Vocational training is growing and growing. Building on its growing reputation, the strong employability of many of its cycles and the greater flexibility it offers, the FP now has 73% more students than 12 years ago. A total of 1,174,800 people have registered for this course in one of the stages of this journey. But the administrations are not able (or unwilling) to respond to this demand and a good part of this growth is for the benefit of the private sector, which is multiplying throughout Spain while tens of thousands of young people found without a place. in the public network.
During the decade 2012-13 to 2022-23, the last for which detailed statistics exist, the system welcomed nearly 350,000 students, not counting basic FP (in 2012, it did not exist and was part of the compulsory schooling period). But these new students are not distributed equally between the two networks: the private sector has tripled (growing by 140%), the public sector overall gains barely 26%. In terms of stages, growth is most notable in higher professional training (equivalent to university), where private initiative centers have tripled. If in 2012 private professional training represented 21% and 23% respectively in medium and higher diplomas, a decade later, its share of the pie rises to 32% and 37%.
This battery of data materializes in all its rawness when Natalia, 20, finds herself without a place in a public school and has to work as a part-time waitress in the afternoon to pay for the diploma she wants to do in a private center. . Or when Pablo’s doors are closed in Asturias and he has to drop out – at least for the moment and we’ll see later – to continue his studies. Perhaps he will join the list of people who did not continue their studies after secondary school, one of the indicators that most highlights Spain.
The situation is found throughout the country, but not with the same intensity. In Madrid and Catalonia, the presence of the private sector has quadrupled. In the region governed by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the Executive directly encourages young people to attend private centers with the illustrious scholarships so that families with incomes of up to 100,000 euros per year pay for private PF. Public offer is limited, particularly in some of the most sought-after diplomas (health or IT families) and part of the pie is left to the private sector.
In the Canary Islands, the individual has multiplied by three in ten years and in many other regions by two. Only four of the seventeen autonomous communities recorded public sector growth greater than that of the private sector, as shown in the following map. Correlation or causality, these three regions (Cantabria, Euskadi and Navarre) are among those which generally present the best academic results.
Investment funds solved the equation a long time ago. Unbridled demand and a public supply that does not satisfy it lead to a need, a market deficit. With a little extra: Spain, and in particular Madrid, is the gateway to Latin America and an even larger market with more training needs. And they threw themselves into the area.
This is what the man who is today the main private provider of vocational training in Spain explains when he acquired a vocational training company: the country has “one of the largest employment and skills deficits important in Europe, which means that education and professional training have been reduced to nothing. has acquired increasing importance and is expected to increase in the coming years.
These companies have long viewed education as a sector in continuous growth, with a guaranteed customer base in a world that is increasingly competitive and demanding more training. Families spent a total of 10,046 million euros in 2022 on the education of their sons and daughters, an amount that only increases from year to year.
The private professional training offer in Spain is varied, with dozens (hundreds?) of companies offering face-to-face and distance learning modules. But an analysis of the top companies reveals that many of them have different names, but the same owner.
The giant KKR
At the head of the funds arriving in Spain stands out the American KKR, which, purchase by purchase, has forged an educational empire in the country with which it has invoiced 174.5 million euros in 2022, according to its accounts filed in commercial register. . and accessible via Insight View. Educa Holdco, the company with which KKR operates in Spain through a Luxembourg company (Educa Lux), has 17 companies in its portfolio, among which the Pef 1 Mediterráneo Activo Holding group, in turn owner of more educational companies and even the Atlantic-Mediterranean Technological Group. University, approved by the Junta de Andalucía despite three reports against it.
The fund landed in the sector with the acquisition of Master D, a training giant of all types (competitions, courses, FP, etc.) which more than doubled its turnover between 2018 and 2023 to reach 105 million last year, with 25 profits. In the six years from 2018 to 2023, both inclusive, this company earned 452 million euros and earned 87.90.
