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Marketing / Board Governance / Transformation & Implementation / Workplace & Facilities Management
Educational facilities are dealing with a challenging situation in a post-pandemic world. Financial pressures, teacher retention and recruitment and pupils’ mental health all play a large part in strategic decision-making.
There is a need to explore new approaches that can transform education, including incorporating advanced technologies, optimising available budget, creating a more competitive ‘brand’ to compete for admissions, managing a more flexible approach to working location, and ensuring a steady stream of additional funding opportunities.
The Axentia Team has decades of experience helping organisations address strategic issues such as revenue generation, cost management, organisational effectiveness, performance improvement, and funding strategy.
From a brand review and website design to defining more diverse funding streams or providing mental health and wellness support, the Axentia team can be with you for every step.
Contact us now for more information about how we can help.
Financial issues, funding, driving growth and revenue are challenges many UK educational facilities face daily.
The Axentia team provides strategic guidance based on leading business practices to help educational institutions make strategic decisions, resolve budget deficiencies and drive efficiencies if the situation demands it.
Specific areas where our team has the experience and can help you to overcome challenges are:
Funding: Help facilities unlock additional funding to maintain and improve facilities, purchase new equipment and resources, and support staff development.
Student recruitment: Support higher education facilities that need help recruiting students from new markets or develop new programmes that appeal to a broader range of students to reduce the impact of revenue impacted by the decline in overseas students.
Cost-cutting measures: Institutions may need to find ways to reduce costs while maintaining the quality of their education provision. Axentia can help renegotiate suppliers’ contracts, minimise energy consumption, and streamline administrative processes.
Partnerships and collaborations: Our extensive network can support facilities to form partnerships and collaborations with other institutions or businesses to share resources and expertise. Our clients have also benefited from reduced costs and creating new revenue streams from this type of collaboration.
Diversification of income streams: Institutions may need to explore new income streams, such as offering professional development courses, developing online learning programmes or creating new revenue-generating initiatives.
Marketing is becoming increasingly important for schools, colleges, universities and training environments for many reasons:
Attracting New Students: Effective marketing can help education facilities attract new students, which is crucial for the growth and success of the organisation.
Retaining Existing Students: Marketing efforts can also help retain existing students by promoting the value of the education facility and the benefits students can gain by attending.
Building Brand Awareness: Marketing can help build brand awareness for the education facility, making it more recognisable and trusted within the community. Clear, consistent and professional brand use can help build reputation and credibility for the organisation.
Differentiating from Competitors: Marketing can help education facilities differentiate themselves from competitors by highlighting their unique features and values, such as innovative teaching methods, specialised programs, cultural diversity and highly qualified staff.
Increasing Revenue: Effective marketing can increase revenue for education facilities to improve education quality and provide better student resources continuously.
Achieve favourable results from Ofsted: The importance of Ofsted results cannot be underestimated. From signage, an easily accessible and information-led website, to branding and social media use, schools and colleges can use marketing to benefit Ofsted efforts and help portray the organisation as professional and well-managed.
Establishing Community Relationships: Marketing efforts can help education facilities develop relationships with the community, such as local businesses, alumni, and other educational institutions, providing valuable opportunities for collaboration and growth.
Attracting high-quality teaching staff: In the current market, showcasing your educational facility and highlighting a forward-thinking approach to education will make you more likely to attract the best quality teaching staff.
Our specialist team uses a framework to deliver the best possible marketing solution for your school, college, university or educational organisation.
Your facility will have a diverse audience, ranging from students and parents to educators and administrators. Understanding each group’s needs and expectations is essential to tailor your marketing efforts effectively.
In the education sector, credibility is critical. Therefore, marketing efforts should focus on establishing trust and demonstrating that your organisation is knowledgeable, experienced, and capable of providing valuable services.
As part of a Discover Session, the Axentia team will uncover the specific benefits that your facility offers and highlight them within marketing material. Your particular benefits may include innovative teaching methods, access to the latest technology, or specialised programs that can help students achieve their goals.
Education is a relationship-driven industry, and building solid relationships with your target audience can be invaluable. The Axentia team will support your facility and enable richer engagement through social media, email marketing, and other channels to build connections and foster loyalty.
The Axentia Team has extensive experience and skills which your organisation can use to attract prospective students and their parents, drive additional revenue and funding and build a strong reputation.
Develop a strong brand identity: By establishing a strong brand identity that conveys your institution’s mission, values, and unique features, you are well-positioned to compete in the education sector. A well-designed logo, website, and marketing materials can help to attract prospective students and create a positive impression of your institution. Our team will work with you to develop a brand that fully reflects how you want to convey your facility and embed it within all online and printed marketing material.
