Press Release - October 2026

• Revenue from official vocational training programmes delivered by private centres reached €1.77 billion in 2025, after growing at annual rates of between 7% and 8% over the last two years, versus increases of over 11% in 2022-2023.

• The number of private centres delivering official vocational training stood at 1,458 in the 2024/2025 academic year. The sector remains highly fragmented, although concentration is gradually increasing as medium-sized groups forge ahead, driven by the entry of new investors.

• INFORMA's DBK Sectoral Observatory recently published these insights in the ‘Professional Study Centers’ Special Report.

Madrid, 27 October 2026.- According to INFORMA's (Cesce's subsidiary) DBK Sectoral Observatory—a leading provider of business, financial, sectoral, and marketing information in Spain and Portugal—turnover from official vocational training programmes delivered by private centres, including publicly funded and non-subsidised centres, reached €1.77 billion in 2025, up 7.3% year-over-year, after rising 7.5% in the previous fiscal year.

This performance reflected a slowdown in growth compared with the 11%-14% rates recorded in 2022-2023, in parallel with a smaller increase in student numbers.

Provisional figures show enrolment in official programmes at private centres stood at 413,228 students in the 2025/2026 academic year, up 3.5% on the previous year, accounting for 34.1% of the total across public and private centres. Higher-Level Vocational Training remained the most dynamic segment in the private sphere, with 4% growth and a share close to 60%.

Meanwhile, aggregate turnover for private centres delivering official vocational training programmes, including other areas of non-regulated training, totalled €2.125 billion in 2025.

The number of private centres delivering official vocational training programmes stood at 1,458 in the 2024/2025 academic year, already close to 35% of all operating centres, public and private, up two percentage points over the last five academic years.

The sector is characterised by a highly fragmented business structure, with a large number of small entities managing a single centre. However, the consolidation of groups of companies of a certain size—driven by the entry of investors, mainly private equity funds and foreign education groups—alongside the growing presence of university institutions, has led to gradual progress in the concentration of supply.

The top five operators accounted for 22% of total aggregate turnover at private centres delivering official vocational training programmes in 2025; the top ten, over 27%.

Data Synthesis

 (a) corresponds to revenue from official vocational training programmes delivered by private centres (publicly funded and non-subsidised).