Gill Budgell attends Education Summit 2023

Gill Budgell attended Education Summit 2023 at Islington Business Design Centre, London which focused on investment trends in the global Education space.

Sponsored by EducationInvestor, Independent School Management (ISM) and Nursery Management Today (NMT), the agenda presented an interesting diversity of investment related topics with global insights.

Ashwin Assomull, Partner and head of global education practice at L.E.K. Consulting, opened proceedings with insights into global market trends: the K-12 arena is still strong and growing; students are still on the move around the world; and there is an increasing range of options for students to upskill whether online or in person. Of most interest here was the number and strength of K-12 platforms acquiring and merging across the world with increasing numbers of regional offices. The demand for overseas education remains strong and looks set to stay that way.

A subsequent presentation by Freddie Clarke, Head of school development at ISC Research, spoke about the domination of Asian markets is terms of growth with key mentions for UAE, China, Vietnam, Japan and India. He also talked about the increasing demand from local families alongside ex-pats.

The other more UK related session of interest was that of Lee Owston HMI, Deputy Director, schools and early education for Ofsted. Lee gave some key insights into what Ofsted’s focus is likely to be on moving forward as revealed in their research Best start in life: a research review for Early years.  Part 1 of the research focuses on the factors that contribute to a high-quality early education, whilst recently launched Part 2 considers the importance of the prime areas of learning (Communication and Language, PSED, Physical development). Part 3 is due to focus on the 4 specific areas of learning. See here for more information, but few revelations.  https://earlyyears.blog.gov.uk/2023/09/11/giving-all-children-the-best-start-in-life/