Aspire Learning Centre - Research Paper Example

Aspire Learning Center Executive Summary The Aspire Learning center is an education service provider that exists with the mission to impart the academic and developmental care giving services. It not only offers the academic aspect of education but also trains children in every aspect of their learning by providing the sports facilities and transitional education to enter school, college or enroll in the course of graduate programs. It accommodates children between 7 and 15 years of age and has 200-250 students at the campus. All of them are provided with personal supervision and care regarding their academic and extracurricular activities. Moreover, the students are also made capable of join the military service. In the current era, there is a dire need that many other education centers such as ALC are to be opened up to assist children with their overall growth and personality development academically, physically and mentally. The ACL undertakes to market its services through brochures, pamphlets, holding events, and online marketing. Being a sole proprietor, it is managed and financed by Bryan Thomas only, who is solely responsible for the profits and losses occurring in the business. The ACL is planning to expand and widen its service provision to customers. The center gives admission to children aged between 7 and 12 years old. All of them are provided with personal supervision and care regarding their academics and extracurricular activities. By availing all its internal strengths and taking advantage of the non-competitive environment, it has the opportunity to broaden its scope of functions and service provisions. Background The Aspire Learning center (ALC) is the premier care giving services’ organization, which aims at providing academic learning services to its pupils. It is an institution that is set up to impart good knowledge, education and wisdom to the children of surrounding local and urban areas. The Aspire Learning center provides an activity-based and children-structured collegiate curriculum, which is taught by highly qualified teachers and instructors in order to ensure the imparting of best quality education to students. The ALC also designs and develops the technology programs so as to facilitate children with the acquiring strategies cope with the upcoming challenges and competition in the world. The center gives admission to children aged between 7 and 12 years of old. All of them are provided with personal supervision and care regarding their academics and extracurricular activities. Moreover, education, mentoring and tutoring services have remained to be the backbone of the ALC. Since technology and innovation are the demands of the modern age, the center provides learning services, information regarding the institute, fee structure and other relevant data on its web portal. The program also facilitates the users with the developmental reinforcements such as the basic listening, social, independence and motor skills. In order to make these programs more effective, the ALC also provides the students with the sport facilities such as swimming, gymnastics and other physical activities. All of these services are provided by the qualified and trained professionals and the tutoring, in particular, is done by the certified educators. Thus, the Aspire Learning center strives to perfect overall development and education of children. Mission The Aspire Learning Center exists with an aim to assist students by adapting them to the innovative and unique approach in imparting education. The mission of the ALC is to provide superior quality education to its students, which is based on their overall grooming and enables them to compete in the age of technology though their learning, innovation technics and uniqueness. It connects the subject matter with the practical approaches in order to facilitate the students in mastering the most essential concepts they need to become successful in the field of their choice. With the help of a focused and personalized process of teaching, the students develop the skills and tools that they require for the continuous success in their capacity of learning. The success of the center depemds upon the faculty's attention towards the needs of students in helping them succeed in their respective fields and get equipped with the best quality education. Objectives The Aspire Learning center has the following objectives: To impart quality education, mentoring and learning services to the students To make best use of technology and innovation for assisting students in their personal and professional grooming To provide the best development programs through certified educators To improve the quality of education To improve the system of incentives (including financial incentives) to attract highly qualified personnel, including employees of academic institutions To increase participation in various creative competitions and projects To strengthen the campaign in media To continuously improve the material and technical base of the gymnasium To expand the network of social partners gymnasium To constantly look for other economic activities. Services The Aspire Learning Center provides the students with developmental and academic education. It works in a small community which does not offer this type of program; even if it does, it is inaccessible for the people because of its far-away location. Other similar sorts of programs are located and operated in rural areas. The current program offered by the ALC provides various services such as theater and dance, arts and crafts, peer tutoring, and the education related to the applications and concepts of information technology. The program also facilitates the users with the developmental reinforcements such as the basic listening, social, independence and motor skills. In order to make these programs more effective, the ALC also provides the students with the sport facilities such as swimming, gymnastics, and other physical activities. All these services are provided by the qualified and trained professionals and the tutoring, in particular, are done by the certified educators. Moreover, the ALC provides its students with the transitional training for college, and those who are unable to afford paying the fees are offered grant programs and scholarships. This helps them enter colleges, schools and technical colleges without any difficulties. On top of that, the learning center offers such programs which help the students enter the military without any troubles. Market Analysis The Aspire Learning Center is an academic and development education center that aims at imparting superior quality services to its students/customers. It has identified numerous target market segments that need to be pursued. The largest segment to be targeted will be the students who desire to seek developmental education, IT knowledge and trainings for joining military services (Bloom). THE ACL undertakes to market its services through brochures, pamphlets, holding events, and online marketing (Elkind 101). Being a sole proprietor, it is managed and financed by Bryan Thomas only, who is solely responsible for the profits and losses occurring in the business. The center also tailors the tutoring to the specific course material, as well as receives referrals from the relevant professors. In the market