TecherasThe storm surged.

Currently,mobile internetThe revolution is slowly coming to an end, the wave of cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of ThingsFollows one after another. Technology is fastiterate,Leading to a new type of high-end talentThe shortage.For example,According to the “Analysis Report on the Current Situation of the Employment Situation of Artificial Intelligence Engineers and Technicians” issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Affairs,Currently in the field of artificial intelligenceThe gap between supply and demand for talents exceeds 5 million people.

whereasProgramming languages as human-computer interactionFoundational tools, yesbuildsThe foundation of the world of technology.In recent years,On the national whitelistAddedCompetition in the field of programming, robotics level exam for young peopleGradually trendingripening.ThisThey are all emitting a signal - programmingBecomingTechrevolutionsAn important skill.

whereasProgramming education for childrenprosperous, yesAn important sign of a change in social education needs is alsoIt is an inevitable phenomenon when science and technology reaches a certain stage of development.

1. The digital wave is reshaping the demand for education

Computational thinking is the core of computer science education, and programming education is an important means of cultivating computational thinking. Programming can concretize computational thinking concepts and become a tool for learning computational thinking.

The development of children's programming is an inevitable result of the country's progress. Developed countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom have formed a relatively complete programming education system for young people. In the US, for example, the history of programming education dates back to 1967 — the first set of computer-language logos designed specifically for children was successfully developed. Currently, the status of coding courses in American schools is on a par with basic mathematics courses. The penetration rate of children's programming in the US reached 44.8%, the highest in the world. European countries clearly lag behind the US in the technological revolution, but they still pay more attention to children's basic programming literacy. The penetration rate of the children's programming market in the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany is 9%/8.9%/7.2% respectively.

Children in our country started programming late. It was only in 2012 that programming for children began entering the domestic market; only a few institutions offered such courses until 2015. As a result, there is a big gap between children's programming education in our country and the US. Based on the number of K12 students enrolled in about 240 million in 2021, the penetration rate of children's programming in China is only about 2%. The low penetration rate shows that the programming space for children in our country is relatively broad.

With the catalysis of policies, China's children's programming market has entered a period of rapid development. In recent years, from the Ministry of Education to various local education authorities in China, various local education authorities have also introduced a number of policies to support basic artificial intelligence education, with emphasis on cultivating basic artificial intelligence skills of primary and secondary school students, such as improving programming ability. Furthermore, as the concept of education changes, parents are willing to invest money for their children to learn programming. Using a customer unit price of 6,000 yuan/year, Multi-Whale Capital estimates that the children's programming market will be about 27.8 billion yuan in 2021. It is expected to reach 50 billion yuan by 2025 (assuming a penetration rate of 3%), with an average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17%.

2. Seize the trend of children's programming and build a barrier to hard-core competition

Compared to K12 subject training and adult training, the barriers to programming training for children are higher. In the context of rapid technological changes in the IT industry, education and training institutions need strong R&D capabilities and adaptability to maintain a leading position for a long time.

Who can take the lead on the Golden Track?

The author has observed that as early as 2018, Excellent Education used “Excellent Maker” as a technology education brand and began operating on-site training for non-subject coding education students from kindergarten to high school (3 to 18 years old). Excellent Education Group is an established educational institution in South China. It has been 23 years since its establishment. It has had obvious brand reputation advantages in South China, and it can quickly transfer the advantages of after-school teaching to the children's programming circuit. As early adopters, excellent makers have deep experience in the field of science and have first-mover advantages in terms of business structure, curriculum system, and talent organization.

At present, Outstanding Makers has formed a 12-level product matrix in 3 categories and 6 systems. Horizontally, Excellent Makers strengthened the curriculum system through “science expansion” and offered a number of science and technology courses including “children's programming, intelligent robots, scientific experiments, maker inventions, 3D printing technology”; vertically, Outstanding Makers broadened the age group and deepened specific service groups, taught according to the cognitive development stages of children of different ages, set learning difficulties suited to the appropriate age level, and adopted a stepwise curriculum system accordingly.

