Child Care Industry In New Zealand: Cute Kids HomeBased Child Care & Education Essay.

Question:

Discuss about the Forces and Technology Acceptance Model.

The child care industry is one of the fastest growing industries in New Zealand. With the rapid change in the lifestyle of the people, the need for the child care organizations have been growing day by day. This industry is adequately supported and funded by the New Zealand government. The interaction with the client revealed the facts that that almost 80 children have been living in the child care centre. The employees of the organization are focused on enhancing the skills of every student and ensure that each of the children is able to grow up and experience a healthy environment (Alkon et al., 2016). The organization allows late pick-ups for the children, in case the parents are not able to arrive on time. However, the organization does not charge any extra money for the late pick-ups ("Cute Kids HomeBased Child Care & Education | Affordable and Quality ChildCare", 2017). The operational hours of the childcare organization are flexible and thus help the parents to ensure safety of the children. 20 hours free ECE and upto 50 hours WINZ are given. Moreover, personalised learning plan for every child is provided. The extended hours include the timings from 7am to midnight, all round the week.

The organization also provides with low teacher to child ration (Brebner, Hammond, Schaumloffel & Lind, 2015). However, specialised care and paediatricians need to be increased in the organization, in order to take good care of the children falling sick (IBISworld, 2017). The importance of this industry in New Zealand has been highlighted, along with describing the background of the company ("Cute Kids HomeBased Child Care & Education | Affordable and Quality ChildCare", 2017)..  The SWOT analysis of the company, along with Porter’s 5 forces and value chain has been mentioned in this assignment. The aim of the project have been stated clearly, along with the proposed outcome and the most appropriate communication strategy has also been highlighted in this assignment. 

Cute Kids Limited, Home based education and childcare is not a very old childcare organization. The organization and day care started with the belief that early childhood has a major role to play in shaping the future of the children ("Cute Kids HomeBased Child Care & Education | Affordable and Quality ChildCare", 2017). The child education, has a major role to play  in developing the child’s ability to develop various skills and ensure lifelong learning. The mission of the company is to ensure a safe and healthy childhood for the children that would result in the bright future of the children ("Cute Kids HomeBased Child Care & Education | Affordable and Quality ChildCare", 2017). The vision of the childcare centre is to ensure that childcare is given to each of the children to ensure meeting the stringent health and safety requirements (Alkon et al., 2016). The organizational structure is a flat one, with low levels of hierarchy (Oham & Macdonald, 2016). The various designations in the organization include the educators, the care workers, paediatricians, financial manager, safety and security manager ("Cute Kids HomeBased Child Care & Education | Affordable and Quality ChildCare", 2017).. The educators are able to communicate with each other, with clarity, thus ensuring development of the children.  

SWOT Analysis

The internal and external environment of the business organization is highlighted in this assignment using the SWOT and Porter’s five-force analysis.

The bargaining powers of the customers determine the extent to which the customer has control on the business (Dobbs, 2014). For the child care organization the bargaining power of the customers are high. This is because, there are many day care and child care centres all around New Zealand (Alkon et al., 2016). Hence, if the charges of the childcare have to be low enough in order to attract more customers. The bargaining power is edged with discounts and price subsidies or adding more USPs (Fung, 2014).  

The bargaining power of the customers highlights the impacts that the suppliers and internal staffs have on the business (Brebner, Hammond, Schaumloffel & Lind, 2015). The suppliers of the food, stationeries and clothes have low bargaining power, since there are a huge number of suppliers available for the supply of the goods in the day care centre (Fung, 2014).

The threat of the new entrants determines if a new competition is able to enter the market easily or not (Dobbs, 2014). For the childcare centre cute kids, the threat for the new entrants is average to high (Oham & Macdonald, 2016).

The project aims to identify the target market, focusing on the ethnic base working professionals from the local Sandringham market. The purpose of the project is to carry out research to know the various factors that are significant in decision making while choosing childcare. The aim of the project is to identify the needs of the customers and ensure that the organization is able to meet the same. The needs of the customers include care being taken by the educators and childcare centre (Dobbs, 2014). Moreover, the customers also prefer that the physical and mental development of the children is taken care, in the child care centre Cute Kids (Sharkins et al., 2016). It is important that the target customers have to be identified and are catered according to the needs. Moreover, the perception of kindergarten and childcare in Auckland city is also known, with the conduction of this study.

The current scenario reveals the fact that most of the customers would like to ensure the safety of their children at the childcare centre (Sharkins et al., 2016). The basic needs of the children have to be fulfilled, along with ensuring that the children are provided a healthy environment to grow up. However, while the survey results are might reveal a different issue (Gubbels, 2014). After conducting the survey, different customer needs might be revealed. 

