Browsing by Author "Garden, Lisa-Claire."

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Entrepreneurship through the Junior Achievement Botswana Programme : realities and perceptions.
(2006) Kenosi, Precious Queen.; Green, Jannette Maryann.; Garden, Lisa-Claire.
Though Botswana is regarded as one of the richer countries in Africa, it is faced with challenges experienced by other developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa such as poverty, unemployment and HIV/AIDS. Recession in the mining and agriculture sectors, which have been the pillars of the country's wealth, has caused the economy to decline. The National Development Plan 9 (NDP 9 2003/4-2008/9) is a five year national development plan for Botswana that states that 36.7% of the populace have incomes below the poverty datum line. Entrenched in the nation's Vision 2016 statement are two development goals aimed at poverty reduction; to create sustainable jobs and to develop human resources. The Botswana government has thus earmarked the promotion of small, medium and micro-enterprises as one of the measures to reduce poverty. This shift to self-employment would help create much needed jobs, contribute to the economy and improve the quality of life of the Batswana. The government's efforts alone will not suffice in this predicament. It needs the assistance of all stakeholders including the private sector and the general public. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether the Junior Achievement Botswana Programme is an effective programme for equipping the youth in Botswana with business skills with the hope that they would in turn establish businesses in their communities. The study focused on exploring the perceptions of the trainees/learners in the programme to establish if they felt that the training gave them the necessary knowledge and skills to boost their confidence and motivation to plan, start up and sustain business ventures. The perceptions of teachers and trainers involved in the delivery of the programme were also sought to establish the programme's strengths and challenges and to suggest how the programme could be improved. The study also employed an entrepreneurial test to determine whether the programme attracted teachers and students who have the desired characteristics for business. At the heart of this study was an attempt to articulate the role of education and training in preparing the youth for self-employment. Data was collected using both quantitative and qualitative data collection strategies. The data was analysed descriptively as well deriving themes and meanings. The study found out that the JAB is a good and informative programme that inspires the youth and instils confidence in them to believe that they have gained knowledge and skills required to be engaged in viable business ventures. They felt particularly confident about market research, production and marketing components of running businesses. However, the study also found out that the programme has deficiencies such as insufficient preparation of its trainees to access and manage finances, inability to develop networks for support especially once the students have left schools and are no longer under the comforting guidance of the programme facilitators. In addition, the study realised that the programme seems to overlook the role of monitoring, follow up, evaluation, networking and mentoring in training for entrepreneurship. Issues pertaining to partnerships and public relations also surfaced in the study. On the whole, the respondents in the study found the programme enjoyable and worthwhile and wished it could be extended to many others. The study also found that the desired characteristics for business as identified by the entrepreneurship test administered were possessed by fewer than 20 percent of the students and teachers. This may also have contributed to the low numbers of people who went on to start their own businesses.
An in-depth look at the positioning strategy of the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, based on scholar and student perceptions.
(2003) Garden, Lisa-Claire.; Ellis, Deborah Ann.
This research has been conducted in an attempt to aid the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, in being more market oriented in a market that, until recently, saw little need to market its institutions in the past. Traditionally tertiary educational institutions have relied on their reputation to attract students. Fortunately tertiary institutions have recognised the need for marketing and positioning themselves in the market. Scholars highlighted what they considered to be the most important attributes when choosing a tertiary institution. Using this information, marketers at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg (UNP), can tailor its marketing strategies around these attributes and the scholars that view them as important. The top 5 attributes that the scholars indicated were the most important are as follows: 1. Highly Qualified Lecturers 2. Academic Standards 3. International Recognition 4. Reputation 5. Affordable Fees The scholar's perceptions of institutions based on the most important attributes showed that the University of Cape Town (UCT) is perceived as being the top university - the market leader and can therefore be considered as the benchmark. UNP has been perceived as "average", between institutions such as UCT, Rhodes, Stellenbosch and Wits on one side and Damelin, Varsity College, University of South Africa (UNISA) on the other side. Generally the scholars perceived UNP in a positive light. The University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg is perceived positively with regards to up-to-date facilities (in terms of the laboratory, computers and the library), as well as a good social life, multi-racial mix, sports facilities, approachability of lecturers, security upgrades, and that it is an excellent academic institution. These represent the strengths of the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg and must be stressed and communicated to potential customers as well as present students who will in turn act as marketers themselves when with friends. The negative perceptions towards the UNP were related to: • Safety on campus at night, • The idea that the social life at UNP is what university is all about, • The lack of personal attention, and • Students being treated as nothing more than a student number to staff. These negative and poor perceptions must be dealt with through effective communication that will highlight the strengths of the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. The result of the findings relating to the University's position in the market (based on the important attributes) is reflected in the positioning maps. From these maps it can be seen that the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg does not occupy a distinct position in the market. The mere fact that UNP was rated as average on the most important attributes reflects the poor positioning in the minds of the customers. It is a distinctive nature of positioning that must be sought after. As a result of the poor position the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg holds in the minds of the customer, steps to successful positioning were revisited and recommendations were made to the University. In communicating the position of UNP it must be remembered that the marketing mix needs to be aligned with the intended position of the business. The University's use of the lP's, a vital component of the positioning strategy, was evaluated and recommendations made to the University.
An investigation of how three private schools in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal position and market themselves within the private school market.
(2006) Von Maltzahn, Hans Christopher.; Garden, Lisa-Claire.
Exploratory research was conducted in an attempt to understand how three schools in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal market themselves. The marketing of schools is a relatively new concept both in South Africa and internationally. Not only is the marketing of schools vital, in that it allows schools to use their resources in the most efficient and effective way in satisfying the needs of the customer, but associated with this, is that it allows for a meaningful and relevant education. The schools chosen for this research were Cowan House, Epworth and Hilton College. These schools represent a wide cross-section of schools including a primary school, two senior schools, a monastic boys' boarding school and a monastic girls' school with day scholars and boarders. All of the schools had a marketing function within the school. All three schools applied the basic marketing concept. They were customer focused, were orientated towards achieving long term goals, tried to integrate activities within the school and strongly believed in societal aspects of marketing. Of particular interest was the strong focus on the customer by some of the schools. None of the schools had been exposed to the seven Ps of service marketing, and so did not structure their marketing mix based on the service marketing model. All the schools felt that their staff were a differentiating factor (people) and had impressive grounds and facilities (physical evidence). The major problem that all three schools experienced was developing a differentiated service that separated themselves from competitors within the market. They were not aware of the unique position that they occupied in the mind of the customer, although all the schools felt that they were unique. The result of this was that their marketing mix was not able to support and enhance the differentiated service and proposed market position. A possible reason for the schools not developing a unique position in the market is that they may not analyse the external environment in enough detail. This meant they were not able to capitalise on, or develop,unique internal strengths to satisfy needs that their customers considered important, valuable and were willing to pay for. It is recommended that a more structured approach to strategic marketing be used. This should allow the schools to implement each of the steps required in strategy formulation. If this is done effectively they will be able to match internal strengths with opportunities in the external environment and so develop a differentiated product that is required by the target market. The schools should also adopt a service marketing strategy as education is a service. Adopting the seven Ps of service marketing would allow the schools to implement a marketing mix that is suitable for a service institution. It is hoped that this dissertation will contribute to a better understanding of marketing of schools, allow them to be more focused in their strategy and ultimately result in a better education for their learners.