segment of the ALC, there will be three target groups: the parents seeking academic education for their young children, the students seeking vocational and development knowledge, and the students who are pursuing for any sort of knowledge but are unable to afford the expenses. Company Ownership The Aspire Learning Center is a sole proprietorship. It is owned and managed by Bryan Thomas. The institution has grown and expanded with the passage of time and will soon be upgraded to a larger learning center serving on a wider scale of operations. It may also expand its current departments by introducing newer programs such as specialization in accountancy, business, and other particular capacities. Company History The Aspire Learning center was initiated by its founder, Bryan Thomas, in 1992. Thomas was a postgraduate student at the Willamette University Graduate School of Management. When the program was in its first year, one of his own fellows approached him and asked for help in understanding the concepts from one of the courses that was going to be tested on an upcoming exam. They planned one of the many study sessions, and this ultimately, turned out to be a long-term friendship. For the rest of the time in university, Thomas and his friend regularly met for discussing numerous topics from the course and often included other fellows. Since Thomas was already experienced in teaching at a language school previously, he realized that he was capable of connecting and communicating with the students successfully and teaching them the theories and concepts in such a manner which even his instructor failed to adopt. Whether qualitative or quantitative concepts, Thomas tackled them well and the students were absolutely satisfied with what he taught them. With the progressing of years, the study sessions grew in size and many other students, from the same institution and from others, were also included. Thomas spent much of the time teaching and explaining them theories and concepts which led to detailed discussion. At the end of the first year, the school announced a vacant position of a tutor for the following year. At this point, many students approached Thomas, asking for private coaching and were even willing to pay for these sessions. Thus, the ALC was born and started providing services to students. For the rest of time, the tutoring was provided in both private paid and large review sessions. Since then the ALC has been managing to expand, and now it includes academic tutoring as well as the developmental and vocational services for the students; it has even extended to training the students to join military services and provides grants and scholarships to those who cannot afford to pay for studies. Marketing Strategy The key to business success at education is staying ahead of the changing student roster (Bloom). It is essential to let the students be aware of the services and programs that are being offered at the center. The prior clients are a major source of the word-of-mouth advertisements; thus, their testimonials are vital to the success of the center. Conducting numerous events and parties such as barbecue or bonfire at the beginning or end of the academic years, would provide the students as well as the management with a chance to get mingled with friends and other people to be aware of the problems, queries, feedback and the potential customers. The Aspire Learning Center is a big step towards the education and personality building of children. It not only focuses on their academic stages but also influences the developmental and growth stages strongly. The marketing strategy of the Aspire Learning Center will also integrate a networking focus where the tutoring provided at the center is in close association with the network of instructors and teachers. This enables the institute to become familiar with the content taught by various teachers and instructors at the center. It also facilitates the teachers with an opportunity to offer referrals to the ALC for customers (students) who require further help that the school may not be able to provide. While the ALC primarily serves the children aged 5-17 years old, it also plans to expand and serve the college and graduate level students. The marketing strategy of the ALC will, therefore, be furthered to include the placing of advertisements in various student newspapers. Due to target readership and low cost, these advertisements will prove to be effective and sufficient for the center' service promotion. The ALC can also adopt online marketing strategies which would involve mentioning all the conveniences and benefits provided to the students by the center. All the academic and extracurricular activities along with the fee structure, scholarship plans and other dues and services need to be compiled in the form of a website. Moreover, the registration forms, codes of regulations and policies and other relevant information could be made available over the website in order to facilitate the customers with a hassle-free search for education institutions for their children. This strategy would be cheaper and more effective than other marketing strategies since it requires a low cost setup and would convey the message of the ALC on a mass level. Furthermore, the center can also design its own free-of-charge prospectus, brochures and flyers, which can be dispersed into the mailboxes of the potential customers. Parents can be communicated through this way and decide whether they want to send their children to the Aspire Learning Center or not. Through these marketing strategies, the center stands out in terms of effectiveness in comparison to its competitors. Competitive Edge The Aspire Learning Center has attained a competitive edge through many of the methods that it has adopted. Its online marketing strategy and other strategies have provided it with a good space to build its reputation and network amongst the potential and existing customers. It is enabled to stay in constant touch with the clients, obtain feedback, receive testimonials and conduct a good market research in order to develop and execute its future plans for the expansion. Improving and enriching comprehension of oral message in the mother tongue should be assisted by such education institutions (National Report of Mexico). Moreover, the ALC is able to manage a satisfied customer base this way, and even more satisfied employee base, ultimately leading to more student admissions and increased revenues. The virtual advertisements, network building and establishing contacts are more likely to provide a stronger competitive edge to the ALC. Moreover, the marketing strategies of ALC are also focused on: providing customer satisfaction; conducting updated market research; aim upon attaining more alignment between the ALC's supplies and customer's demands; Creating a better communication process between the management and the students' parents; high quality education through budget financing; relationship and affiliation with other institutions; highly trained teachers; variety of additional services offered; high level and wide range of cultural and leisure activities; developed and implemented a system of educational extracurricular activities; modern material and technical equipment classrooms; uniqueness of the educational process; introduction of a 10-point evaluation system of students' knowledge, creating