.
Brandon Busteed (05:36):
And you know a little bit of this is my own
origin story in terms of kind ofhow and why I got to BrandEd.
So I'll just briefly say one ofthe things that I did prior was
I was a Kaplan right globaleducation organization and one
of my roles there was globalhead of learned work innovation.
So anything that sat in thatspace, you know, I got involved
in, and before that I was atGallup, the famous research
organization that is theexecutive director of education
and workforce development, and Isay that in that there's been a
(05:57):
real theme in my career.
All those have been verydistinct at different roles and
organizations.
That theme of sitting at theintersection of learning and
work has really been part of it.
And I go back to some of thebig studies that I helped lead
when I was at Gallup.
Looking at you know what reallyabout an education experience?
What about it leads to successlater in life, whether that's
(06:20):
work, whether that's overallwell-being, et cetera.
And it was at the corework-integrated learning
opportunities, an internship, aco-op experience, right,
something that was a long-termproject where a student had to
work on it over multiple monthsand get iterative feedback, et
cetera.
So things that mimic workexperience.
And so I say that as a backdropbecause, as we get to what
(06:43):
Brand Ed is doing, we work rightnow with four iconic
organizations the New York Times, with what we run in
partnership with them, theSchool of the New York Times.
We work with Manchester City,the famous football club.
We run the Manchester CitySports Business School, and then
we run Vogue College of Fashionand Sotheby's Institute of Art,
(07:04):
and so obviously very differentindustries sport, fashion, art,
you know, journalism, media butyou know, consistently, across
all of those, it is reallyin-depth exposure for the
business of fashion, right, tounderstand the different roles
(07:25):
that somebody might be able todo in these industries and then
to have some real, actualexperiences.
So it's not an internship, right, we're not running internships.
I actually think we're runningsomething that might be better
because it's fully curated.
All of our programs areessentially co-taught between
industry experts, people who arein the job right now, and
(07:46):
educational experts, what youwould think of as teachers or
faculty, and so it's not just aninvited guest lecturer who
comes in and visits, right.
I mean, these things are I'lluse the word curated in a
co-teaching fashion between theexperts and the educational
guides and advisors, and so Ithink that's a lot of the magic
of what we created here.
(08:07):
We create internship-likeprojects for students to work on
, but in many cases theyactually get better and more
substantive feedback in ourenvironment than they would in
an internship environment thoseof you who've had internships
right now.
They're good ones and there arenot so good ones, and you know
it hinges on did you have a goodmanager in that role?
Were you given a meaningfulproject?
(08:28):
Did you get any valuablefeedback on that project, as
opposed to just being handedsomething and you elements of
meeting and understanding peoplein the various jobs and then
getting iterative feedback fromthose types of folks in the
(08:50):
context of our programs.
You know that is consistentacross all that we do.
That's a lot of the reallyspecial secret sauce, if you
will, about why students reallylove these programs and we have
students who come to ourprograms and one of the most
common refrains is oh my gosh,that felt so different than
school.
This is not like anything elseI've ever done before.
(09:11):
So you know you're hitting themark when it really feels so
distinguished to the studentswho experience it.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (09:17):
Well, you certainly are coming of age at a
perfect time, because everybodyis talking about this kind of
experience, everybody's tryingto replicate this kind of
experience, and so that'sprobably a lot to learn from
what you all have alreadydeveloped.
Now, a big part of this, as youmentioned, a big part of the
(09:37):
secret sauce of a qualityworkplace learning opportunity,
is the employer's involvement,and I know lots of institutions
are trying to find that rightemployer partnership.
You mentioned the four brandsthat you're working with.
Big brands, big names.
What does a partnership looklike with that organization and
(10:01):
what's their commitment to thelearning experience?
Brandon Busteed (10:05):
Yeah, it's a great question.
I think you know there arecertainly lessons that have been
learned in the context of BrandEd, but actually, in sharing
them, I think you know they'repotentially applicable to other
organizations you know,including colleges and
universities or high schools whoare thinking about trying to
ramp these kinds of experiencesup for students.
And I'll say, you know, clearly, all the partners we work with,
(10:27):
one of the you know consistentthemes across them, even though
they're totally differentindustries right, and came to
BrandEd in unique, you know,very bespoke ways.
They're all very deeplyinterested in the talent
development pipeline for theirindustry, not just for their own
organization, but for theirorganization and the industry
(10:48):
writ large.
And I think they've all takenthe view that they need to think
about the broader talentdevelopment for the industry,
not just their own organization,because what it requires is a
real investment of time andenergy to, you know, to invest
in that future generation.
