Day in the Life of the Head of Program Delivery - Student Placement

Facilitating student placement is one of our core objectives at IDP, and achieving this would prove challenging if it weren't for our industry-leading tech portfolio. Through our digital platforms and services, IDP fosters a seamless experience for prospective students wanting to study abroad and institutions aiming to recruit them.

Mel Caetano is Head of Program Delivery for Student Placement, and plays a key role in facilitating this process. As part of our ongoing Day in the Life series, we had a chat with Mel to get an inside look at her daily routine, how she became involved with IDP, and how her team stays ahead of the game amid perpetually shifting student demands and trends.

Hi Mel. Tell us about your role as Head of Program Delivery? What does the average day look like for you?

In my role as Head of Program Delivery for Student Placement, I collaborate with an incredible team in Australia, the UK, and with our Digital Campus in India. Together, we create digital solutions to improve the experiences of students, institutions, and counsellors worldwide. Working with a global team is an exercise in juggling time zones, managing communications, and making the most of every touchpoint whether it be virtual or in-person.

My day kicks off early, armed with a fresh coffee and a full inbox. This is my time for uninterrupted administration, responses, meeting prep, and a review of the day ahead.

Then the first leg of my international relay begins with the local team in Australia. Our conversations revolve around upcoming releases, strategic reviews, and most crucially, understanding the immediate needs of our team.

By midday, my focus changes to our executives and the reports, updates, and activities they need in order to be across the parts of our portfolio relevant to them and the planned and realised outcomes. As lunchtime rolls around, there's a brief respite. In the office, it's about catching up with colleagues in the kitchen, while my work-from-home days see me soaking up some sunshine in my Bendigo backyard, with my playful dog for company.

The afternoon signals the “global rush hour”. With the workday starting in India, my meeting schedule becomes busy with one-on-ones, team forums, and sprint showcases. Here, I get to see the digital innovations and improvements our teams have painstakingly crafted.

At 5pm, the UK comes online, and this next period is reserved for crucial strategy sessions, leadership meetings, and aligning our collective objectives. The day eventually winds down around 7pm and the relay race ends. To de-stress and wind myself down, I try to fit in a quick boxing session which, in the true spirit of digital innovation, is held in virtual reality in the comfort of home.

You’ve been with IDP for 8 years now. What made you want to get involved with the company in the first place?

First and foremost, it was IDP’s commitment to fostering global opportunities. Through our student placement and IELTS services, IDP not only offers educational pathways but also transforms lives. Being at the forefront of such meaningful change is not just invigorating, but it's profoundly rewarding too.

I was also drawn to IDP due to our diverse global community, mirroring the worldwide connections I have with my own family and friends. The company's strong sense of community, integrity and values resonated deeply with me, making it the ideal workplace choice.

What influenced you to take up your current role?

I'm passionate about ensuring our students, institutions and people have great experiences and feel supported as they navigate through either their journey studying or their day-to-day work tasks. In today's ever-evolving landscape, responsive digital innovation that connects students, institutions and IDP’s trusted team is paramount. I saw this role as an opportunity to leverage the knowledge, relationships and experience I’ve gained through 8 years at IDP to further our digital advancements and set new benchmarks in the industry.

Furthermore, I was driven by the prospect of uniting a global team of exceptionally talented individuals. The excitement of collaborating with and leading such a team and channeling our collective strengths toward a shared objective is unparalleled.

Which specific programs do you work with, and how do they assist our student placement network and counsellors?

My work spans the full student placement digital portfolio, and this covers a diverse landscape of digital products and services, supporting the many stages of a student’s study abroad journey. Our team creates and delivers new digital innovations as well as ongoing improvement and maintenance of the digital products and services we operate today. Our work always evolves as our customer and market needs evolve but if I was to name a specific program within the portfolio and a recent highlight, it would be the IDP Live app and transformative FastLane service.

Students now have an app where they can create an academic profile, search and match themselves with courses and receive an in-principle offer from their chosen institution within minutes, all from the comfort of their home. In addition, the app gives students the ability to send documents, receive recommended content and stay connected with their counsellor. This means starting their study abroad journey has never been easier, more certain and more accessible, as we bring IDP and our Counsellors straight to their mobile device.

For our institution partners, the app and FastLane service means closer interactions and visibility as students of intent are matched earlier in their decision-making journey. All of this with security in the knowledge that IDP’s trusted counselling team is connected and advising along the way. This is just one example to demonstrate how we partner our digital innovation strategy with IDP’s well-established human connections to provide better experiences for our customers.

What are the biggest challenges for you and the team when it comes to launching a new product, and ensuring its optimal usage?

One of the most significant challenges when launching a new product is ensuring that it aligns with the needs and expectations of our customers. It's crucial to strike a balance between innovation and usability. We might have a cutting-edge feature, but if it isn't user-friendly or doesn't address a genuine need, it will not realise the value we intended and potentially could even worsen the experience.

Ensuring optimal usage involves continuous engagement and research with our customers or users, collecting feedback, and improving on the product based on that feedback. It's not enough for a customer to use our product; we want them to integrate it into their routines, get value from it, and become long-term advocates of IDP.

Student behaviour and demands are constantly shifting, particularly in response to current events. With this in mind, do you picture your role and its demands changing in the near future? If so, how?

As an established organisation with a global customer cohort, it’s inherent to our practices that we always be vigilant and monitor changes in both student and market demand.

Within the student placement portfolio, we’ve successfully established an agile delivery framework that enables the responsiveness we need when a large shift occurs. In recent years, this framework held us in good stead and ensured we were not only able to respond quickly to the challenges of the time and transition to a virtual business model as required but we were also able to push ahead with our innovation agenda with the launch of the IDP Live app and FastLane services.

Add to this, we have extensive in-house customer experience research, industry research and data insights to draw from. These are invaluable resources that ensure we make the right data-driven decisions when determining our digital strategy.

There will always be challenges in a world that changes quickly but we’re well set-up structurally to respond. As far as the role I play, it will become more strategic as we focus on maximising the value we can provide to our students, institutions and counsellors. Supporting our global team and developing a culture that promotes growth and change will also become key as these global events also affect our diverse team.

At the end of the day, what is the most rewarding aspect of being the Head of Program Delivery?

Stepping into an IDP office or an IDP event anywhere in the world and seeing our hard work in use and sharing that story with our team. It’s one thing to imagine a student discovering their future on our products, it’s another thing to see it in action and changing a life!