Enlightenment from four American early childhood education institutions to the industry

The capitalization of the education industry is still in a state of high fever, and the hottest one is probably the preschool education sector. Kindergarten has become a hot asset, and many buyers are rushing to raise funds. But how to manage after the kindergarten is bought, how to develop in the future, is a problem in front of everyone.

I analyzed four leading early childhood education chain organizations in the United States, and they can sum up some characteristics from them, which may be worth learning from Chinese early childhood education institutions. Compared with China's kindergartens' relatively heavy operating model (Operations Management Entity Institute), most of these institutions in the United States are export management services to achieve scale expansion and export standardized courses to hundreds of learning centers. And services; secondly, the age span is large, basically combining early education, early childhood education, custody and other services; third, using advanced information platform to achieve standardized management.

So are these three articles worthy of reference to China’s early childhood education industry? I think so. First of all, there are already a large number of hundreds of early childhood education institutions in China, but many management levels are relatively low. Do not say that standardized information platforms, even standardized courses and services. In the future, products and services must be upgraded, so the institutions that can provide such services may be the real early childhood giants. At the same time, we also see that China's early education, early childhood education, and custody are also converging, and they are beginning to advance toward the community. Future requirements are also high quality services and courses, which are currently scarce.

Therefore, if you stand in the perspective of industry development, you need to grasp the above links, and from the investment perspective, you must also grasp these key points: high-quality content, management, services, and large-scale replication.

The Goddard School

one. company background

The Goddard School was formerly known as TheGoddard Early Learning Center. The company was founded in 1986 in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Two years later, Anthony A. Martino, the founder of AAMCO Transmission, founded Carousel Systems Inc, providing Goddard School with a pre-school franchise. In 1993, The Goddard Early Learning Center was renamed The Goddard School. Currently, The Goddard School has more than 430 teaching centers in 35 states.

two. Curriculum

The Goddard School offers full-day or half-day child care and education services. The target group is infants from 6 weeks to 6 years old. Its main educational philosophy is “funwith learning”, so in its education projects, it focuses on improving children's thinking, hands-on, innovation and social skills and physical fitness through games, providing an easy learning atmosphere for young children. The Goddard School's curriculum also includes professors for infant body language, yoga, music, Spanish and Chinese.

In addition to the general curriculum, The Goddard School's summer camp program focuses on "STEAM" education, which is science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. The instructors have obtained degrees in education and related fields, and the courses in the natural sciences are led by teachers with relevant educational backgrounds, mainly through simple scientific experiments to enhance children's interests.

The Goddard School maintains a close relationship with parents. Generally, the school communicates with the parents of the students every week, and sometimes the children's classroom performance is fed back to the parents every day. At the weekend, children can take the kindergarten toys home to share with their families, and the teachers will ask the children to share their gameplay in the new week.

three. Market disadvantage

The education and teaching level of The Goddard School has been well received in the industry. However, the online data also reflects the dissatisfaction of many parents about The Goddard School. Children entering the school (3-6 years old) spend $1,000 a month, which does not include children's diet costs, which means parents need to pay an additional $700 per month. The meal cost is nearly 20% higher than the average kindergarten. This has led many parents to choose to send their children to cheaper kindergartens because of the high price.

four. Teacher resources

The teachers who teach the The Goddard School have a degree in education and related majors, and the teaching assistants have a high level of education. Generally speaking, there are about 20 to 30 students in each class in the kindergarten preschool class. Two teachers are responsible for managing the teaching. The baby class is a teacher responsible for three babies.

Fives. Institutional features

Each kindergarten has an education director who refines the curriculum requirements and teaching plans for the students in the school, establishes a unique syllabus, and provides teaching and child management assistance to the teachers.

Primrose School

one. company background

In 1982, Paul and Macy Erwin founded the Primrose Country Day School in Marietta, Georgia. In 1988, Primrose Preschool joined the establishment of the fourth school, and Erwins began to consider the franchise to carry out the commercial expansion of Primrose. Primrose Preschool, a company that employs franchise and early childhood education, JoKirchner, assists Primrose School in its franchise model and strategic marketing. Kirchner sold his marketing company in 1990 and joined Primrose Schools. After Erwins retired in 1999, Ms. Kirchner became President and CEO of Primrose Schools until today.