Create targeted content: Interesting and engaging content that speaks to your target audience’s needs and interests is essential continuously. For example, blog posts, videos and social media posts highlighting the benefits of attending your institution are easy ways for your audience to stay informed. In addition, our videography, photography and content teams can create a constant flow of updated material to keep your website dynamic and relevant for your audience.
Leverage social media: Using social media platforms to engage with prospective students and their parents can provide insight into the values and culture within your facility and help exceed pupil recruitment targets. But it’s a hard job to keep on top of. The Axentia team will work with you to devise and manage an ongoing social media and content strategy to provide feedback results and measures as needed.
Website development and review: With an increasing and ever-changing set of requirements by Ofsted for website information available, websites must be updated and maintained. Our website developers have experience in ensuring you are well-placed before any inspection occurs. We even offer a simple and cost-effective review and analysis of your existing site providing a recommended list of improvements. And if you need a website built or enhanced, our team will work with you to understand your exact requirements.
Utilising SEO and PPC: The Axentia specialists will ensure that your website is optimised for search engines and will manage pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to drive traffic to your site. This activity can help increase visibility and attract potential students actively searching for educational opportunities.
Strategic Planning: Our experienced team will work with you to define, design, develop and deliver strategies and plans for your facility or organisation concerning the brand and marketing activity.
The process can include developing and improving the brand and marketing on a local, regional, national and international basis as required to support building a sustainable recruitment pattern.
Public Relations: The Axentia PR team can support your aims in promoting, positioning and improving your facilities profile amongst your target audience and the wider education sector. We have experience managing the relationship with and input into publications supporting your overarching strategy and enhancing and managing the organisation’s educational media profile.
Marketing Services: Day-to-day services such as signage, document creation, Prospectus design and print and Candidate Packs, Photography, and Videography are all available on a project-by-project basis.
In a post-covid world with increasing competition and new challenges arising, education facilities may call for different types of leadership skills than previously required.
Our support builds confident, capable leaders who can adapt, grow and diversify their talents, teams and institutions to respond to future challenges.
Strategy development: We can support the leadership team in defining goals and objectives, assessing current performance, identifying improvement areas, and developing and implementing a long-term strategy that aligns with your mission and vision.
Change management: Where external factors such as changes in government policies or shifts in the labour market impact the organisation, Axentia can support managing change. Leaders may need help developing strategies to communicate changes effectively to staff and stakeholders and supporting staff through the transition process.
Staff development: Where there is a need for support in developing staff capacity and leadership skills, Axentia can work with your team and provide training and development opportunities for leaders, mentoring and coaching programmes, and succession planning to ensure continuity of leadership.
Stakeholder engagement: The Axentia team can work with leaders to develop strategies and build positive relationships with students, parents, staff and community groups, understand their needs and expectations, and communicate effectively with them.
The Axentia team supports our clients by understanding how to navigate the specific challenges in developing strategy and governance. We have a proven track record of supporting and developing governors, governance professionals, institutions and systems of governance to help boards and lead successful institutions.
Strategic planning: Strategic planning is essential for education facilities to achieve a vision, mission, and goals. Axentia can support assisting in developing a strategic plan that outlines the actions needed to achieve your objectives.
Risk management: We can help develop policies and procedures and implement risk management practices to mitigate financial, reputational, and operational risks.
Governance: Strong governance is essential to ensure transparency and accountability in decision-making. If assistance to develop governance policies and procedures and ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, Axentia can help.
Like any other organisation, the education sector faces significant organisational challenges with the talent landscape, a disorientated workforce, new ways of working and the pressure to manage uncertain finances and control costs.
The Axentia team has decades of experience in workplace and facilities management, which can add value in many ways:
Workload management: Help with effective workload management strategies, including time-tracking tools, delegation, and prioritisation.
Technology management: Support managing technology, including upgrading systems, training staff on new software or hardware, and ensuring the effective and efficient use of technology.
Health and safety: Help with managing health and safety in the workplace, including developing policies and procedures, providing training, and ensuring that staff are following best practices to minimise risk
Maintenance: Facilities require regular maintenance, such as cleaning, repairs, and equipment replacement. We can assist in developing a maintenance schedule and negotiating and managing suppliers in this area.
Energy management: Support with managing energy usage, reducing energy consumption, and developing strategies for sustainability.
Security: Assistance in developing security policies and procedures, installing security equipment, and training staff.
Space management: Recommendations regarding managing space effectively, including allocating classrooms, offices, and other areas and ensuring space utilisation to its fullest potential.
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