a comfortable environment in the classroom; functioning of educational work to create an alternative to self-destructive behavior; flexibility and democratic management style; and a high degree of innovation of education and the educational process. Strategy Implementation The ALC needs to implement effective strategies in order to manage its services and environment. For this purpose, it has to undertake its environmental analysis, both internally and externally, so that a feasible strategy is decided upon and implemented properly. This section conducts a SWOT analysis for the Aspire Learning Center in order to assess and align its internal strengths and weaknesses with the external opportunities and threats. SWOT Analysis The SWOT analysis is a vital tool for the businesses and services organizations to adopt. Strengths The major strength of the ALC is its good quality staff and a wide scope of services that it provides its children with. All the parents want their children to be educated well on all dimensions of development. Thus, the ALC is in a better position to come up to the expectations of its target customers. It provides academic as well as developmental trainings on all the aspects of a child's life. The ALC can also adopt online marketing strategies which would involve mentioning all the conveniences and benefits provided to the students by the center. All the academic and extracurricular activities along with the fee structure, scholarship plans and other dues and services need to be compiled in the form of a website. This can prove to be one of the major strengths of the company. Through a systematic and strong marketing strategy, the learning center can build a strong customer relationship and involve close networking with them. The web marketing strategy will particularly prove to be successful as it will enable the management to get in contact with a large number of customers, attract them and obtain their feedback, reviews and testimonials. Moreover, the word of mouth advertisement contributes a lot to the success of the Aspire Learning Center. The strong reputation of the ALC has been maintained through its founder, Bryan Thomas. A stable network provided by the customers and management will result in an outstanding performance for the center (Biber 90). Its policies of holding events and functions will help the center attract more customers and promote its services in a better manner. Moreover, the center does not have to counter any competitive threats so far. It is the only institute providing academic and developmental facilities to the students in its current locality. There are no other such establishments here; the ones that offer similar programs are far away in rural areas. Therefore, the competitive threat to the center is very low. Weaknesses One of the many weaknesses that the ALC can face would be the lack of financial capital. Since the ALC is a sole proprietorship, it would become necessary for the center to adopt the partnership form of working at the time of expansion. Thomas would need more capital to invest, and either a bank loan would have to availed or a partnership agreement will need to be concluded. The ALC may also have to counter troubles in expanding its technological base. In the age of constant improvements and financial constraints, ALC will find it difficult to switch to more advanced technology and attract professionals and trained experts for providing education related to the technology advancements. Opportunities The Aspire Learning Center is an education service provider that exists with the mission to impart the academic as well as developmental care giving services. It not only offers the academic aspect of education but also trains children on every aspect of their learning by providing sports facilities and transitional education to enter school, college or graduate programs. The most important opportunity that could be availed by the Aspire Learning Center is that it can target potential customers on the mass level through its strong marketing strategies and provide to them the description of services that it offers. The ALC also faces minimum or no competitor threats; therefore, it can easily expand and make its market. The center can take advantage of the fact that there are no competitors to counter its strategies. Thus, a good progress and expansion can be made in a short period of time. Threats The Aspire Learning Center has the possibility of facing threats from the financial constraints. Its lack of ability to expand can result in shortage of resources, both in monetary and human terms. Besides this, it has to constantly keep itself updated on the new curriculum, innovative methods of teaching and advanced technologies. If this is not done, then the competitors may take advantage of the vacant spaces in the education industry and enter the educational field with better technologies and resources, which will lead to loss of profit for the ALC. Financial Plan The actual opportunity attached to the current business is that there hardly exist any additional costs connected to its operations. Some of the costs include the transportation and gas costs which are incurred to fulfill the needs of students in bringing them to and from the center. Fixed costs are similarly limited. Some of the financial projections for 2012, 2013 and 2014 are provided below: Break Even Schedule The graph depicts the monthly review break-even to be at $7, 051,076 by assuming the revenue ratio of 0.89 for the first month. Balance Sheet The yearly profits of the Aspire Learning Center are also expected to take heights with the passage of time. However, this will only be possible when the management has the finances to put into operations. Growth and expansion processes require huge capital; thus, an investment in future is expected to bring a good amount of annual profits (Burns 25.). Conclusion The Aspire Learning Center is an education service provider that exists with the mission to impart the academic and developmental care giving services. It offers much more than just an academic aspect of education, and trains children in every aspect of their learning by providing sports facilities and transitional education, which helps them enter school, college or graduate programs. The Aspire Learning Center’s quality standard is a big step towards the high class education and personality building of children. It not only focuses on their academic stages but also influences the developmental and growth stages strongly. In the current era, there is a dire need that many other education centers such as ALC are to be opened up to assist children with their overall growth and personality development academically, physically and mentally. Works Cited Biber, Barbara. Early Education and Psychological Development. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984. 90–98. Print. Bloom, David E. Education, Health and Development. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2004. Web. 1 Nov 2012. Burns, Robin Joan. Development Education. Sydney: IYC National Committee of NGOS, 1979. 25–27. Print. Elkind, David. Child Development and Education: A Piagetian Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976. 101 –106. Print. National Report of Mexico. The Development of Education. 47th International Conference on Education, 2004. Web. 1 Nov 2012. Read More