EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND COMPETITION

Журнал Менеджмент сегодня 2016 №5

Переводчик Яндекс

Evaluation of competitiveness of professional educational organization based on SPACE-analysis

 

Ryzhikov Sergey Nikolaevich, teacher

Regional state budgetary vocational educational organization «Lebedyansky trade and economic College», Russian Federation, Lipetsk region, the city of Lebedyan, street Lenina, the house 32

Home address 399610 Lipetsk region, Lebedyan, ul. Sovetskaya d.77 apt. 7

E-mail: ryzykov-2006@mail.ru, telephone +79042981072

ABSTRACT

The activities of a modern educational institution in the environment. To determine the strategic position of professional educational organizations, the author proposes to assess its benefits associated with the quality of training specialists, their demand in the labour market, the image of the organization, the presence of modern material base, the cost of providing paid educational services.

 

KEY WORDS: SPACE-analysis of the stability of the situation, the competitive situation, and the critical stressor, the conservative position, defensive position, leading position, a mechanism for the implementation of the strategy/

 


Evaluation of competitiveness of professional educational organization based on SPACE-analysis

EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND COMPETITION

Competition in education has set professional educational organizations, the task of survival in a competitive environment. It can be solved only by using approaches of strategic management, formulating strategies and determining their place in the market of educational services. Strategic plans should be presented in language that is easy to understand and use as a guide to action by every team member of an educational institution.

The author study is an adaptation of the SPACE analysis (Strategic Position and Action Evaluation — evaluation of strategic position and impact) used for diagnostics of the situation of the commercial organization in market space, to the definition of the competitive position of professional educational organizations.

To determine the behavior of a professional educational organization proposes to assess the following indicators:

competitive advantage;

the stability of the situation;

financial situation of the organization;

determinants of the level of scientific-methodological, material-technical, personnel, financial security, the level of quality of education.

The result of a SPACE analysis should be an assessment of each of the parameters that determine the strategic position of professional educational organizations, for a six-point scale and their graphical interpretation (figure 1).

 

 
 
Financial position, FP  


The conservative position
low level
low level
a high level
a high level
Stability of the environment, SE
Competitive advantages , CA
The defensive stance
Competitive position
Quality education, QE
Leading position
-2
-3
-4
-5
-1
-6
-1
-5
-4
-3
-2
-6

 

 

Figure 1. Coordinate system to determine the strategic position of professional educational organizations

 

The article N. R. Molochnikov, I. V. Reutov and T. A. Lomovskaya the "Competitiveness of educational institutions: key success factors" suggested that "the competitiveness of educational institution is determined by its competitive advantages, external and internal. To influence the external factors of the school, but internal factors are controlled almost entirely by management, i.e. management of the organization has all the necessary conditions for the control of these factors" [4]. This opinion seems debatable.

The strategic approach involves two areas — first, this tracking of the ongoing transformations, and secondly, the deliberate creation of changes to create an environment of the future. In our opinion, the educational organization is obliged to make active creation of the external environment, i.e., it should mold it according to their interests. Only one monitoring the internal environment of a professional organization in making strategic decisions will not produce effective results.

The management of the educational organization in its work should be guided by the principle of creating sustainable competitive advantages based on non-reproducing competitors assets and skills. Not waiting for changes in the external environment, and the creation of opportunities allows to solve the basic problems of educational organizations.

An example of the formation of the external environment in their own interests can serve as the organization's administration @Lebedyansky trade and economic College»" specialized classes in secondary schools in the city Lebedyan'. Such classes designed for acquainting students with the main disciplines taught at the College, communication with teachers, stories about what they do College graduates. The purpose of special classes is to form a favorable image of the College and ultimately to attract applicants. In case of positive result of the certification and passing the state final exams for the course of secondary school students specialized classes have advantages when enrolling in College.

Analysis of competition in the market of educational services is increasingly attracting the attention of domestic researchers. Thus, article N.I. Reshetko, "Key success factors in the system of competitiveness of modern educational structures" [5] examined the structural factors of competition and key success factors of the educational institution, however, the method of evaluation of key success factors is not given. Our task is to reveal the algorithm of a choice of strategic mechanisms to ensure interests and responding to such threats, relating them to professional organizations using the tool of the SPACE-analysis.

 

TECHNIQUE SPACE

Method of assessment of indicators of competitive advantages of professional educational institutions is given in table 1.

 

Table 1. Assessment of the competitive advantages of indicators

Determinants of competitive advantages Scale scores
The share of the education market Small 2 Large
The quality of training Bad Excellent
Stage in the life cycle of the specialty Late Early
The replacement cycle of the product (specialty) AC Fixed
Commitment to consumers Low High
The use of the material base of competitors Minimum Maximum
Pedagogical know-how Not implemented Implemented
Degree of vertical integration Low High
Other
CA (competitive advantages): the total average rating of criterion minus 6

 

Competitive advantage professional educational organizations can be characterized by the indicators described below.

First of all, this is a stable share of the market of educational services due to the demand for graduates at the enterprises of the region, work on agreements on training specialists with large enterprises.

