1.Background
AH&B college is situated in Bondi Junction, 20 minutes from Sydney CBD. It provides a number of courses from different fields such as Hairdressing, business and English. The college has a capacity for 500 students but only fill with 190 students at the moment. The target for students enrolling is to increase the number of enrollment each month to 20. Due to the wave of the college booking agent towards CBD, the relationship between college and booking agents is been affected. At the moment the college has 5 agents out of the 300 in Sydney booking for them and this gives the college 80% of their business.
2.The Challenge
The challenge is to increases the college’s monthly student intake particularly on the business courses. The problem areas are; develop new college booking agents, maintain old booking agents, continuation of students, more web traffic and more 1st person traffic.
3. The Audit
PESTLE
Political- The political circumstances in foreign countries is beneficial to the college there could be an increase of foreign looking for education or a ‘way out’ of their country to Australia, countries such as Thailand, Pakistan, Middle East, and Argentina where the government/employment rate isn’t great. On the other hand if the Australian government were to become unstable, therefore affecting the education system this could have an adverse effect on the college’s enrolment rates. The Australian government has just passed a new visa law the 485 Visa which states if a student has studied a VET course for 2 years than you can apply for Permanent Residency, this could be a huge selling point for the college, therefore they must think about the LOV lifetime value of customer in this case – 2 years, so it should focus on promoting this and offering quality 2 year courses,.
Economic – Australia now has higher exchange rate which makes it less attractive for international students bringing their money from abroad here. However, if they have a job here that give them steady income to cover the living expense, then they will stay and study in the hope of getting a better job. Therefore more money is more appealing, great news for the college.
Social – The College is appealing to those who want to have a part time job on their spare time as it offers a very flexible course timetable, students often have a choice of days that they can study and arrange their social life and work balance. However this is something that the college cannot express openly for obvious reasons. Studing in Australia also create an opportunity outside of immigrants own country. Immigration rates in Australia have remained the same and the government wants skilled immigrants and has a large emp0hasis on stopping people immigrate illegally, therefore keeping the employment rates high.
Technology– information online, remote training (threat to college) people may not need to travel to Australia to study. Currently the college does not put a lot of money into online marketing SEO, ad words therefore it does not appear high ion the listings, in turn there is not much traffic coming via the website. If college be able to offer some online lectures to help students understand the course better that would attract more students here.
Legal – Australia is seen as a low level of corruption country we do protect data/online payments systems this helpos the reputation of safety. Transactions from overseas very safe, so students feel safe applying, as there is a high level of government involvement in the regulations of the education sector. With the student visa, only 20 hours to work as casual allowed in Australia.
Education level – The course is the key to access a good job in Australia along with some relative practice. It will give you certain certificate once you graduate.
SWOT analysis
Strengths and weakness internal – Location is great advantage since its really close to CBD and easy to find. Courses are quite flexible as timetable. W-technology available to students, customer satisfaction, negative feedback from students no action taken. Most students come from 5 agencies if negative feedback from students tell agents, the college doesn’t ask, college must take onboard creative criticsm, not enough information on the website, or on the brochures, as a student what information would you be looking for, make suggestions on how to improve this.
Opportunity and threats External – high labour threat because how much it has to pay teachers, but good because it means the students are getting paid well too. The new visa rules related to students is good opportunity to attract more overseas students.
In order to complete a thorough audit I will firstly use Porters 5 forces analysis:
Industry Rivalry – The main rivalries are other language schools and colleges offering a similar/same course for a variety of prices and schedules, also some of these schools can heavily rely on their reputation and size as some have campuses overseas too. Some of the colleges has connection with local university that brings more students who would like to do further study.
Bargaining power of suppliers – this is the supplier concentration and the input of buyers and switching/competitive costs – this isn’t always the cheapest – as sometimes people will want a quality of lesson, if something is more expense it may seem of a better quality? However for international students they may generally look for the cheapest price.
Threat of entry- new competitors are easy to access this industry since it only require small space and simple legislation to do so.
Bargaining power of buyers- Pressure from substitute products relative price of substitutes switching costs to buyers
Personal introductory visits to all relevant agencies by AH&B staff will be a good idea to improve the relationship between the college and agents. It also helps agent to understand the college better. While they help students to choose the college, they will introduce the college with professional point of view which would be good for the college. This should be done by July since its enrolment season.
Apart from personal introductory visits, AH&B also needs new branding such as updated photos, website and tag line to support the marketing team. New branding will help to build up the better reputation and information data base. New brouchers need to be designed and printed as well with the consistency image. It should be done by May before the personal introductory visit because before the staff pay the personal introductory visits to all the agencies.
New window banners need to be set up in the college to welcome new students. It should be designed and printed at the same time with brouchers.
From analyst above, the college has large potential to attract more students every month as long as the college improve the technology field, build up the strong relationship with agencies, create the welcoming atmosphere for students. Bundle with a good local university is a good way to enlarge the market as well since its win win situation.