And it's not as simple, as youknow, just doing it at the
(11:08):
master's degree level, that'svaluable, or the undergrad level
valuable, but earlier andearlier, younger and younger in
somebody's educationaltrajectory, giving them more
exposure to the art of thepossible, as we always like to
talk about.
And so to your question what dothey contribute?
Certainly, it's their brand andthe knowledge that's inherent
(11:31):
in these iconic brands.
Organizations that have beenaround for hundreds of years
have a global footprint andrecognition, but it's access to
the folks who work there, right?
So we have, in many cases,faculty in our programs are
folks who are employed at ourpartner organizations, who are
lending their time to teachingstudents and interacting with
(11:55):
students in terms of creatingprojects, giving feedback on
those projects.
We also get behind the scenesaccess to facilities,
headquarters you know, theSotheby's Auction House, or to
visit the New York Timesheadquarters, whatever the
example might be.
The students coming into ourVogue programs are going into
the Vogue photo shoot studioswithin the Condé Nast
(12:17):
headquarters, right?
I mean, they're accessing realthings within these
organizations, and so it reallyis a pretty profound commitment
to our partnership.
We're operating these programs,we're running these programs on
behalf of the brands, but thebrands are very involved and
also play a pretty big role inshaping the ultimate design of
(12:38):
the programs, right?
So our teams will create that,but we do it very much in
partnership with the brands thatwe work with, and so it is a
true partnership type offramework in terms of how we
think about it.
But I really give credit to youknow each of them for taking
what I call the long view ontalent development.
Like, if we really want toinvest in talent, we can't just,
(13:07):
you know, start at a middle ageuh, you know, worker.
I mean that that's helpful ifyou're thinking about trying to
switch careers or change, get ajob or promotion.
But the issue we have in a lotof industries is is by middle
school or high school.
If students can't see it, theycan't be it, and that's a really
big commitment to understandthe world of fashion in high
school.
That's a huge leg up over, youknow, understanding it later in
(13:27):
life.
And so I'm really excited to beable to work with organizations
that take that long view andsee their role not just for
their own benefit but for thebenefit of the broader industry
as well.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (13:38):
Now there's a lot of talk about how
technology is reshaping theworkforce, it's reshaping
employers, it's reshaping thelearning environment, and I
would imagine that these fourbrands that you've mentioned are
looking at ways to harnesstechnology, harness AI, in their
businesses.
How are learners exposed to thechanges in that industry and
(14:03):
how AI is impacting thoseindustries?
Brandon Busteed (14:06):
Yeah, it's interesting.
We've had an ongoing task forceinside BrandEd that's been
thinking about AI from manyangles.
You know how do we want toteach students about it.
You know how do we want toincorporate it.
But one of the guideposts thatwe have utilized in this process
is just a very simple questionhow is AI being used within the
(14:28):
partner organizations that wework with, and to what degree
can we extract that in as realtime as possible in terms of how
we allow students to understandthat right?
So we're not going outside thelines in terms of what we think.
You know our own opinion of howAI should be used in educational
setting, in the classroom.
We're looking at theorganizations we work with,
(14:51):
understanding how they'recurrently using AI and, of
course, some are using it morethan others.
Right, there's examples wherein different pieces of their
organizations, ai is a prevalentuse case and in other parts of
the organization it's almostlike you wouldn't know it
existed, right?
So we're taking the cue for howthese businesses are using AI
(15:13):
and we're using that as the wayin which we think about how we
teach students about AI.
Certainly, technology, broadlydefined, is shaping a lot of
these industries.
I mean, you think about thenewspaper industry, which is
where an organization like theNew York Times started, versus
what their business is today.
I mean digital media andtechnology has been a major part
(15:36):
of the story of the ongoingevolution of the New York Times
you could argue revolutionary atcertain points in its history
in terms of the changes it'smade because of technology.
So our guidepost is how is thisbeing used and thought about in
the organization we work withand bring that to students in
that context?
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (15:56):
Now your students.
What do they look like?
How do they find you?
Brandon Busteed (16:01):
It's, first of all, global.
I mean we operate physicalentities, classrooms, campuses
in New York City and London andMadrid, and then in Manchester
with our partnership with manCity, so we have place-based
students.
We certainly have students whoare taking online programs that
we offer.
We launched one of our firstonline master's degree programs,
(16:22):
master in Art Business, thispast year.
There was a huge hit withstudents who can't come to New
York City or London in personfor a full-time program.