The quality of training of specialists is characterized by information , general and professional competences , which are formed at the future experts in the learning process . The quality of competences can also be defined as external reviews by employers and employment agencies to statistical data on the number of graduates , embarked on the record ( who did not find work in their fields or are not satisfied with the employers for any reason ) .

Market relations in the educational sphere dictates the need to enter into the assessment of educational organization, this new concept of stage of life cycle specialty, since some specialties are in demand, while others are fading and even disappearance of professional education. Specialty, under growth, the most popular, i.e. those whose graduates go into areas with the highest wages. This area is in Russia's sphere of Finance. Thus, specialization is a product offered by a professional educational organization, which may be at a certain stage of growth or decay. It is necessary to explain that in the field of vocational education is increasing differentiation of products (specialties), demand becomes more elastic, including price. A low elasticity of demand for the services of an educational organization occurs, for example, in connection with its high prestige.

The replacement cycle of the product — characteristics the degree of certainty of the life of the product (the duration of its life cycle). Specialty professional education have a great replacement cycle, new are rare.

Education may be the commitment of consumers is a characteristic of the degree of loyalty to a particular institution, it is typical for small towns or educational institutions, preparing specialists for a particular large enterprise (create labor dynasties).

In the educational organization can apply pedagogical know-how, methods, techniques, teaching techniques, recruitment tools in teaching, i.e. pedagogical technologies in its exclusive possession.

Vertical integration refers to a multi-tiered system of education (kindergarten — school — College — University), in which a professional educational organization occupies its own niche.

Assessment of the stability environment are shown in table 2.

 

Table 2. The stability of the environment

The parameters that determine the stability of the situation Scale scores
Changing the regulatory framework A lot Little
The variability of demand Large Small
The range of prices for competing products Large Small
A number of barriers to market entry Little A lot
The level of competition Strong Weak
The elasticity of demand Elastic Inelastic
Other
SE (stability of the environment ): the average minus 6

The parameters that determine the stability of the situation, the following.

The change in the regulatory framework.

The variability of the demand feature demand stability.

The range of prices for competing products — an important characteristic of the degree of maturity of the market of educational services and the level of price competition.

Barriers (constraints) to enter the market — required licenses, qualifications, etc.

Competition level — the level of competition in the field of education.

The elasticity of demand on price is statistically assess the degree of influence of price changes on demand.

For professional educational organization needs to assess the financial situation. Educational institutions take on the role of actors shaping the offer, provide or sell educational services. Depending on the degree of commercialization of professional organizations either fully or partially funded by the state or this support is missing. In the latter case the service is paid for from extrabudgetary resources of educational institutions, emerging due to direct its consumers. The provision of paid educational services is made in accordance with article 101 of the Federal law "On education in Russian Federation" [7]. Organizations conducting educational activities, shall have the right to do so at the expense of physical and/or legal persons according to contracts on rendering paid educational services (article 101 of Federal law No. 273-FZ [7]). The algorithm for evaluating the financial position of the organization is shown in table 3.

 

Table 3. Assessment of the financial situation of the organization

The parameters that determine the financial position of professional educational organizations Scale scores
Return on invested capital Low High
Financial leverage Unbalanced Balanced
The degree of satisfaction of the capital requirement Low High
The flow of payments to educational organizations Weak Strong
Distribution system (well-developed network of offices, long-term contracts, etc.) [6] Ineffective Effective
The ability to attract the necessary capital in a short time if necessary [6] Low High
The number of communications with funders the development of the organization Little A lot
Other
FP (financial position): the average

 

The financial position of professional educational organizations is characterized by the following indicators.

Return on invested capital is calculated as the ratio of profit to invested capital (equity).

Financial leverage is measured by ratio of equity to borrowed funds. The organization had a number of borrowings, but their turnover is high.

The degree of satisfaction of capital needs — a qualitative assessment of the degree of satisfaction of the capital needs, which may be produced by a calculation of the ratio of available funds to required.

The flow of payments to educational organizations — the amount actually remitted to an educational institution.

Evaluation of the indicators determining the level of scientific-methodical, material, technical, staffing, quality of education is shown in table 4.

 

Table 4. Indicators that determine the level of collateral required the process of rendering of educational services

Indicators that determine the level of scientific-methodical, material, technical, staffing, quality education Scale scores
The quality of normative-legal regulation of activity of educational institutions Low High
The quality of the educational process Low High
Support of the educational process with textbooks, licensed software Insufficient Sufficient
Staffing of the educational process Insufficient Sufficient
Admission, transfer, deductions, exclusion of students Broken Observed
Quality assurance of the educational process of educational-methodical documentation, the relevant legal requirements Low High
Information transparency Low High
The order of organization and holding of state (final) attestation Not observed Observed
The quality of completing, storage, accounting and issuance of state documents Low High
The quality of organizing and conducting the self-study Low High
The level of quality management system Low High
Other
QE (quality education): the average

 

In the absence of sufficient information it is permissible to provide the expert values of the main parameters that determine the strategic position of professional educational organizations, using table 5.

 

Table 5. The values of the parameters that determine the strategic position of professional educational organizations