On the basis of a diverse curriculum system, Outstanding Makers uses internationally renowned inquiry-based pedagogy and PBL (project-based) pedagogy to integrate STEAM's interdisciplinary knowledge construction with practical engineering practices. Children and young people learn to use visual graphic programming tools and basic programming languages through an entertaining learning method to cultivate students' programming logic, computational thinking, innovation and problem solving skills, and promote the education of children and young people for the all-round development of children and young people.

The positive results of excellent programming education for children can be seen from the competition awards. The 2020/2021 “Youth Silicon Valley - National Youth Artificial Intelligence Education Achievement Showcase Contest” is one of the national “Natural Science Literacy” competitions. More than 4,000 primary and secondary school students from 30 provinces, regions and cities across the country and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps signed up. In this national competition, the Outstanding Makers Competition team achieved excellent results: in the Lunar Resources Collection Challenge, they won 3 first prizes, 1 second prize, and 4 third prizes.

Coding education is a branch of STEAM. In recent years, influenced by the educational concepts of developed overseas countries such as the United States, many emerging education needs, including STEAM education (abbreviation for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), which refers to comprehensive education integrating various fields of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics, have developed markedly. In addition to excellent makers, Excellent Education creates Thinking Planet, a STEAM-type product with the mindset. Thinking Planet uses a new “hands-on, coach-guided” classroom model that focuses on children's self-correction and independent thinking ability on the basis of inspired thinking.

Currently, the STEAM market, which is dominated by programming education, is still in a blue ocean. It is entirely possible that excellent education can use its strengths to quickly conquer the ground and become a leader on the racetrack. Unlike art courses, children's programming courses are more standardized and will have a significant scale effect; unlike subject training and adult vocational training, children's programming courses target children and teenagers aged 3 to 18. They have a long school age cycle, mainly long-term courses, and high renewal rates, which can reduce the frequency with which companies seek new customers, which means lower customer acquisition costs.

Therefore, with the release of the business potential of children's programming courses, the profit model and profit level of excellent education are expected to enter a new stage.

3. Build an ecological chain of quality education and turn “danger” into “opportunity”

The layout of the STEAM course is a microcosm of the transformation of excellent education.

With the implementation of the new “double reduction” regulations, the traditional education and training market, which mainly focuses on subject training, has rapidly cooled down, and education and training institutions have switched from subject training to other education programs. There is no doubt that transformation requires many challenges; on the other hand, it is also an opportunity of the times for education and training institutions.

While strengthening supervision, the Ministry of Education is also pointing out the direction of business transformation for subject extracurricular training institutions. In August, the official website of the Ministry of Education published “There are many ways to transform out-of-school training institutions”, which indicates seven major transformation paths for subject K12 training institutions to help in-school education, strengthen quality education, guide family education, develop vocational education, serve lifelong education, promote the revitalization of rural education, and expand the opening up of education to the outside world.

There are many categories of quality education and training segments, including language proficiency courses, art courses, physical education courses, STEAM courses, etc., and the market space is broad. With the transformation of the economy to high-quality development and the upgrading of the education concept and consumption level of the new generation of parents, the quality education industry has entered a period of rapid growth. According to iResearch, the average compound annual growth rate of the national quality education market from 2017 to 2021 was 8.7%. The CAGR in the next three years (2021-2023) will grow to 19%, and the growth potential will be rapidly unleashed. In 2021, China's quality education market was 505 billion yuan, and is expected to reach 715.2 billion yuan in 2023.

Figure: China's quality education market size (100 million yuan) and year-on-year growth rate

Excellent Education quickly responded to policy adjustments, established the Youxue Growth Center at the Group's Youxue Division level, and comprehensively upgraded the Quality Education Brand Matrix to achieve a transformation in corporate strategy.Tang Junying, Senior Vice President of Excellence Education GroupZengHe said that in order to better create a one-stop growth service model for students and accelerate the strategic transformation of enterprises, the subsequent company will further focus on services in the Greater Bay Area region and increase resource investment to build quality education categories, including 430 businesses, Tick Tick Community Growth Centers, additional quality products in existing campuses, dynamic and static quality education complexes, etc..

