Alumni and Supporters

Grant and Sharon Grosser

Diploma of Teaching (Secondary) (1988)
Graduate Diploma of Business (Secretarial Studies) (1989)
Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) (1992)

From an idea that was sparked sitting around their kitchen table, to being named Business News Rising Stars and EY Entrepreneurs of the Year – Grant and Sharon Grosser are the brains behind the school teaching and learning software program SEQTA.

Their career journeys started out like many other teachers. Graduating from ECU in 1988 and 1992 respectively, Grant and Sharon both enjoyed well over a decade in the classroom as secondary teachers.

“I guess like most other graduates, I was full of enthusiasm for my subject and for the classroom,” Sharon explains. “I was absolutely terrified for the first two years, but I was very fortunate in that I had some excellent mentor teachers who helped me through - I found my feet and absolutely loved being in the classroom.

“It was a career that I felt suited me really well, and I absolutely loved it.”

“Probably the biggest highlight I ever have in my life is when I run into a former student and they tell me the story - they were out, they were down, they were going to give up, and someone inspired them. And inevitably, it's a teacher that got them going.”

After teaching manual arts, Grant moved into administration and became a Deputy Principal, where he recognised a need to better support the teaching community through administrative elements of the job.

“I started finding that some of the problems that I needed solved administratively needed software to help me keep track of what was happening in the pastoral care of students," Grant says.

“I just started developing little bits to help me do my job, and eventually I felt that I could do a much better job of software. So I quit and started a software company to help teachers get better value for the time they spend.”

The teachers turned entrepreneurs in 2006 creating SEQTA, an all-in-one software system that could connect parents, educators and students.

“It does everything from attendance, pastoral care, marks, book reporting, all of your online learning,” Grant explains. “I wanted teachers to be able to have all of the information they needed to make better decisions around how to address kids' needs, without having to go to multiple places to find them.”

Sharon says for her it was imperative that the software was user-friendly for those adverse to technology.

“I was the teacher in the classroom who was struggling to use an overhead projector. I hated it when technology started coming in - I resented the fact that all the paper-based systems that I was using, suddenly I had to do it on the computer,” she says.

“When Grant came up with the idea of the software, I was adamant that I was going to be there to say ‘you need to write this for a 40-year-old technophobe, not a bright, young, 22-year-old who knows all about computers’.

“Back in 2006 some of us were still handwriting our reports. We didn't even have Word. So it was really important for me that the software did not present barriers to people like me, who had this innate resistance to technology.”

The revolutionary software system was a huge success, going on to be used in schools around the world and transforming the education sector.

Over the years, Grant and Sharon expanded their Joondalup-based tech solution across Australia and Southeast Asia, with the company joining other edTech organisations to form Education Horizons Group (subsequently acquired by private equity in 2019).

At the time the couple sold their majority stake in the company, the software was in use by 700 schools, 35,000 teachers and 250,000 students.

“One of the things that we really changed - apart from the way that teachers could do their work in a more end-to-end way - was the way that schools buy software,” Grant says.

“In 2006, business managers and IT departments were the ones making buying decisions. We really pushed that and said no - the teaching side of the school needs to be making decisions about the software that's being used to impact teaching and learning.”

Since stepping back from operational duties the couple continue to be involved with the teaching industry, supporting ECU’s School of Education and were instrumental in establishing the Lincoln McCashney Memorial Scholarship at ECU.

The Scholarship was established in 2017 after attending the funeral of a former mentor the Grossers both taught with, and has raised over $115,000 in support of third year education students at ECU.

“Four middle-aged men, Grant included, got up to give eulogies, and they all spoke about the impact this one man had on them as young men going into the teaching profession, and it really struck me the difference that one passionate, committed person can make,” Sharon explains.

“We also learned about the impact that Mr Mac - as the kids called him - had on these individual student’s lives as well. There's thousands of people who were impacted by his life.

“We really wanted to honour it, and I wanted people to understand the difference that one person can make. And now we award the scholarship every year to somebody who really embodies the characteristics that Lincoln had.”

With a slew of awards to their names, including ECU’s 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award, it is clear that this extraordinary couple has had an immense impact on the global education sector.

"When I look back at what I learned at ECU, what really stands out is the really good lecturer I had. And that's what's so critical for potential teachers to remember, is that kids may not care about poetry or the biology of butterflies, but they will remember you," Sharon says.

“Probably the biggest highlight I ever have in my life is when I run into a former student and they tell me the story - they were out, they were down, they were going to give up, and someone inspired them. And inevitably, it's a teacher that got them going.”