Why intro students join, and who goes on to Level One
Intro Class students, 1 Jan – 6 Oct 2026 · Answers to “What made you join this course?”
Hi Glen,
This report looks at this year’s Intro Class students and the answers they gave at checkout to “What made you join this course?”. We’ve grouped those answers into a handful of themes and, for each one, tracked how many students went on to Level One and beyond, and how quickly they booked.
We hope it gives you a clearer picture of what’s bringing people through the door and what keeps them coming back. Happy to walk through any of it with you.
(intros to 5 Sep, n=758)
(intros to 30 Jun, n=591)
What made you join this course?
- Lifelong ambition to try acting 208 (29%)
- New experience / fun hobby 202 (28%)
- Confidence 81 (11%)
- Creative outlet 81 (11%)
- Communication, public speaking & work skills 72 (10%)
- Wants to be an actor 65 (9%)
- Meet new people 13 (2%)
- Gift / supporting someone else 4 (1%)
Share of the 726 students who answered. The 155 students with no answer are left out of the chart.
Reasons and progression
| Reason group (answers selected) | Students | Share | Went to L1 all intros | Went past L1 all intros | L1 rate intros to 5 Sep | Past-L1 rate intros to 30 Jun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lifelong ambition to try acting “I've always wanted to try acting” × 208 |
208 | 29% | 67 (32%) | 20 (10%) | 33% of 165 | 13% of 109 |
| New experience / fun hobby “To try something new” × 154 “I want something fun to do outside of work” × 48 |
202 | 28% | 46 (23%) | 16 (8%) | 25% of 172 | 10% of 134 |
| Confidence “To gain confidence” × 81 |
81 | 11% | 20 (25%) | 1 (1%) | 22% of 69 | 2% of 42 |
| Creative outlet “To have a creative outlet” × 81 |
81 | 11% | 22 (27%) | 11 (14%) | 26% of 69 | 21% of 52 |
| Communication, public speaking & work skills “To be better at public speaking” × 34 “To communicate better” × 29 “I'm doing it for work” × 9 |
72 | 10% | 25 (35%) | 9 (12%) | 39% of 57 | 20% of 46 |
| Wants to be an actor “I want to be an actor” × 65 |
65 | 9% | 18 (28%) | 3 (5%) | 32% of 56 | 5% of 43 |
| Meet new people small sample “To meet new people” × 13 |
13 | 2% | 2 (15%) | 1 (8%) | 15% of 13 | 9% of 11 |
| Gift / supporting someone else small sample “I'm buying a gift for someone else” × 2 “I'm here to support someone else” × 2 |
4 | 1% | 2 (50%) | 1 (25%) | 33% of 3 | 33% of 3 |
| All answered | 726 | 100% | 202 (28%) | 62 (9%) | 29% of 604 | 12% of 440 |
| No answer (not in chart) | 155 | – | 42 (27%) | 26 (17%) | 27% of 154 | 17% of 151 |
“Past L1” means enrolled in Level Two, Level Three, The Play or an advanced course after the intro. The shaded columns only count students who have had time to progress. Most L1 bookings are made within a few days of the intro, but about 1 in 10 come more than 7 weeks later. Going past L1 needs the 5-week L1 course first. Groups under 30 students are flagged; read their rates as signals only.
How quickly students book Level One
(mean 13.2 days)
(mean 39.2 days)
Days from intro class to L1 booking, for the 244 students who went on to L1
| Reason group | L1 students | Median days to book | Mean days | Booked within 7 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lifelong ambition to try acting | 67 | 2 | 16.5 | 75% |
| New experience / fun hobby | 46 | 2 | 5.3 | 80% |
| Confidence | 20 | 2 | 7.7 | 85% |
| Creative outlet | 22 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 95% |
| Communication, public speaking & work skills | 25 | 2 | 24.4 | 68% |
| Wants to be an actor | 18 | 2 | 15.7 | 72% |
| Meet new people | 2 | 28.5 | 28.5 | 50% |
| Gift / supporting someone else | 2 | 1 | 1.0 | 100% |
| No answer | 42 | 2 | 17.2 | 79% |
Booking date is when the L1 enrolment was created. “Before intro” means L1 was booked ahead of the intro class (5 students). A few very late bookings pull the mean well above the median. Groups with fewer than 5 L1 students are too small to compare.
Key findings
- Curiosity is the main driver. “Always wanted to try acting” (29%) and “new experience / fun hobby” (28%) together account for 56% of answers. Only 9% say they want to become an actor.
- Self-development is the second big group. Confidence, communication, public speaking and work skills add up to 21% of answers; a creative outlet is another 11%.
- Overall, 28% of intro students go on to Level One (intros up to 5 Sep). 13% of students with intros up to 30 Jun went past L1, which is about 35% of those who took L1.
- Best L1 conversion: communication / public speaking (39%) and lifelong ambition (33%). The lowest are confidence (22%) and new experience / fun hobby (25%).
- Past L1, the creative-outlet (21%) and communication (20%) groups stay longest. Only 2% of the confidence group and 5% of the aspiring actors went past L1. Course messaging after L1 may not be meeting these two groups’ goals.
About the data: Intro Class students from 1 Jan to 6 Oct 2026, across NSW and VIC classes (104 VIC students, mostly from June onward). Test and cancelled classes are excluded. The checkout question was introduced in early 2026, so most January students have no answer recorded.
Prepared by Kira at PGFormula · October 2026