You know the story workingadults who want to act, solicit,
and so we certainly haveexamples of online offerings in
it.
But our audience is global.
About 35% of our students arestudents who live outside of the
(16:46):
United States, so still thelargest percentage of our
students are from the US, but apretty substantial international
population, if you kind of lookat it, across our programs.
And then, of course, the otherway to answer the question is
our pre-college programs throughmaster's degrees.
Those are obviously verydifferent age, demographics and
markets, and so within ourpre-college programs we have an
(17:09):
incredibly diverse set ofstudents who are coming to us
from all over the world, fromall different socioeconomic
backgrounds, race, religion.
I mean it's an incredible sightto see students in.
You know the two-week programswe run for the School of the New
York Times or in Manchester atthe Etihad campus there where we
(17:30):
run programs within Sotheby'sArt Program.
So that certainly is a big partof it.
And we've made a very bigcommitment Brand Ed has from the
very beginning long before myarrival, but something that I
have certainly embraced where weput a significant portion of
our budget every year to studentscholarship.
We self-fund it.
These are not scholarshipprograms that are being
(17:52):
supported by philanthropyexternally.
We'd love that at some point,we'd invite that at any given
moment.
But we've made a commitment andour brand partners have too
through us to saying we want tomake sure that students can come
to these programs.
If they can't afford it.
Obviously a big portion of ourstudents are paying for it
themselves, or their parents arepaying for it themselves or
(18:15):
they're having it sponsoredthrough their high school or
their college as a program.
That's part of their tuition,as part of that.
But we've made a really bigcommitment to scholarship and
you see it play out.
If you showed up in ourclassrooms, if you saw some of
our programs, you'll seeincredible diversity every way.
You'll hear that diversity,you'll see in the diversity of
(18:37):
thought and interactions thatstudents are having.
It's a big part of what webelieve our DNA is and what we
think makes the programsuccessful for students as well.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (18:46):
What does success look like for your
learners?
Brandon Busteed (18:49):
The throughput is clearly we have students
coming to us for somethingdifferent that they aren't
getting at school.
They aren't getting in collegeand in some cases they aren't
getting from their paid jobright or they're not able to get
an internship.
So you know, here's a reallygood stat there were 8.2 million
college students this year inthe United States who wanted an
(19:10):
internship.
Only 3.6 million got one.
So we have this huge gapbetween supply and demand and
obviously off the charts demandfor students looking for an
internship.
Only 3.6 million of those 8.2got one.
And then of that 3.6 million,2.5 million had a quality
(19:30):
experience.
So just because you got aninternship doesn't mean it was
necessarily a high qualityexperience or internship.
I bring that up because we arereally an option to scale work,
integrated learning, in waysthat internships don't.
I'm a huge fan of internships.
I don't know that there's abigger fan of internships in the
country than I am, but I alsorecognize that they just don't
(19:53):
scale.
There's no evidence that thenumber of internships offered in
the United States has grown inthe last 30, 40 years.
And so back to your question ofhow do we measure success?
Right, it is moving students ona career trajectory, plain and
simple.
Now for pre-college students,that's I have a better
understanding of an industry.
This is definitely what I wantto do for my career, or no,
(20:16):
actually it's not what I want todo Gives me a better
understanding of what I mightwant to major in in college.
As a result of going to theseprograms, I'm already building a
Rolodex of contacts in anindustry people who will act as
a reference or a referral for me, right?
So, although our outcome for ahigh school student is that they
get a job at the end of ourtwo-week program, we are
(20:36):
definitely moving themsignificantly forward on a
career trajectory.
We're allowing them to add NewYork Times on their resume, or
Manchester City Sports BusinessSchool it stands out.
It stands out on a resume a jobapplication, a college
application.
(20:58):
Now for our undergraduatestudents who are coming to our
study away immersive experiences.
They're a little further alongand they're thinking about what
they want to do in a career.
They may have already decidedthat their major is what they
want to do in their jobs, and sothe four-week summer programs
that we offer within that realmfor undergraduates certainly
(21:18):
allows them to do some of thosesame things.
Right.
Make contacts in an industry,get a better understanding of it
, so that when they go out andpursue jobs in that industry
they sound much more informedthan the average applicant.
And then for our master'sdegree students, eloy, it's
really simple.
They want a job in thisindustry.
They come to Sotheby's Instituteof Art, they want a job in the
(21:38):
art world, and that doesn'talways mean a job in an auction
house, right?
For many of them.
