Concorde Education was established because the founders believed there was a disconnect between conventional educational practices and the needs of 21st-century students. To address this discrepancy, Concorde Education set out to create programs that allowed for:
- Access to specialized instructors who are masters of their content – Content Specialists
- Tangible learning experiences
- Courses that provide pathways to college and/or career
- Project or portfolio-based assignments
Concorde Education was launched in September 2019 with the goal of providing turnkey STEAM programming to schools and districts at a fraction of the cost compared to building out a STEAM lab and staffing a full-time instructor. Concorde Education’s course offerings, developed under the leadership of its founder Jonathan Holub, focused on classes such as drone piloting and coding, engineering, and video game development. All courses were taught in person by specialists in their respective fields and the formula proved to be an immediate success. Just as Concorde began to hit its stride and 6 months after it first opened its doors, the emergence of COVID-19 forced Concorde to rethink its model and methodologies.
Seemingly overnight, in-person programming ceased to exist. Concorde, like other schools and organizations around the country and world, had to pivot from their initial plan and get creative. Concorde was a part of a multi-school building and district COVID planning committees and became a leader in facilitating remote learning programs and cultivating online communities of students with adult oversight and supervision. While Concorde was easily able to shift their academic courses to remote platforms, it became clear that remote academics were not enough to keep students active and engaged during the pandemic. One of the biggest concerns mentioned by schools and committees was the impact of the cancellation of competitive traditional sports seasons. After consulting with various organizations and researching student engagement, Concorde began exploring new programming initiatives to help provide a positive and impactful alternative to traditional sports. One solution to this problem was a natural fit to Concorde’s mission– competitive video gaming, or simply “esports” and thus Concorde Games was built.
Concorde Games, a subsidiary of Concorde Education, is a turnkey esports coaching and education service geared to middle and high school students. Concorde Games sought to provide a robust esports program. The focus would not simply be students having fun while playing video games together, rather an educational experience similar to the foundation of Concorde Education’s programs. Students would have access to coaches who are experts in their particular esport game, hours of practice each week, a focus on teamwork and communication skills, a direct pipeline to collegiate esports coaches and recruiters, and a database of professional esports athletes willing to share their experiences and advice to the next generation of esport athletes. Additionally, Concorde Games provides educational workshops centered around the non-player areas of the esports industry including marketing, graphic design, and digital video editing. Concorde Games went a step further and created a flagship esports program called “Education through Esports” with the goal of providing in-depth curriculum and courses to expose students to the non-player opportunities in the esports industry and begin building the skills necessary to pursue a career in the field.
This program itself is STEAM-based and connects with the students in a unique and exciting way. In addition to improving their gameplay, students are working on social-emotional skills, creating their own logos, and learning about one of the fastest growing industries in the world.
Concorde Education is on the rise – contact us today to learn more about our programming and investment opportunities.
Jonathan Holub
Founder & Director of Programming
Elliot Schubin
Principal & Director of Business Development