On March 28, China 21st Century Education Group Co., Ltd. (“21st Century Education”, the “Company”, together with its subsidiaries, collectively referred to as the “Group”, stock code: 1598.HK), a well-known private education service provider in China, was pleased to announce the Group's audited annual results for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023 (“within the year” or “2023”).
In 2023, the Group achieved revenue of approximately RMB 420 million, up about 34.7% year-on-year from RMB 310 million in 2022; annual profit of about RMB 398.36 million (2022: approximately RMB 26.718 million), an increase of about 49.1% year on year; and the total number of full-time students was 27,662, an increase of 15.8% compared to 23,888 in 2022.
The new campus is put into use, and the number of students and income are expected to continue to grow
The company continues to promote the construction of the new campus of Shijiazhuang Polytechnic Vocational College. It has already carried out the first and second phases of construction, and obtained the third phase of the project planning license. In September 2023, the first batch of more than 8,200 students settled in the new campus, and the total number of new services added to the Shijiazhuang Polytechnic Vocational College was 10,902. The total number of full-time college students enrolled was 23,494, an increase of about 18.6% over the same period, a record high, bringing further revenue growth to the Group.
Comprehensively deepen cooperation between government, government, enterprises and schools, and innovate vocational education talent training and evaluation models
On the basis that the Group's vocational education sector has formed an integrated development pattern of obstetrics and education, Shijiazhuang Polytechnic Vocational College of Technology has begun exploring the 5.0 version of the integration of obstetrics and education, or “symbiosis between maternity and education”. Based on serving local regional economic and industrial development, industry and education jointly cultivate talents, participate in industry-side business, and achieve symbiosis between industry and education. Against the backdrop of a shortage of skilled talents and industrial structural transformation in China, we draw on international experience, do a good job in vocational education classification management, strengthen the link between vocational education qualifications and courses, innovate vocational education talent training and evaluation models, and focus on building a vocational education system with Chinese characteristics in the new era.
In terms of school-enterprise cooperation, on December 31, 2023, Shijiazhuang Polytechnic Vocational College of Technology has carried out joint construction of special majors with 28 majors and 17 enterprises, with 61 order classes and 16 apprenticeship pilot majors; it has built 13 training bases for key professional groups, 61 in-school experimental training centers, and 247 off-campus training bases. In March 2023, a strategic agreement was signed with JD to jointly build the “Shijiazhuang Polytechnic Vocational College • JD E-commerce Industry-Education Integration Demonstration Base”. In May 2023, Tencent Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Tencent Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd. jointly established the Tencent Cloud Artificial Intelligence Industry Institute. The two sides integrated high-quality resources to bring talent support resources to the rapid development of cutting-edge information industries such as cloud computing and big data data.
As of December 31, 2023, Shijiazhuang Polytechnic Vocational College has established a total of 13 industrial colleges related to emerging industries such as intelligent manufacturing, Internet+, and digital economy. Based on new engineering, we are committed to the integration of industry and education, rational integration, technology and culture, and integration of modern information technology and teaching. We maintain various forms of industry-university-research partnerships with more than 700 famous companies, including Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Haier Group Corporation, Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd., Sany Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., Shiyao Holding Group Co., Ltd., and SF Holdings Co., Ltd., including more than 60 well-known enterprises such as the world's top 500. Every year, nearly 1,000 people are collaboratively nurtured through order classes, etc., to help graduates achieve high-quality employment.
In terms of cooperation between government and school, Shijiazhuang Polytechnic Vocational College relies on high-quality resources to serve regional construction, and has carried out a total of 13,739 government vocational education and social training sessions, sending nearly 1,000 talents to various enterprises in Luquan District of Shijiazhuang City. In October 2023, together with the Institute of Economics of the Hebei Academy of Social Sciences and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Collaborative Development (Xiong'an) Research Center of the Hebei Academy of Social Sciences, they went to Luquan District to conduct special research. Through the operation of the College of Industry, a total of 7 companies have been introduced to Luquan District of Shijiazhuang City in the past two years. Innovate talent training models to meet enterprise talent needs, establish expert think tanks, and set up two research institutes to provide intellectual support for enterprise talent training and skill improvement, and enhance the college's social influence.
In terms of school cooperation, Shijiazhuang Polytechnic Vocational College of Technology has been actively promoting the implementation of the Quality Improvement and Training Action Plan for Quality Improvement and Training in Hebei Province since it was successfully approved in the Hebei Vocational Education Quality Improvement and Training Action Plan (2020-2023) to build a “double high school”, and has undertaken the 25 tasks in the plan. Using the “Double High” construction as the lead, the “Five Ones” and “Three Ones” construction projects as a starting point, 16 pilot apprenticeship programs have been set up. As of December 31, 2023, the “Double High” material summary has been completed and is awaiting government acceptance.
Focus on building famous school brands and building a new education technology ecosystem
The Group is committed to providing multi-level education services, building a brand of famous schools in the province, and developing a full-time high school education sector business through Shijiazhuang Yuying Experimental Middle School. As of December 31, 2023, high school education services were provided to 2,549 students. Shijiazhuang Yuying Experimental Middle School takes the construction of specialized teachers and efficient classrooms as a starting point, continuously upgrades its management system and education and teaching model, and fully implements the dual goals of teacher growth and student success. In 2023, the university admission rate was about 98%, the joint art examination acceptance rate reached 94.7%, and the provincial arts, sports and dance joint examination acceptance rate reached 86.1%, all higher than the average admission rate in Hebei Province. In the next 3-5 years, Shijiazhuang Yuying Experimental Middle School will focus on the development theme of “provincial model high schools” and the construction of characteristic schools, and “protect large-scale development, strengthen content quality development, develop brand characteristics, and develop overall resources collaboratively” as the main line of development. Strengthen teacher team building, upgrade teaching models, promote curriculum innovation, improve teaching quality, focus on moral education, broaden diverse channels for further education, open up special courses, and build characteristic high schools with history and further education as the foundation.
The new college entrance examination section uses a strong foundation as the main line to create a new online and offline education technology ecosystem. The new college entrance examination business focuses on college entrance examination pipeline services. It is committed to the targeting and hierarchical training of gifted students, and has formed business systems such as comprehensive evaluation services and new college entrance examination academic planning at famous schools. It has served tens of thousands of gifted students from nearly 1,000 high schools across the country. Of these, 6,600 students have entered “double first-class” universities such as Tsinghua University and Peking University. As of December 31, 2023, the new college entrance examination business served 119 high schools/programs, and cooperated with more than 100 schools in more than 20 provinces across the country to provide planning guidance to nearly 8,000 students across the country. In addition, the total number of students serving in 2023 who received the first prize at the provincial level and above was 861.
The board of directors of China 21st Century Education Group Co., Ltd. believes that as a comprehensive private education service provider, we have always adhered to the development vision of “creating equality through education”, focusing on integrating high-quality education resources, laying out a diversified education industry pattern, expanding from vocational education services to integrated maternity and education services, and becoming a full-cycle professional talent service provider from “study” to “employment” through the upgrading of the core growth model of vocational education, and at the same time providing customers with friendlier and more convenient education services to promote balanced social development and provide warm education. In the future, while consolidating business development, we will step up our brand building efforts, establish a unique, influential and unique education brand, and continue to expand the scale of our school, enhance our ability to develop sustainable development, and create higher value for shareholders and society.