The KKR fund is probably the largest private provider of FP cycles in Spain. In recent years it has acquired Master D, Medac, Itep Formación, the Professional Training Institute in Rescue and Maritime Rescue, the Implika Education group, the UDS Comprehensive Training in Sports and Health, the Professional Training Center in Sports and Health. , Obicex Formación SL, the Alcobendas Technological Studies Center or the Seguirilla Training Center
KKR continued its expansion and acquired Medac, an Andalusian vocational training company that was part of the former Minister of Education in the Andalusian government, Javier Imbroda. In addition, it acquired Itep Formación, the Professional Training Institute in Rescue and Maritime Rescue, the Implika Educación group, the UDS Comprehensive Training in Sports and Health, the Professional Training Center in Sports and Health of Málaga, Obicex Formación SL, the Alcobendas Technology Center. Study Center or the Seguirilla Training Center, in addition to three Italian companies and the Portuguese version of the Master D.
This is not the only fund to enter the sector in recent years. The Swiss Crescendo has bought the famous training group CCC as part of a maneuver aimed at integrating it with Cenedi, another training company belonging to this fund and which in turn is part of the company Mobile Marketing Services, based in Uruguay and with which the fund intends to take the plunge into Latin America.
E-magister is another training giant – which is not limited to FP – in the hands of an investment fund. This company, specialized in online training and which offers hundreds of different courses which allowed it to bill 14 million euros in 2022, belongs to the Educaedu Group, a company which, in addition to E-magister, owns other companies dedicated to training in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Educaedu Group, for its part, belongs to Edutech Investment Holding, an intermediary management company owned by several investment funds, among which Miura Fund III stands out with 54% of the company.
This fund explains in detail on its website the vast market managed by this type of company. “The Educaedu educational directory is a reference on the market, with more than 2,000 universities and training centers around the world. In 2021, more than 120 million users consulted their portals, four million requested information to continue their studies and more than a million ended up registering in a center,” he explains. Educagroup does not present the results in the information available in InsightView, but it charges around 35 million per year only with e-magister (15 million euros) and the Educaedu Business group, formal owner of Latin American and other dedicated companies to multiple services, which has a turnover of nearly 20 million euros in 2023.
From tradition to the bottom
There are many companies with decades of tradition recently acquired by an investment fund. In 2021, Investindustrial announced the acquisition of the companies CEAC, Deusto Formación and Deusto Salud from the Planeta group, as part of an operation that the specialist press estimates at around 60 million euros. In this case, the fund operates through the Galician company Training Business Network, a company from which Investindustrial’s educational investments are based and which has nine companies dedicated to training – and not only professional training – in majority or alone.
The fund targets the also-growing online education model, which is exploding from 45,000 students in the 2012-13 academic year to 220,000 this year. Distance education is becoming a huge niche for the private sector. During this reference year 2012 – it is the first to appear in detail in the statistics of the Ministry of Education – there were just over 3,000 students throughout Spain who followed a private training cycle (303 at the intermediate level and 1,843 at the upper level). ). Today there are 125,639 students, for a price of between 2,000 and 4,000 euros per course.
Another example is Linkia Talentia, a company that also offers online courses, in addition to face-to-face teaching in Madrid and Asturias, with 15,000 graduated students, according to its website. This company, again according to the information available in Insight View, has as majority shareholder Q Impact, an investment company which owns 33% of the teaching company. Itineris Magister also has somewhat smaller holdings, which, despite what its name might suggest, its activity is dedicated to the real estate sector, and Orientis Business Services, a construction company.
Ilerna, with more than 50 years of activity in Spain and specialized, but not limited to, in distance learning, was acquired by the French training group Skill & You, in turn owned by the IK Partners fund , through the company Eskyllandyou (it’s the same name, something Spanish), a holding company ad hoc for the company. It offers its services in Catalonia, Madrid, Andalusia and Valladolid – in addition to its online cycles – and billed 40 million euros in 2022 – more than double from two years previously –, with a profit of 14 million, or a profit margin of 35%. According to The economistthe company is studying a new change of hands advised by the investment bank AZ Capital.
The Spanish fund Magnum Industrial Partners is also involved in the sector. In this case it does it through the company Metrodora, which controls several professional training centers throughout Spain and other companies also dedicated to training of all types, regulated or not.
