Success In Enrichment Education Business

By Vincent Gabriel

If you are starting an enrichment program for kids and students, then this is the guide for you. In this handy guide, the author shares with you the tips and tricks of running an enrichment education business. Topics covered include:

- Importance of Enrichment Education
- Understanding Consumer Behaviour
- Knowing Yourself
- Pricing Your Enrichment Programme
- Location As A Success Factor
- Instructors As Stars
- Entry Strategies
- Marketing And Promoting Enrichment
- Building Service And Products

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9789810777531

Book preview

Today

CHAPTER 1

Importance of Enrichment Education

Synopsis

•  How enrichment education providers meet the needs of their customers

•  Know the four factors that serve to make an enrichment education provider distinctive

•  How enrichment education is dominated by Tutoring

Introduction

It is only through understanding your role in the life of your customer and in the society in which your customer lives that you will be able to fully realise your potential.

In a society where change is ever present, your customer needs to adapt to the drastic changes in career, ways of earning a living and lifestyle. To be able to adapt, you, the enrichment education provider, has to have the answer.

Education Enrichment: role

There is a tendency in Southeast Asia to view enrichment education as a service to be provided by the government. However some governments have limited resources and skills to provide the best education for its purpose. Private enterprise has had to step in and provide the necessary service in order for the firms, the individuals, the employees and the economies of Southeast Asian countries to rise up to the challenge of having relevant skills, up-to-date knowledge, innovative attitudes and values.

It is to meet the challenges thrust upon the private sector that this book has been written, and it is hoped that society can be made more aware that the provision of enrichment education is the responsibility of employers, employees (e.g. trade union) and far-sighted entrepreneurs.

In essence, the task of the enrichment education provider is to meet the gaps in:

a) Skills

b) Knowledge

c) Attitudes

d) Values

The best way to see these gaps is to look at the needs of a family.

Fig 1.1 The educational needs of a family

The customer (the young single person) sees that the skills provided by school and college have to be supplemented and so he/she goes for extra classes to improve his/her career prospects.

When the child is still young, the family wants the child to have a solid foundation so the child is sent to playschool to learn how to get along with other children and to learn the basics of language and counting.

For the next 15 years, the family will need enrichment education providers with courses to improve the child’s performance in school, and to enrich the child’s life (dance, music, sports).

The child’s parents will feel the impact of change and may be required to go for re-skilling courses, because the skills learnt two decades ago may have become obsolete.

Once the children leave home, the elderly couple’s needs are different. There is a demand for programmes that help them spend their golden years in a meaningful way. They may take up courses for personal interest or social reasons.

This business of education is one of the best cases of what is described as blue ocean strategy, simply because the enrichment education provider needs to identify one new area of interest in Singapore and provide courses that people can undertake. For example, in 2012, a growing and expanding trend in sports and games was very clear.

Hence, the enrichment education providers can be classified according to:

1. Age group/life cycle

2. Types of customer needs

3. Approaches taken

4. Degree of emphasis on certification

The enrichment education provider runs the programmes that meets the needs of the specific group catered for, and then covers education for the young and the older citizens.

Fig 1.2 Classification of enrichment education provider according to the age group/life cycle of the customer

Needs Of The Individual

When enrichment education providers sees their role as that of providing services according to the needs of the individuals, then their activities cover the areas as shown in Fig 1.3.

Fig 1.3 Classification of enrichment education provider according to the needs of the individual

Approach Of The Enrichment Education Provider

Sometimes customers demand a more personal quality of service, as illustrated in Fig 1.4, in which customers may want tuition or to learn skills through the Internet.

Fig 1.4 Classification of enrichment education provider according to the approach taken

Classification According To Certification Awarded

The history of some countries of Southeast Asia (e.g. Singapore associated with the British ‘O’ Levels) and the internationalization of education (e.g. the use of the SAT for entry into American universities) has led to enrichment education providers running programmes to meet the specific needs for certification status by their customers, as shown in Fig 1.5 (Refer to the next page)

Fig 1.5 Classification of enrichment education provider according to the Certification status award

CASE STUDY 1.1

In a survey conducted by SPH Marketing, Planning and Development Research Unit it was found that 43% of primary school pupils and 30% of secondary school pupils have extra lessons.

Parents spend an average of $134 a month on tuition for a primary school and $165 a month for a secondary pupil. One parent described tuition for her children as absolutely essential.

An expatriate parent, who finds quality education in Singapore value for money, said, even with all the extras such as private tuition … it will amount to only a fraction of what I will have to spend to get quality education back home.

In 2002, the Education Workgroup of the Economic Review Committee (ERC) saw potential for Singapore to push the enrichment education segment further.

They estimate that the enrichment education sector can grow to 3.0 to 5.0 per cent of the GDP by 2012 from the 1.9 per cent of the GDP or $3.0 billion it currently contributes.