On the one hand, Education Excellence upgraded the original campus to create a “Weekly Middle School Curriculum+Weekend Quality Course” education complex, and introduced eight quality courses from more than ten quality courses, including “concentration training, Go, Telling Chinese Stories to the World, Cantonese Culture, Eloquence Training, Programming, Writing, and Thinking About the Planet”. The group also proposed a future power model that integrates learning ability, creativity, and health. Through scientific education methods and diverse product systems, a learning process that is both professional and interesting is formed, and students' comprehensive abilities are cultivated in order to “help children grow into the future.”

In the matrices of quality education products that are mature for excellent education, three cultural products, such as eloquence training, Cantonese culture, and telling the world Chinese stories, are popular products, which fully implement the 16-character policy of “moral education first”: patriotism and love for the Party, cultural heritage, etiquette, and good habits. Concentration training and writing training courses are two habit-building products aimed at improving children's concentration in study and life, as well as good writing literacy. Fun Go lessons develop children's logical calculation ability, spatial imagination, and concentration ability.

Education Excellence has continued to establish quality education complexes since 2019. In the process of transforming quality education, in addition to carrying out comprehensive reforms in regular schools, the group also focused on “community”.Deepen the new model of “quality education+community” and establish the “Tick Tock Growth Center”to create a one-stop quality education base for students and parents. “Tick Tock Growth Center” is the third space for growth. It focuses on the community and radiates the surrounding area.Build a one-stop quality education base for parents and children within an “8-minute walk”.

The path of diversified industry transformation for excellent education has begun, and it is expected that leading training advantages will continue in the field of quality education. At present, the number of fall quality courses offered in Guangzhou and Shenzhen has reached 550, and the transformation has achieved results in the initial stages.

4. Promoting equity in education,revitalizingRural education

The business model of quality education and training can be broadly divided into 2C and 2G/S, for students and parents, and public schools respectively (the quality courses we mentioned above are the 2C models). Although the provision of quality education curriculum training and counselling services for students and parents is still mainstream; it is worth noting that 2G/S has begun trial operation under the “government purchases social services” model.

The essence of the “double reduction” policy is to guide students back to in-school teaching. However, at present, the supply of teaching resources in schools is still in short supply. In particular, there is an imbalance in teaching resources between regions and schools. To meet the educational needs of students and achieve educational fairness, education and training institutions need to make full use of the specialized guidance and resource advantages of social forces. Businesses for public schools present huge opportunities.

These private educational institutions are represented by excellent education.The Excellent Education In-School Project Operation Team is led by a principal with more than 30 years of school management experience to provide quality courses with a mature quality education product matrixCheng empowers education in schools with high-quality educational resources and promotes the fairness of teaching resources.

Excellent Education took the lead in cooperating with relevant organizations and became an important participant in in-school trusteeship and quality education services. For example, excellent education has entered the Guangzhou in-school service market in a big way, setting a benchmark project for summer trusteeship services. Among them, excellent education helped Yuexiu District No. 1 School District's summer vacation trusteeship plan, which comprehensively covered nine elementary schools in the district, providing students with quality classes and trusteeship services covering five categories of moral education, science and technology, labor education, aesthetic education, and sports.

On the other hand, excellent education continues to implement charitable student aid programs to promote the revitalization of rural education. In the second half of this year, Excellent Education donated materials to Zhongzhou Town Central Primary School in Huaiji County, Zhaoqing, and Bintan Town Central School in Qingxin District, Qingyuan, respectively. Excellent Education has also carried out many public welfare activities for the prevention and control of the epidemic, and sent epidemic prevention materials to college entrance examination students in several schools in Guangzhou.

epilogue

Excellent Education is a leader in the education and training industry that has been established for more than 23 years and has laid out the quality education circuit for more than 7 years.

Parents' training choices will shift from result-oriented subject training to quality education that focuses on developing comprehensive competencies. This will unleash huge ability to pay, and behind this is a trillion dollar market opportunity. As far as education excellence is concerned, the new journey of quality education is no less impressive than the subject training market we just entered 23 years ago.

The exploration of excellent education has given the education and training industry a sample of transformation.