Essence Academy and Jamf Case Study

Established in 2010, Essence Academy is a vocational school preparing students for careers in everything from cosmetology and massage therapy to fashion and web design. As a main goal of the Academy, Essence Co-founder and Director Pierpaolo Massone wanted to fill the gap between the need for increasingly higher professionalism and the learning opportunities available for trade education and vocational skills.

Fusing education and technology was a way to achieve his mission.

Digital from day one

Essence knew their academy would thrive if students were provided technology to drive their education. They saw the simplicity and power that Apple provided and made available 800 iPad devices for students — with more being added. But now they needed a way to manage and maximize these devices.

After working with several mobile device management (MDM) solutions, their Apple device reseller recommended a trial of Jamf School to provide a more structured approach to device management. After experiencing the functionality, services and support offered by Jamf, they made the move to Jamf and never looked back.

With Jamf School, Essence has moved from 25 classes and 12 devices for each class to 48 classes and 800 fully managed iPads with the ease. Not only is the IT staff and faculty happy with the change, but the user experience for students has drastically improved. safe.” To additionally support the company’s belief that smart and innovative technology use continues to fuel their success, each location also has a server that supplies stores with a 4G connection, should theirs fail.

Happy staff, happy students

Daniele Gregorio, IT Manager at Essence, found that Jamf School enabled him to easily manage the growing number of devices at the Academy, allowing him to spend less time on tedious maintenance. Now, he even has time to pilot new policies that make the learning experience better for students and teachers.

Additionally, another of Gregorio’s favourite features is the ability to verify that students are connected to the school intranet, which allows both IT and teachers to ensure that policies are being respected by students as well as to verify the real-time location of their Apple devices.

Not only has Gregorio seen a positive impact but Chiara Guzzetti, a teacher at Essence, also says she’s been able to fully harness the power of Apple in the classroom with Jamf.

“Apple devices are simple, beautiful and powerful. They help both teaching and learning become easier, more personalized and fun.” – Chiara Guzzetti, Apple Distinguish Educator

When Guzzetti began working at Essence Academy, she had never worked with another school, let alone one actively using Apple or Jamf, but during her first year at Essence, she achieved her Apple Teacher qualification and was successfully certified as an Apple Distinguished Educator in 2019. After working more with the technology, she explained the features that Jamf School provides are more than just a tool for IT, they’re essential in taking her teaching to the next level.

"For teachers, the iPad is a much-needed tool. Not only for creating content for sharing with students, but also for monitoring student activity on devices using the Classroom app. We can see and display what students are doing in real time and provide support on an individual basis." said Chiara Guzzetti, Apple Distinguish Educator

Plus, students are able to express themselves creatively while also having the ability to customize their preferred learning method. Guzzetti has noticed that students are getting the opportunity to explore their curiosity and retain knowledge faster thanks to the interactive learning materials that the iPad provides. One example of this can be seen when massage therapy students use iBooks to learn about the human body and can interact to view different systems like the skeleton or muscles.

Jamf School is also helpful by providing full control over how her students’ device to ensure that her class stays focused. By being able to manage learning materials, camera functionality and app usage, Guzzetti feels empowered by the use of technology instead of feeling weighed down by it.

By uniting the ability to individually adapt teaching methods with interactive excitement that students find engaging, the Academy is making great strides in providing their staff and students with the right tools for more meaningful education.

Set Up for Success

The future for Essence Academy looks bright. With a new Milan location in the works, Essence is growing their student body as well as their fleet of Apple devices. With the growth, they’re able to offer more classes in digital design and fashion design. Even with the addition of many more iPad devices and a new computer lab which includes 24 new Mac computers, Gregorio isn’t intimidated, but instead eager to deploy and synchronize.

“We love that the installation of the applications and policies are done immediately and directly to all devices, especially with the project ahead to add Macs to our current inventory of equipment,” said Gregorio.

Learning and teaching with technology doesn’t have to be something involving unnecessary steps and stress. After finding their stride with Apple and Jamf School, Essence Academy has been able to provide a great education, sprinkled with entertainment and fun. By streamlining the management of their devices, the Academy now has time to focus on learning and supporting the educational success of their students.