The Cegos Group announces the acquisition of Next Group

The Cegos Group, the European leader in Learning and Development and one of the world's leading providers in the sector, announces the acquisition of Next Group, which focuses on professional reskilling for individuals and on work-linked higher education. With this acquisition, which further strengthens its leadership position, Cegos is accelerating its development in the BtoC segment and consolidating its position in the professional reskilling market.

The Cegos Group, which has returned to its pre-crisis level of activity by 2021, is accelerating its development and rolling out its 2022-2025 strategic roadmap. Among the growth levers identified, key acquisitions should enable the Group to consolidate its position as the European and international leader in Learning & Development. With this in mind, the Cegos Group is today acquiring Next Group, a leading player in professional reskilling and work-linked higher education, which in 2021 generated revenues of 14 million euros.

Benoît Felix, CEO of the Cegos Group, explains: "With the acquisition of Next Group, the Cegos Group is once again at the forefront of the consolidation of the learning & development market. The world of work is undergoing profound changes and the need for training is massive: by strengthening our approach to individuals, we intend to respond to major challenges of transformation and to actively contribute to the employability of all. We are already doing this through our certified training courses. With Next Group, we are going to strengthen our position on the BtoC market, through two aspects: professional reskilling for active people and jobseekers on the one hand, and work-linked training leading to a degree on the other. In these two fields, Next Group addresses individuals, whether they are employees, job seekers or students. We will therefore benefit from Next's know-how in the fast-growing BtoC training market.”

A leading player in professional reskilling and higher education through work-linked programmes, founded in 2002, Next Group offers multidisciplinary training courses to meet the various needs of the employment market (particularly in high-demand sectors):

• In the reskilling market, its Next formation training centre addresses professionals and jobseekers, who wish to undergo professional reskilling. Next formation delivers 23 certified titles registered with the French RNCP (National Register of Professional Certifications).

• In the education market, its two schools provide mainly work-linked (apprenticeship) training courses.
  • The EIMP school (“Ecole Internationale de Management de Paris”) offers courses in business, marketing and communication, human resources, accounting and finance;
  • The Webitech school focuses on digital marketing and IT.

The two schools deliver 24 certified registered titles.

Rémy Moddabber, President and Founder of Next Group, explains: "The training market is constantly changing. Individuals no longer train for one profession only at the beginning of their lives, but for several professions or skills throughout their lives, to meet the needs of a changing labour market. The integration with the Cegos group, based on shared values, will enable Next Group to develop its know-how in French regions and internationally, and to benefit from the expertise of the L&D leader in the BtoB market. Our know-how, our seriousness, the quality of our training and our ability to lead individuals, whether young or in transition, towards employment, is no longer in question. The complementary nature of our respective activities will enable us to meet the training needs of everyone, at every stage of their life.”

Strong synergies between Cegos Group and Next Group

There is a massive and constantly growing need for training, whether it be for upskilling or reskilling, in both the private and public sectors. Next group's training courses for jobs in high demand and jobs of the future are a perfect response to these employability issues. For example, over the last two years, Next Group has launched around ten new courses, half of which are related to digital issues.

With a business model centred on the individual, Next Group has developed strong expertise in financing engineering and in supporting individual training projects (reskilling / work-linked higher education) with a strong focus on the employability of the trainees. This is a key know-how that aims to promote employability and professional integration through training and support.

Cegos' and Next group's certification and diploma offerings are also complementary and will strengthen the Group’s BtoC presence. The two Next group schools are clearly positioned and have major assets: 90% of their alumni are now in business and first-rate partnerships have been created with major companies.

Cegos and Next group will be able to share their know-how, particularly in the areas of marketing, digitalisation of training courses, support and professionalisation of the trainers’ network.

Thanks to the Cegos Group's locations in France and abroad, Next Group also intends to accelerate its regional development and welcome more foreign students to its two schools.

Over the coming months, Cegos and Next Group teams will work together to implement these synergies.

The acquisition of Next Group is a further illustration of the Cegos Group's contribution to the consolidation of the training market, both in France and internationally: acquisition of Integrata-Cegos, the training leader in Germany, at the end of 2014; opening of a regional platform in Chile in 2015, followed by the opening of a subsidiary in Mexico in 2017; acquisition of Cimes Group, the French leader in training outsourcing, in 2017; acquisition of Crescimentum, the number one provider of leadership training in Brazil, at the beginning of 2020; and acquisition of Posiciona, the leading provider of sales training in Brazil, at the beginning of 2021.

As a reminder, the Cegos Group announced on 15 March that it had entered into exclusive discussions with Bridgepoint Development Capital (BDC) with a view to the investment fund acquiring a minority stake in the capital of the learning & development leader.

Have a look at our dedicated press release.