Aoa Education Services Company - Stem Programs Education Analysis

Name: Tsin Lok Yin, Olivia

Group mate: Andy, Alex

LABU2060 L13

Preliminary Market Analysis

Executive summary 

AOA, an educational services company, is launching a bridging course between business and STEM, or SM TEaching, in Hong Kong. Intending to differentiate itself from its competitors, AOA will connect STEM programs with business and professional programs. It will target business students and graduates currently employed in the business sector, as they are unacquainted with STEM knowledge, an incumbent component to success in the business sector. Our short-term goal is to attract 5% and 8% first and second year business students respectively, with an aim to recruit business graduates in the near future.

market overview

The new education trend, STEM education has gradually expanded from America to Hong Kong in the 21st century. [1] According to the “report on the promotion of STEM Education” of the 2016 and 2017 Policy Addresses, the education bureau offers grants and intensive training to foster the development of STEM education in primary and secondary schools, in order to equip future generations to adapt and thrive in a technology-driven society. Undoubtedly, the concept of STEM has become an essential component when considering talent nurturing. Apart from the changes in education policy, the importance of STEM can also be demonstrated through the the evolution of the business sector. For example, big data and artificial intelligence have been developed in the finance industry due to technological advancement. Additionally, as stated by [2] Aberdeen group, enterprises driven by big data are more likely to have BI ^[a]projects than those operated by the business community by over 70 percent. The IT group in business organizations also occupies an important position. Therefore, having knowledge base in STEM may become a future recruitment criteria^[b] in the business sector.

Nevertheless, STEM compulsory courses for undergraduates are inadequate. Take HKUST as an example, all students are only required to take at least 6 credits in the area “Science and Technology,” which approximates to two courses. Yet, these courses may not be able to interface with business core courses, and therefore STEM knowledge gained cannot benefit business students in their future careers.

STEM courses and training provided to business graduates employed in the business sector is insufficient, and thus lower their competitiveness and bargaining power in the job market subject to considerable technological changes.

Our bridging courses offered to business graduates can help to cope with the problem caused by low degree coverage. This gives an advantage to them in terms of job searching.

Market demand

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From the above statistics, people with STEM knowledge base gain competitive edges and are well-paid compared to those without, regardless of the education level or degree achieved. For those with bachelor’s or master’s degree, the percentage difference can be up^[c] to 20%.

[3] According to Anthony Carnevale of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, there is a $500,000 difference in lifetime salary for STEM and non-STEM bachelor’s degree holders. The main reason behind the great wage difference is a huge demand for technological talents from enterprises created by the development of knowledge-based economy across the globe. [4] In 2017, Job opportunities in the business sector have increased by 10% while those that require STEM skills have increased by 17%.  On the other hand, [5] the finance industry tends to employ graduates with STEM background instead of business graduates. Therefore, there will be demand for our educational services.

service implication

The bridging courses we provide will cater the needs of business graduates according to the demand of the business job market. After getting to know our clients’ specialized field and potential career path, we offer corresponding STEM education in order to assist them in applying STEM knowledge to practice. For example, offering statistics courses to financial analysts.

In the early stage, we mainly provide Science and Mathematics courses. Technology and Engineering courses will be offered a year later when our company has achieved periodical progress.

Target customer

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The number of business graduates is growing together with the labour force. There is an increase of more than 250,000 business graduates in the past decade. It is clear that the population of business graduates has had an upward trend with the percentage increase per year reaching more than 20%. Considering that more than 40% of the working population works in the business-related industry, this is significantly high. There are approximately 1,500,000 people employed in the business industry. In other words, our target market is currently more than 1.75 million people and will possibly continue to expand in the future.