ACADEMEDIA MARCUS STRÖMBERG, CEO FACTS AcadeMedia is Northern Europe’s largest education company and has been listed on the Mid Cap list of the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange since 2016. AcadeMedia operated 298 preschools in Sweden, Norway and Germany in 2019/2020, as well as 75 elementary schools and 143 upper secondary schools in Sweden. It also operates adult education schools in some 150 locations in Sweden. The operations encompass approximately 182,000 preschool children, school students and adult students. AcadeMedia has been an associated company in the Mellby Gård portfolio since 2017, holding 21 percent of the capital. Mellby Gård’s representatives on the Board of Directors are Anders Bülow (Chairman) and Johan Andersson. Headquarters: Stockholm Sales 2020: SEK 12,589 million Employees (FTE): 13,127 Chairman: Anders Bülow www.academedia.se ACADEMEDIA’S 2019/2020 – ACADEMEDIA SURVIVED THE SWITCH TO DIGITAL TEACHING The coronavirus pandemic turned out to be a live test for AcadeMedia, which has been investing in digital learning for a long time. The demand for adult education has also increased significantly in the wake of COVID-19, and AcadeMedia left the shattering 2019/2020 business year with strengthened results. In mid-March 2020, the Swedish government decided that all upper secondary and adult education should switch to a remote learning model in order to reduce the spread of infection in society. Hundreds of thousands of students were sent home, while a number of teachers and students who needed to be on site for various reasons remained at our schools. In less than 24 hours, AcadeMedia’s almost 150 upper secondary schools made the transition from 400 to 87,000 digital lessons a week for the rest of the spring term. The transition itself was easier than anticipated and teaching went well too, even though the situation was completely new to most people. “We learned a lot during the switch in the spring of 2020. We learned about how we can offer good remote teaching, and we learned about how important the social aspect is when it comes to both studies and working,” says Marcus Strömberg, CEO at AcadeMedia. Increased digitisation is an important element in AcadeMedia’s vision: to head development of the education of the future. The skills and technology built up within the organisation over many years came in very handy when it came to dealing with the rapid change that came about in spring. At the same time, the whole company learned a number of important lessons for the future. All preschools in Sweden stayed open during the pandemic, while AcadeMedia preschools in both Norway and Germany ended up being closed for long periods. The staff in all three countries demonstrated an enormous amount of creativity when it came to finding ways of supporting families whose children stayed at home. The preschools arranged digital gatherings and produced various types of educational material. “We continued working on our core assignment while also dealing with all this turbulence. I am incredibly proud of how we managed to turn our management of the crisis into insights into the digital learning of the future, and how we managed to switch to remote learning almost seamlessly in less than 24 hours,” says Marcus Strömberg. DEVELOPMENT OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AcadeMedia has almost 40 different education profiles: Hermods, Espira, Pysslingen, Rytmus and ProCivitas are just a few of them. Every profile is firmly rooted in a specific educational concept or direction and meets a clear need. The large number of profiles presents a challenge in itself, while also providing a major asset. AcadeMedia is now focusing even more on quality and elementary school development by developing two new education profiles, Montessori Mondial and Noblaskolan. Vittra, Pops Academy and Pysslingen Skolor have all been part of the AcadeMedia elementary school segment for some time. One important aim of the new profiles is to help families and students to choose the right school from the outset. Another is to coordinate schools with similar focus so that they can work on developing quality both between schools and within schools. MAJOR ADULT EDUCATION INITIATIVES Unemployment has risen sharply in Sweden in the wake of the pandemic. To counter this, adult education has been one of the priority areas for the Swedish government. There has been enormous demand in municipal adult education, and the demand for digital courses increased most extensively. Applications to AcadeMedia’s vocational colleges reached record levels in autumn – 45,000 applications for 4,400 places. “We received two very positive pieces of news in the summer. Our vocational college operations received further allocations – more than 1,500 more places starting in the 2020 autumn term – and we were able to sign a contract with the City of Stockholm for another four years of adult education. The fact that five AcadeMedia operations – Eductus, Hermods, Kompetensutvecklingsinstitutet, NTI-skolan and Movant – will be teaching adult learners in the City of Stockholm is absolutely fantastic,” says Marcus Strömberg. With a market leading position in adult education and more than 120 years of experience of remote learning (via Hermods), AcadeMedia is well equipped to go on contributing to the adult education initiatives currently in place with a view to coping with the major challenges faced by society. THE FUTURE IS BOTH PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL “In future, we will be seeing a combination of physical teaching and digital teaching. This is one way of addressing the shortage of teachers, and a way of challenging traditional teaching,” says Marcus Strömberg. Although the coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on operations, the financial impact has been limited. AcadeMedia has a healthy financial position. The operating profit saw positive development both in the fourth quarter and four 2019/2020 as a whole, which is largely accounted for by the recovery in adult education. Organic sales growth over the year amounted to just over 5 percent. SIGNIFICANT EVENTS 2019/2020 The coronavirus pandemic greatly tested AcadeMedia’s ability to provide remote learning at upper secondary and adult level. A contract was entered into with the City of Stockholm to continue running its adult education provision for another four years. A record number of students chose AcadeMedia vocational colleges. Massive increase in interest in remote learning. MELLBY GÅRD AB Anna Lindhs Plats 4 SE-211 19 Malmö Tel: +46 (0)40-98 77 00 mail@mellby-gaard.se