"Investing in education is investing in the future, and STEAM is the future of education." This is the motto of many of the startups involved in STEAM education, and it's a great source of motivation for them to continue to promote the business.
But investing in education is a long journey.
Fortunately, after the Ministry of Education issued a number of documents regarding STEAM as a key educational exploration, on January 16, 2018, the Ministry of Education listed the creation of innovative teaching and research methods into the new curriculum Standard of Ordinary high School Curriculum Plan and Chinese and other subjects (2017 version) as the basic requirements.
STEAM Education has been promoting quality education in China for more than ten years, and finally comes a period of policy support.
The next 'gold digger'
STEAM first comes from the educational concept of the United States. It adds Art on the basis of the original STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, engineering, Math and mathematics), and focuses on the integration of multiple disciplines and the application of interdisciplinary knowledge. It can be regarded as the 2.0 version of quality-oriented education. It also greatly satisfies the current and future talent market's demand trend for science and technology talents with both liberal arts and science.
"The STEAM education market in China is still very preliminary and extremely fragmented. There are no leading institutions yet, which leaves us a huge space for market operation. In addition, the education base is large, users by many, as long as the heart to do content, down-to-earth market, relative to other projects is still a blue ocean market." Once visited by the Vice Premier personally, the pioneer representative organization of STEAM education, Tim Hand Creation Club, its marketing director Mr. Zhang said.
For Mr. Zhang and all institutions engaged in children's education and entrepreneurship, STEAM is a piece of steamed bun, no one is willing to give up.
Although the birth rate has decreased slightly since 2018, 16 million new babies are born every year. If the demand for children's education products is intensive from 3 to 12 years old, who is willing to abandon the market with a population base of nearly 150 million? On the other hand, according to the consumption ratio of infants and children, more than half of the families will spend between 60 and 80 percent on their children's education, while the young generation of parents are willing to spend more on quality education.
The strong consumer demand has given rise to the vigorous development of STEAM education industry, which has reached a market scale of more than 30 billion yuan.
"This is the best time to enter the race for this 10 billion market, but also very test investors, entrepreneurs professional ability, especially for small entrepreneurs, this aspect is relatively loss, also can not afford to lose." Mr. Zhang reminds entrepreneurs to participate in this track must be bright eyes to choose projects.
To do education is to do content
In fact, the logic of a good educational product is very simple: quality educational content and reliable teachers.
"In order to reduce the risk of starting a business, we put a lot of effort and expense into the research and development of course content and the selection and training of teachers. Although the initial settlement time and cost are higher, they are the core support elements to ensure that all partners can stabilize the business and continue to generate revenue in the future." Mr. Zhang solemnly told reporters.
"We claim that O Foundation can also do STEAM education entrepreneurship, but actually there is a strong support system behind it. From curriculum setting, teacher training to store location, drainage and operation methods, we do professional things. Partners devote more energy to the implementation, to serve parents and children well, with clear division of labor and each performing his/her own duties. We can jointly manage STEAM's quality education ecosystem."
The course covers wood art, electronics, science and technology, 3D printing, model aircraft, programming, leather art, folk art and other topics. It integrates teaching materials, teaching AIDS, curriculum research and development, education and training. The purpose is to let children learn by playing, think by thinking, and create by thinking, so as to experience real happy learning. In addition, Stim's teachers are all male teachers who have received professional training, because STEAM's education concept advocates the company and inspiration of fathers in hands-on innovation activities, which can fill the shortcomings of family education and early childhood education, which are dominated by female workers.
This is also a deep integration of American garage culture into the STEAM project.
Iron Man, for example, was voted the most popular male character by Internet users in Avengers: Endgame, which just created a box office miracle. Many Marvel fans say that Iron Man's personality shines not just because he cares about the earth, a highly intelligent scientist with a big picture view, or a superhero, but because he is an ordinary father, playing with models in the lab with his children, and a companion who communicates with his lover sincerely. In his body set IQ, EQ, courage quotient, inverse quotient, heart quotient, love quotient: courage and knowledge, and no lack of interesting, vivid, but also very understand love.
"What netizens call" Six business "is also the core cultivation concept of Stim. Based on the STEAM curriculum system and combined with the family environment and educational environment of Chinese children, it takes the lead in proposing the training direction of "6 strengths and 6 business" : Through a large number of handicraft courses, we focus on improving children's logical thinking ability, creative ability, communication ability, cooperation ability, hands-on ability, observation and cognition ability, so that every child can become a charming future talent with complete IQ, EQ, gallery-quotient, counter-quotient, heart quotient, love quotient." Mr Zhang offers us a clear portrait of a charismatic personality.
"Tim will let the children experience the fun of DIY in the handicraft class, through the teacher's continuous guidance and encouragement, the children gradually independent operation, independent thinking, independent improvement, not only can stimulate the children's creativity and imagination, but also the children's six business mind will be improved day by day. In particular, projects like model airplanes and Lego are very popular with children."
Good content is the flow depression. There is traffic, conversion, income will become a reality.
Entrepreneurship does not fall pit: look at the income, do reputation
Since the "mass entrepreneurship and innovation", thousands of people have started their own business.
Some fall in the pit of not management, some fall in the pit of not operation, some simply fall in the pit of all kinds of pseudo demand... It's no exaggeration to say that there are all sorts of pits filled with the corpses of aspiring entrepreneurs.
So as a hot children's education project entrepreneur, how to stay in the hole?
In addition to finding reliable system backers, solving management, R&D, and operation problems, it is important to count the benefits first.
As one of the franchisees of Stim Project, Mr. Wang said: "The benefits of Tim's Club mainly come from the members and experience team. I calculated a detailed account before investment. Taking the 200 square meters store as an example, the investment in the first year is about 600,000 yuan (200,000 yuan for the franchise fee, 200,000 yuan for the decoration and tools, 100,000 yuan for the rent, 84,000 yuan for the salary of two employees, and about 26,000 yuan for other large and small expenses). One year later, the revenue can reach 1.21 million, the net profit is about 620,000, and the renewal rate of Stim project members is generally maintained at about 30%, the income is very guaranteed."
The second is to personally examine user word-of-mouth.
I always encourage him to play with children, but the more I encourage him, the more he repulsion. By accident, I know that many children in his class have joined the Stim Club, and I have enrolled him in the class for half a year. Unexpectedly, through teamwork, he has made many new friends in the club, his personality is much more cheerful, and his expression ability has been greatly improved. And drew me a picture for Mother's Day!" The mother of a seven-year-old child, who felt the change in parent-child relationship brought by Tim, decided to join the entrepreneurial army.
Entrepreneurship is risky, step into need to be cautious. Stim reminds all the entrepreneurs who have joined the STEAM project that it is not wrong to consult more, investigate more and calculate more when the threshold of starting a business is getting higher and higher. At the same time, it is necessary to look for organizations with strong background support system to cooperate with. Only through multi-party cooperation can the road of starting a business go further and further.