Porter's 5 Forces

The scope of the project is wide. While conducting this project, I have been involved in various events conducted by the childcare centre. Involving me in the events of the childcare centre as a volunteer is useful for the organization. I am able to learn about the work that the childcare centre does, along with assisting in successful completion of the various events organized by the Cute Kid, childcare home ("Cute Kids HomeBased Child Care & Education | Affordable and Quality ChildCare", 2017).. Taking part in the marketing events such as promotion and marketing, by distributing pamphlets and leaflets to the customers are also within the scope of the project. Visiting various promotional events arranged by the Cute Kids home are effective in ensuring successful marketing of the child care home.

Communication has a key role to play in any business organization. Regular communication among the educators, along with communication with the parents is essential. The care home ensures that the educators and the care workers communicate regularly with the parents, such that the regular feedback regarding the children is given to the parents from time to time ("Cute Kids HomeBased Child Care & Education | Affordable and Quality ChildCare", 2017).. Moreover, interpersonal communication is also important for taking care of the children. Clarity in communication with the children has to be maintained, in order to ensure complete mental, physical and psychological growth of the children. Regular communication is desirable with the parents and the educators. This will ensure that a transparency among the customers and childcare centre will be maintained. The parents will obtain the regular update of the children, thus ensuring the gain of confidence among the parents.     

While conducting this project, I faced various risks. These risks include the lack of time, lack of sufficient fund. The time was a major constraint for the completion of the project. I had to accommodate all the activities within the specified time. Another risk was the limited fund. The budget was a major constraint, since I had to travel to the Cute Kid childcare home, along with bearing other expenses, in order to complete the project successfully ("Cute Kids HomeBased Child Care & Education | Affordable and Quality ChildCare", 2017).. The potential risks are to be identified and effective risk management have to be done in order to mitigate the risks, or curb down the intensity of the risks. Another risk faced during while undertaking the project is the lack of availability of the various resources within the stipulated time. In order to ensure successful risk identification and analysis, proper planning and communication is required.

Target Market

The collection of data is done through survey questionnaire. Statistical analysis is done in order to highlight the key findings. The stratified random sampling is done in order to identify the target market. The students are randomly selected. Each of the selected students are accurately determined to be eligible for being an educator. The selected sample size is 30. 30 of the students are randomly selected to get quantified result on actual perception of the students, from 2 institutions and 50 working professionals (Gubbels et al., 2014). The survey will be conducted on the local market of the Sandringham for unbiased result.

The budget of the project has to be fixed in such a way that all the activities could be accommodated successfully, within the allocated budget. All the activities to be undertaken have to be listed, and budget is to be allocated to each. Moreover, the travelling expenses are to be calculated as well, in order to ensure that the expenses for travelling are within the allocated amount of money.  Thus, it is concluded that the project has been successfully undertaken and completed, as a part of the internship. Though various constraints were faced, yet, the project was undertaken and completed successfully, thus fulfilling the set aims and objectives.

References

Alkon, A., Nouredini, S., Swartz, A., Sutherland, A. M., Stephens, M., Davidson, N. A., & Rose, R. (2016). Integrated Pest Management Intervention in Child Care Centers Improves Knowledge, Pest Control, and Practices. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 30(6), e27-e41.

Annual ECE Data summary (2015). Retrieved from Education counts: https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/early-childhood-education/annual-ece-summary-reports

Brebner, C., Hammond, L., Schaumloffel, N., & Lind, C. (2015). Using relationships as a tool: early childhood educators’ perspectives of the child–caregiver relationship in a childcare setting. Early Child Development and Care, 185(5), 709-726.

Cute Kids HomeBased Child Care & Education | Affordable and Quality ChildCare. (2017). Cutekids.co.nz.

Dobbs, M. (2014). Guidelines for applying Porter's five forces framework: a set of industry analysis templates. Competitiveness Review, 24(1), 32-45.

Fung, H. P. (2014). Using porter five forces and technology acceptance model to predict cloud computing adoption among IT outsourcing service providers.

Gubbels, J. S. (2014). Physical activity in childcare settings: The role of the environment. Science & Sports, 29, S41-S42.

Gubbels, J. S., Van Kann, D. H., de Vries, N. K., Thijs, C., & Kremers, S. P. (2014). The next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses-an application to diet and physical activity at childcare. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 11(1), 52.

IBISworld. (2017, May). Child Care services in New Zealand. Retrieved from ibis world : https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/nz-market-research-reports/health-care-social-assistance/child-care-services.html Statistics. (2015).

Oham, C., & Macdonald, D. (2016). Leading and Managing a Social Enterprise in Health and Social Care. Community Training Partners.

Sharkins, K. A., Newton, A. B., Albaiz, N. E. A., & Ernest, J. M. (2016). Preschool children’s exposure to media, technology, and screen time: Perspectives of caregivers from three early childcare settings. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44(5), 437-444.