Frost & Sullivan releases the 'China Adult Learning Market Industry Report'

Adult learning refers to a series of courses provided for adults who aim to achieve self-improvement through participating in study programs and those receiving professional training from enterprises. Adult learning does not include courses offered for degrees or diplomas awarded by the Ministry of Education. In terms of revenue, the scale of the adult learning market in China grew from 432.9 billion yuan in 2018 to 576.2 billion yuan in 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 7.4% from 2018 to 2022. It is expected that by 2027, the market will exceed 1 trillion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.6% from 2022 to 2027.

The adult learning market in China can be further divided into the individual adult learning market and the corporate professional training market. The corresponding consumer groups are individuals and enterprises, respectively. Individual learners mainly focus on acquiring knowledge and skills, while the corporate consumer group primarily aims to provide professional training services for their employees.

The main driving factors for the development of the adult learning market in China include:

1) With the development of China's macroeconomy and the improvement of living standards, today's adults are continuously enhancing their understanding of the concept of lifelong learning. More people believe that learning should be an autonomous form of education that promotes personal development, not limited to campus settings. Therefore, more and more adults are achieving personal goals such as developing personal interests, receiving professional training, learning languages, and preparing for university exams by participating in self-directed learning courses.

2) Many external factors, including enhancing workplace competitiveness, continuously encourage employed adults to practice the concept of lifelong learning. Many companies set certain preferred conditions during recruitment to ensure they find the best talent, which has stimulated a large number of adults to engage in additional learning in their spare time, thereby enhancing their workplace competitiveness.

3) To meet the adult's demand for various learning topics, adult learning service providers have launched a series of online and offline courses including personal interests, professional training, language learning, and university preparation, continuously attracting users through rich course content.

4) Technological advancements have provided adults with a more convenient interactive learning environment. Nowadays, adults with limited spare time can learn remotely by watching live courses or recording them. The improvement in learning convenience has attracted a large number of adults to pursue their learning goals through participating in various courses.

According to the forms provided by the courses, the personal adult learning market in China can be divided into two types: the online personal adult learning market, which accepts courses through online modes, and the offline personal adult learning market, which accepts courses through face-to-face teaching.

In terms of revenue, the market size for personal adult learning in China reached 427.3 billion yuan in 2022, an increase from 313.5 billion yuan in 2018, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.0% from 2022 to 2027. It is estimated that the overall market size will reach 792.9 billion yuan by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 13.2% from 2022 to 2027.

Among them, in terms of revenue, the online personal adult learning market in China reached 318 billion yuan in 2022, accounting for 25.6% of the overall personal adult learning market. It is expected that by 2027, the online personal adult learning market in China will reach 2424 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.3% from 2022 to 2027. The online personal adult learning market in China is relatively fragmented, with Quantum's Voice being the largest online personal adult learning service provider in terms of revenue in 2022.

The main driving factors for the development of the personal adult learning interest and market in China include:

1) The strong pursuit of personal development has driven the growth in demand for the adult personal interest market in China.Different from the previous generation, today's adults are more focused on their overall development, especially in areas they are truly interested in, and they hope to translate their cross-disciplinary achievements into a better attitude towards life.

2) The continuous increase in the number of paid users and learners has significantly driven the rapid growth of the adult individual interest learning market.With the improvement of economic capabilities to pursue personal development, people are now more willing to pay for reliable and well-designed educational resources. As a result, compared to the past few years, the number of paid users and learners registered in China's adult personal interest learning market has increased significantly.

3) The topics of personal adult interest learning have continuously expanded from financial studies, music studies, art and design to other fields. Offering more carefully designed courses marks the industry's positive and steady development, while also continuously attracting more user groups, achieving the sustained development of the adult personal interest learning market.

(4) The integration of online adult personal interest courses with emerging technologies such as interactive live streaming technology, artificial intelligence, and big data provides learners with a more personalized and interactive learning experience. It also provides an important prerequisite for increasing participant engagement and attracting more new users.

