Tear down the barriers
GOLD Coast entrepreneur Jae Fraser is launching a new foundation with $2m from his own pocket in a bid to help aspiring but disadvantaged educators pursue a career in early childhood education.
Mr Fraser, founder of Little Scholars School of Early Learning, has established the Fraser Foundation with partner Andrew Heslehurst.
The non-profit aims to help remove barriers for Gold Coasters wanting to study early childhood, whether they be financial hardship, remote or rural location, medical conditions and disabilities.
The foundation plans to work with Gold Coast’s universities, colleges, educators and the city’s multicultural sector to find the people to support.
“Maybe there’s a farmer’s wife in Roma who desperately wants to leave the farm to work or study early childhood, then perhaps the foundation can pay for a farm hand so she can realise her dream,” he said.
“Perhaps there’s kids in remote communities who want to study down here, it’s not only about paying for people’s degrees, it’s about finding those who are most passionate and reducing their barriers.”
It’s been a dream 20 years in the making, says Mr Fraser, who hopes once the foundation is established that partnerships will be formed and funding comes from benefactors and philanthropists.
“Teachers are arguably the most important members of our society. They give children purpose, set them up for success, and inspire them to prosper and succeed in life,” said Mr Fraser.
“We were just an average Gold Coast family, dad was a builder, mum worked hard in the hospital, our holidays were about cutting open a tin can and seeing how many gold coins we had and that was our holiday.
“University was never a discussion in our household, it was just about getting a job.”
Mr Fraser recalls falling in love with teaching because his aunty was a kindy teacher, and so the spark was lit and that was his dream, to become an early childhood teacher.
To realise it, he worked full time while studying, paying off a car, covering rent and trying to do what 18-yearolds did. But he had a secret weapon, the unwavering support of his mother.
“If I didn’t get that drive and push from my mother I probably would not have pursued my dream,” he said.
He was able to get a job at a junior childcare centre in Arundel and the
rest is history.
Eight years later he founded Little Scholars School of Early Learning and as the managing director oversees 11 campuses across southeast Queensland that teach more than 4000 children and employs 450 educators.
He’s been an active committee member of The Australian Childcare Alliance Qld for more than 10 years, and is the organisation’s vice president.
“Out of the OECD, the Nordic countries perform best at early education, and the European countries dominate the rankings in early childhood outcomes around the world,” he
said.
“Finland, Sweden, and Norway top the Index, thanks to sustained, longterm investments and prioritisation, as well as a much wider respect for, and appreciation of, early childhood development, which is now deeply embedded in their society – and this is our goal for ECEC in Australia.”
Mr Fraser said he wanted to find those people who were really passionate about early learning so he could help them, because governments weren’t going to.
“If we can only help one person then it will have been worth it,” he said.