Chinese Educational Sector - Assignment Example

Chinese Educational Sector Abstract: This business plan outlines an opportunity in the Chinese Educational sector. Thousands of Chinese travel to western countries in order to pursue further education and to avail better business opportunities. This business plan targets that particular group of people who are planning to leave for western countries and want to become better oriented with the western culture, its believes, practices and language. The Le Yan English Centre is going to aim at catering those Chinese people who want to learn more besides just the English language and want to learn about the western culture as well before they leave for abroad. Introduction: Almost everyone who leaves their homelands to pursue studies or work abroad experiences some amount of cultural shock. For the Chinese, this cultural shock amounts to an alarming extent since the culture of the west is entirely different from that of China and the Chinese people. Not only is the language entirely different, so is the style of living and customs. Most people who leave for America, UK, Australia or other western countries have to learn the English language as it the major medium of communication in almost all of these countries. For that purpose, there are many English language centers in China that cater to these people. These centers however provide little besides English language training to these students. Due to that, even when they are considerably proficient in the English language, Chinese people still suffer difficulties once they actually arrive at their destinations. A reason for this difficulty is that they are un-initiated with the ways of the western world. This business plan proposes to offer these prospective students and businessmen a way to become oriented with the culture and ways of the West so that they face less difficulty in settling in once they arrive at the country of their choosing. Background: I. Idea Initiation: The English Language centers currently offering their services in the major cities of china mainly focus on offering comprehensive English language teaching. Although it is imperative that the Chinese people who are leaving for abroad learn how to communicate in English, it still does not diminish the lack of understanding that these people possess about the social and cultural workings of the west and how this lack of understanding effects their performance. The Le Yan English centre will be filling in the gap in this educational sector and the whole plan is based upon the concept of providing the customers with the added advantage of acclimatization with the western culture and living environment before their departure. Business plan development: I. Competitive Advantage: The Le Yan English centre has a clear advantage over all its current competitors as there is no one in the market who is providing people who want go abroad a chance to get an insight into the western system of living. The competitor analysis was carried out and it was reported that currently there were only 2 coaching centers in and around Shanghai, one of the major cities of China, that come even close to the strategy that LYEC plans on employing in its coaching centers. These centers provide preparatory training for IELTS, TOEFL and GMAT and apart from that also provide a brief insight to students about the life in western countries through a single class room session. This however is not the strategy that LYEC plans on employing. The students will be provided extensive instruction and training about this subject and hence LYEC will attract all the people who want to get acclimatized with the western culture before they leave for foreign countries but the absence of any such educational centre had not been allowing them to do so before. II. Service strategy: The LYEC will employ a strategy that is not currently in use by anyone in the industry. The students who have enrolled in the centre will be allowed to gain experience and knowledge about the western culture through multiple mediums. The classes will be audio visually equipped to give the students in-depth knowledge about the various subjects. The training provided will be of three types; namely verbal, written and conversational English training. Presence of the audio-visual class rooms and training sessions will provide students intimation into the different English dialects and the way English is spoken in various countries, so that they do no encounter much difficulty to understand the different accents and ways of speaking English that are used in different countries. The students will also have access to virtual university tours of foreign universities and colleges and the centre will form business partnerships with leading international universities and the students will have the facility to have video-conferences with the representatives of the prospective universities so that they can get first hand knowledge about the campus facilities, courses and any other queries that they might have. Critical Factors for success: After the initial opportunity was identified, an extensive research was carried out into the current market trends and offerings. An analysis of the targeted market was also carried out. It was found that out of the 60% students who planned on going to an English speaking country for further education said that their English was poor and 46% of these students wanted to learn about the western culture before leaving China. The target market in this case is considerable and since the LYEC will be offering services that no other competitor in the market is currently offering, students will very likely choose LYEC over any other coaching centre. Another key factor for success is going to be the instructors that LYEC will employ, these teachers being professionals having firsthand experiences of a life abroad. Risks: One of the bigger risks that LYEC might face is being unable to have an operating income enough to accommodate the interest on the long-term loan taken from the bank. Among other risks, there is a risk of other coaching centers copying the course material that is the intellectual property of LYEC and selling their services for low prices to customers. 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Parry, Kate & Su Xiaojan, (1998) “Culture, literacy and learning English: voices from the Chinese classrooms”. Portsmouth, Boynton. Read More