Today's elderly people in China live in an era of digitization, especially after decades of rapid development of the internet and mobile internet in China. Many Chinese elderly find it difficult to keep up with the digitalization process in their daily lives. The demand for systematic participation in course learning on how to use modern electronic devices to solve problems encountered in life is increasing. In addition, with the enhancement of demand and payment capabilities, today's elderly people aspire to enrich their inner world by participating in more lifelong learning activities on different topics. Therefore, the elderly are becoming one of the important paying groups in the adult learning market.

Elderly learning refers to courses provided for the elderly to acquire new knowledge, skills, attitudes towards life, or values. It can be further divided into art learning, music learning, health management learning, physical exercise learning, etc. In terms of revenue, the market size of elderly learning in China reached 28 billion yuan in 2022. The annual compound growth rate from 2018 to 2022 was 30.7%. It is estimated that by 2027, the market size of elderly learning in China will reach 1209 billion yuan, with an expected annual compound growth rate of 34% from 2022 to 2027.

The main driving factors for the development of the elderly learning market in China include:

1) As China is about to enter a moderately aging society, the target population for the elderly learning market is continuously increasing, and it is expected that by 2035, the country will further enter a superaging society.According to United Nations standards, a country is defined as an 'aging society' when the proportion of people aged 60 and above exceeds 10%, or when the proportion of people aged 65 and above exceeds 7%; it is defined as a 'moderately aged society' when the proportion of people aged 60 and above exceeds 20%, or when the proportion of people aged 65 and above exceeds 14%; and it is defined as a 'severely aged society' (or 'ultra-aging') when the proportion of people aged 60 and above exceeds 30%, or when the proportion of people aged 65 and above exceeds 20%. National Bureau of Statistics data shows that by the end of 2022, the national population aged 60 and above was 280 million, and the population aged 65 and above was 210 million, accounting for 19.8% and 14.9% of the total population respectively. It is estimated that by 2035, the population aged 60 and above will exceed 30%. Entering a 'moderately aged society' is a manifestation of changes in China's population structure, marking the huge potential of China's elderly learning market.

2) Both China's social transformation and economic development have provided Chinese elderly people with stronger willingness and affordability to participate in lifelong learning activities.In the face of today's digital society, elderly people who generally lack digital skills are more willing to improve their skills through a systematic learning environment. In addition, current elderly people, especially those who have retired, also have a strong desire to participate in personal further education courses to further explore their interests and hobbies, such as learning musical instruments, calligraphy, health preservation knowledge, etc. While learning in a systematic and group-based environment, they can also feel more connected with their peers.

3) After the rapid development of K12 online learning in 2020, the mature technology for online learning courses has provided a solid technical foundation for service providers to quickly develop online elderly learning courses.In addition, the extensive learning content also provides a rich variety of choices for the elderly when considering participating in lifelong learning activities. Whether it is advanced technology or mature experience in learning content, both help strengthen the elderly's willingness to participate in geriatric learning.

4) In 2022, China will enter a moderately aging society, and by 2035, it will have entered a severely aging society. By then, the population aged 60 and above will reach 400 million, accounting for 30% of the total population.The government has been aware of the changes in population structure in advance and has continuously introduced a series of favorable policies.For example, the '14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of National Aging-related Undertakings and the Elderly Care Service System' and the 'National Medium- and Long-Term Plan for Actively Responding to Population Aging' aim to create a better living environment for the growing elderly population. Establishing an elderly learning system and creating a lifelong learning environment for the elderly have become key focuses of a series of government policies, providing a sustainable and healthy development environment for China's elderly learning market.

In recent years, it is not difficult to observe an increasingly clear trend where enterprises are willing to pay for systematic and well-designed professional training courses, which has also driven the development of China's professional training market. In terms of revenue, the market size of China's professional training market grew from 119.4 billion yuan in 2018 to 148.9 billion yuan in 2022. The annual compound growth rate from 2018 to 2022 was 5.7%, and it is expected to grow to 250.3 billion yuan by 2027, with an annual compound growth rate of 10.9% between 2022 and 2027.