They go into museum curation orother nonprofit organizations
where art is a core of theorganization.
And for those I mean, I'll justgive you a stat.
If you look at NACE data, theaverage ratio of students to
career advisors for US collegesand universities is 1,583 to 1.
(22:04):
Okay, that's NACE data, rightAverage ratio.
So for every career advisorthey are supposedly responsible
for supporting over 1,500students.
That's our national average.
At Brand Ed, ours is under 80to 1.
So we're literally 20 timesbetter than the national average
.
I don't know if that's a hugebragging point, other than to
(22:26):
say simply that we've investedconsiderable resources because
we know that is what studentsare coming to us for.
They're coming to us forindustry-specific understanding
and they want to get a job inthat industry.
So for our master's degreestudents.
We measure success by jobplacement rates and their
satisfaction with those jobplacements.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (22:47):
Well, I think you're hitting on something
that is certainly a big topic ofdiscussion right now across the
higher education marketplace.
It is economic mobilityoutcomes, measuring them,
talking about them, highlightingthem, because that's what
learners are telling us they'relooking for.
Yes, the full experience isgreat for their lifetime benefit
(23:12):
, but having an opportunity toget into a career, understanding
how to use the learning thatyou're getting to apply that to
a career, is so important.
So you know you guys are spoton.
Right now let's talk about thefuture of Branded.
We live in uncertain times inthe higher education marketplace
(23:33):
.
A lot has transpired over thelast five, six, seven years.
We've had a pandemic, we've hadglobal recessions, we've had
closing of many small liberalarts colleges throughout the
country, a lot of institutionsare struggling for enrollment
and now the pendulum is going toswing again in terms of federal
(23:57):
higher education policy.
How do you see Brand Edthriving in that uncertainty and
what do you see as the future?
Brandon Busteed (24:05):
I think you've highlighted a few of the things
in terms of you were mentioningthe headwinds and challenges
facing higher ed.
I mean, one of the biggest onesis fundamentally a question
about value, the valueproposition of a degree, and
that's a combination of a wholebunch of stuff the price tag,
you know, the outcomes in termsof career outcomes, and so all
that goes into a formula thatincreasingly more prospective
(24:28):
students and their families aremaking in a much more
sophisticated way than we havein the past.
Yeah, no doubt.
Right, the work readiness of agraduate is at the top of the
list in terms of what collegesare trying to improve upon, what
prospective students and theirfamilies are evaluating in an
institution, and colleges anduniversities, quite frankly,
(24:48):
have just struggled to scalethese things.
So it's not that it isn'thappening, it's that it's not at
scale.
So I'll use another statistic.
It's not at scale, so I'll useanother statistic.
About a third of collegegraduates in the US have an
internship that they can applywhat they're learning in the
classroom during college.
Right, about a third.
(25:11):
So it's not zero.
But the majority miss out onwhat is one of the most
important value propositions ofcollege having an internship or
a work experience where they cansee the dots connected between
their academic experience andthat particular experience.
So for the future for Brand Ed,I think it's an incredibly
bright one because we can nowact as a partner to not just
colleges and universities buthigh schools who are looking to
(25:34):
embed these kinds of programs intheir academic structure.
So prior to my arrival, wenever had an institutional
partnership team or function.
That was one of the firstthings that we created when I
arrived.
So we have a team that'sfocused on building partnerships
with domestic high schools inthe US, with international high
(25:54):
schools around the world, andthen a team that's working on
partnerships with colleges anduniversities, where we're not
replacing the bachelor's degree,we're not replacing the high
school education, we'reenhancing it greatly.
And we can enhance that for anindividual student who might
come to one of our programs,regardless of whether their
school or college is partneringwith us on it.
But imagine, you know, imagineyou're a student at a college
(26:17):
that is partnered with Brand Edand has access to a four-week
Vogue program over the summer ora January term program, right,
where you can get some reallyin-depth exposure to these
things.
It's different than aninternship, but all the ways
we've talked about, I'd arguemight be more valuable,
especially when you think aboutthe iconic brand that goes on
(26:39):
your resume.
As a result, it's certainlymore scalable, and so that's
where I think we have a verypromising future is, you know,
to be a partner to colleges,universities, to high schools,
where we enhance that work,readiness, experience for
students.
And I'll say just one thing wetalk a lot about all kinds of
things completion rates and whatour yield is, and admissions
(27:01):
and student faculty ratio andall these things.
I look at the engagement levelof students in programs as one
of the most important litmustests of the future of an
organization, and when I look atthe level of engagement that
students have in our programs, Imean, dare I say, fun is like a
word that they'll use whenthey're involved in our program.