In 2010, Ms. Kirchner, President and Chief Executive Officer of Primrose School, became the first American to receive the Excellence in Education Achievement Award. Prior to 2010, Primrose School was established in the suburbs; and in the absence of a child education option in the city, the first city school was opened in Midtown, Atlanta. To date, Primrose School has more than 300 franchises in 23 states and more than 60,000 students. Each school is operated independently by the franchisees, and the franchisees will receive training from the headquarters before this.

two. Private equity investment

In 2008, Primrose Preschool joined the school and became a strategic equity partnership with Atlanta-based private equity firm Roark Capital Group. Primrose's early childhood education is their first investment in education. At this good opportunity, Primrose Preschool has continued to invest in infrastructure, innovation, and the franchise system of Primrose's early childhood education to maintain Primrose's preschool education brand. Continuous improvement to increase consumer recognition across the country. In 2010, Primrose Preschool joined the school to launch a new education model, and Primrose Preschool joined the school to provide regular training for school staff and franchise owners.

three. Curriculum

PrimroseSchool generally offers two types of projects, the first of which is a full-day project for infants from 6 weeks to 6 years old. The second category is the after-school program, which is open for children under 12 years of age. Primrose School uses a proprietary Balanced Learning course that combines traditional teacher-teaching methods with student-independent innovation to focus on social service education and communication with parents in general arithmetic, literacy, arts and physical education.

four. Kindergarten specific operation

The tuition fees at Primrose School vary from region to region. In general, prices will fall as children age. The cost of a baby project does not exceed $350 a week, and the cost of a preschool program is around $260 a week. For a full-day project, five days a week, seven hours a day. The average size of the classes in kindergarten is about 10 to 20, the ratio of teachers to students is about 1:6, and some schools reach 1:9.

Sylvan Learning Center

First, the corporate background

The Sylvan Learning Center was founded in 1979 in Portland, Oregon. Originally a small American learning institution, it has grown to become a holding company that manages 800 schools across the United States and 1,000 learning centers in Europe. Through its two subsidiaries, the Wall Street Institute and ASPECT, Sylvan's markets span Europe and Latin America and have begun to develop in Asia and the Middle East. In 1986, Sylvan was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Second, business model

Sylvan has invested heavily in advertising, and with convenient stores close to residential and shopping districts, Sylvan has a huge market.

Sylvan's goal is to provide them with the lifelong skills, habits and attitudes they need to succeed. The first step in Sylvan's teaching is to conduct a comprehensive and detailed evaluation of the students, to assess the students' academic weaknesses, learning attitudes, and talents in order to communicate and test the situation, so as to develop a personalized learning plan for each student.

At the time of planning, Sylvan will arrange flexible teaching times and locations for students based on their learning needs and family environment, even including online teaching. At the same time, according to each student's different learning process, Sylvan will adjust the study plan in time to ensure that students remain challenging during the learning process without losing confidence.

It can be said that Sylvan's comprehensive assessment of each student and the development of a personalized learning plan is the most important step in his education.

At the same time, Sylvan's teachers pay more attention to communication with students and self-presentation of students in teaching. They showcase the new knowledge and skills that students have learned in the classroom and pass it on to the parents through a personalized network, allowing parents to see their progress in real time.

Third, the specific operating conditions

Sylvan conducts different learning activities for different student groups from pre-school children to adult education. Among them, the mathematics curriculum covers a wide range, the teaching quality is high and the market is huge. It is a special course of Sylvan. At the same time, the practical enlightenment courses for robots, programs and machinery for young people are also very popular in the United States. On the other hand, Sylvan has opened ACT, SAT, advanced English writing and other exam training for the world and has become an important international business.

Fourth, the market advantage

Sylvan pays great attention to advertising and marketing plans, and its great publicity and learning centers throughout the United States bring brand awareness, which makes Sylvan a certain advantage in the market competition.

In terms of teaching, unlike traditional educational institutions, Sylvan's personalized training program for students is very popular among parents; at the same time, Sylvan's other advantage is to show parents the learning process and learning gains in real time through the website. It is a transparent teaching process that gives parents peace of mind and satisfaction.

Bright Horizons Family Solutions

one. Business background

BrightHorizons Family Solutions is a US-based early childhood education company. Founded in Massachusetts in 1986, it now operates more than 700 childcare centers around the world, more than 600 of which are based in the United States, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and Puerto Rico, serving more than 87,000 children and families. About 95 of the more than 800 corporate customers are located in the world's top 500. Services include central childcare, education and enrichment programs, primary education, alternate dependency care (for children and the elderly), pre-school care, pre-school preparation and admissions counseling, tuition reimbursement program management services and other family support services. More than 25,000 employees.

two. Financing acquisition

In 1998, the company was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange for trading. In January 2008, it was acquired by private equity investment company Bain Capital for US$1.3 billion, and was withdrawn from Nasdaq in May of the same year; it was re-listed five years later. The company adopted a PPP strategy from privatization to re-public listing, which enabled the transformation of the enterprise architecture. When it was publicly traded in 2013, it was seen from the prospectus that Bain Capital owns more than 97% of the company's shares, and the remaining less than 3% is held by management. In the five years of privatization, Bain’s initial use of leveraged buyouts amounted to $640 million, while others used corporate guarantees for debt financing, from $640 million to $1 billion, and Bain’s five-year return. 1.96 times.