(27:23):
They're doing real work.
They're, you know, spending thevast majority of their time on
task, engaged in something.
But I mean it is engaging, it'sfun, it's exciting.
And you know what?
I think we've lost track of theengaging, fun, exciting parts
of education as well.
I think we bring a really cooldimension of that to the table
(27:44):
as well.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (27:45):
Well, I think that's right on.
I think that's a lot of whatlearners are looking for Not
only having that practicalexperience and understanding of
how to apply your learning toyour economic future, but also
enjoying it.
I mean, it's amazing how muchbetter you learn when you're
actually enjoying what you'reworking on.
Now let me ask you one lastquestion as we begin to wrap up.
(28:09):
You've now had a greatopportunity to get to know the
organization.
You have wonderful plans forthe future.
You've added wonderful featuresto the program and the
offerings.
If there was a program that youcould dive into, that you could
take, what would it be?
Brandon Busteed (28:28):
Yeah, Well, so, first of all, I'm actually in
the middle of taking one of ouronline Sotheby's courses on the
art of buying and selling atauction Not that I'm planning to
go to auction, but it's a fastreading world to understand.
I never knew really anythingabout it before I came to Brand
Ed, and so I actually amenrolled in one of our current
(28:49):
online programs.
I've sat in on pretty muchevery example of programs.
We've run Our pre-collegeprograms.
I sat in on several classesthis past summer with our school
, the New York Times, andlistened to journalists from the
New York Times teachingstudents about investigative
journalism and a, but also theteachers, the faculty, the
experts who were part of it.
You know the joy of teachingand giving something back there,
(29:11):
and so so, look, I try to sitin as an observer on as many of
these pre-college programs aspossible.
(29:31):
Obviously, I can't actuallyattend one, but I am enrolling
my kids in them.
My daughter attended one of ourVogue programs in London.
We were there over the summer,and so, look, I honestly
recommend it to anybody who hasa kid in the high school age
realm to check out our programs.
But look, it's hard to pickbecause, although I'm not a
(29:54):
fashionista, I didn't haveprevious interest in the art
world.
I find it all fascinating andapplicable to a whole bunch of
other things.
So for me it's like a kid in acandy store just knowing that we
run these programs, being ableto visit and audit a few of them
.
But yeah, I can't really pickif you were to give me the full
(30:15):
gamut, but I am excited toattend this summer.
I'm going to be able to jump inand see some of the Manchester
City Sports Business Schoolprogram stuff.
That's the only pre-collegeprogram that I haven't sat in on
, so I'll get some exposure tothat this summer.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (30:29):
That's great.
One last thing If somebody islistening in, how do they find
you?
How do they explore theprograms that you just mentioned
?
Brandon Busteed (30:40):
So our website is branded-educom, so you know
branded-educom.
You can also try to find me onLinkedIn, because I'll be a
direct source to the appropriatecontact within the organization
, but that's the best place togo on the website and and or
find me on LinkedIn.
(31:00):
There's there's only oneBrandon Busty there.
There's, at least as of today,there's only one.
There's only one of us onLinkedIn.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (31:07):
So and I guess there was no coincidence
that Brandon and Brand Ed soundsso familiar.
Brandon Busteed (31:14):
Well, I knew you and I were joking about it
and there's a lot of people whothink that you know I started my
own company, right, BecauseGrand Ed, like you, named it
after yourself.
But the truth of the matter isit just happens to be a
coincidence that my name sharesmany letters with the
organization.
But it's been a thrill to bepart of it and I'm looking
forward to a really bright,exciting future for us and for
(31:35):
the students who are goingthrough our programs.
Eloy Ortiz Oakley (31:42):
Well, listen, Brandon, I really appreciate
you taking the time to join us.
It's been a fascinatingconversation.
So thanks for being on the rant.
Thanks, Eloy, it's been a lotof fun.
Really appreciate it.
All right, Thanks for joiningus everyone.
I hope you've enjoyed myconversation with Brandon
Bastide, CEO of BrandEd.
To learn more about BrandEd,you can visit their website at
wwwbranded-educom.
(32:04):
I'll put the link in thecomment section of this podcast.
Thanks for joining us here onthe Rant.
If you enjoyed this episode,hit the like button on this
YouTube channel, hit subscribe,continue to follow us on your
favorite podcast platforms andwe'll be back to you soon with
more great content.
(32:25):
Take care, everybody.
Thank you.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com