three. Business model

Different from traditional preschool education, the service is directly oriented to parents. The founder of the company, Roger Brown, identifies the target customer group as the working family. The kindergarten is set up within the employer's enterprise and is dedicated to employees in specific enterprises to provide childcare and education for their children. Service, this is the biggest innovation in its operations. The company is primarily involved in three areas of business: conservation and early education, follow-up care programs and educational counseling services. Among them, the conservation and early education services are the company's main business, accounting for 86% of its operating revenue; the latter two revenues accounted for 12% and 2% respectively.

Bright Horizons is positioned to provide on-the-job home solutions with a basic model of relying on employer companies to provide early childhood care and education services to their employees and to charge for services. Specifically, the company provides services to employers through two modes of operation: a self-financing model and a management fee model. The main difference between the two is whether the employer enterprise has certain capital investment in the company and bears corresponding risks.

In the self-financing model, the company and the employer enterprise share the financial and operational risks in the business process. The model includes two sub-categories: the sponsor model and the lease model. Under the sponsorship model, the employer company provides the company with up-front capital investment to help the company control costs, while the employer company provides the company with stable students (children of employees); the company provides services for employer employees, and only manages the process in the process. cost. In the leasing mode, the company provides child education services for a number of employers in a particular region, including surrounding families, during a 10-15 year lease.

In addition to childcare and early education services, the company provides follow-up care plans and educational counseling for employers. The follow-up care program helps employees take care of their children and the elderly. The education consulting program mainly provides tuition assistance and human resources consultation services for clients and their family members. Due to the relatively low income of these two projects, there is no service center for them.

The company develops a 401(k) retirement savings plan for all eligible employees. To qualify for the 401(k) program, employees must be at least 20.5 years of age and have completed their 60-day qualification period and 160 hours of service from the date of employment.

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four. Specific operating conditions

Bright Horizons is engaged in preschool education including infant care, toddler, prekindergarten, kindergarten and preschool. It offers different courses for students of all ages, including reading and writing training, preliminary discussions in mathematics and natural sciences, and emotional social skills. Development and physical training. For students in the kindergarten and preschool stages, in addition to basic listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, including time and space concepts, digital computing, basic geometric concepts, basic natural sciences (including basic knowledge of geography, chemistry, physics, etc.), interpersonal relationships, emotional support Cheng, the formation of art (music, drama, etc.) in many aspects.

Fives. Main competitor

Among the employer-sponsored preschool education industry, Bright Horizons' main competitors include Knowledge Learning Corporation, Children's Choice, New Horizons, Childbase and Busy Bees. Despite the challenges of many industry organizations, Bright Horizons is still a leader in the industry.

six. Financial status

As of December 31, 2016, 2016 Bright Horizons generated approximately $211.5 million in operating cash flow ($171 million in 2015) and fixed assets and acquisition investments of $302 million (2015: $155.4 million). The net cash provided by financing activities totaled $93.8 million in 2016. In 2016, the company repurchased a total of 1.7 million shares of common stock for $112.8 million. For the year ended December 31, 2016, the company's cash and cash equivalents increased by $1.3 million to $12.9 million.

Seven. Market Advantage

In today's society, more and more women are moving into the workplace, and the number of dual-employee families is increasing. This means that the market has high demand for child care and education businesses such as BrightHorizons for specific corporate employees. On the other hand, the company provides employers with a relatively new employee benefit. Not only will the company implement different educational programs and operating hours for specific companies, but some employers will also provide relevant policies for their employees, such as Employees who have a certain number of days in the year can enjoy free childhood education services.

For the company itself, the self-financing model accounts for a large proportion of the operating model (about 70%), which means that the early capital investment of the employer enterprise helps the company to reduce a large amount of capital investment, and the operating cost is effectively controlled. In addition, such partnerships can help companies use their employer's new technology more cheaply to better serve them and open up the gap between competitors.

The company has a stable customer base. The distribution of customer industry is the largest in the medical and pharmaceutical industry, accounting for 17.5%; the government and education related departments and financial services are second, 15%; the non-employer sponsored model is 30%. Major customers include Genentech, CenterPoint Energy, Chevron, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase Group, Prudential Group, Standard Chartered Bank, American Jet Propulsion Laboratory, DePaul University, University of North Carolina, Google, Yi Anxin and others.

Source: Wang Lei chat management

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