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After School Tutoring Market-Canada
The key players of the after-school tutoring market in Canada that were determined by various reports are Kumon, Sylvan Learning Center, Oxford Learning, and Spirit of Math. The after-school tutoring market in Canada offers supplemental education programs in key subject areas, such as math, science, reading, and writing from age groups of 3 to 13 year olds (from kindergarten to grade 12). They also provide homework support in key subject areas that is aligned with public schools learning goals, help with test preparation for pre-university students, and have academic enrichment programs focused on mathematics.
OVERVIEW
- After school private tutoring continues to be the fastest-growing segment of Canadian K-12 education as this has become a common trend for urban families of Canada.
- As per a survey done on major metropolitan cities of Canada such as Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal, it was found that one in three city parents hire private tutors for their kids.
- Key franchises in the Canadian market such as Kumon, Oxford Learning, and Sylvan learning, have evolved into private learning centers that offer after-school tutoring programs mostly in affluent cities.
KUMON
- Since 2002, Kumon has achieved the title of “Tutoring Services Franchise” every year in Entrepreneur Magazine’s annual Franchise 500, which is the world’s most comprehensive franchise ranking.
- Kumon’s Canadian operations reached an all-time high of over 350 franchises across the country with the majority of those learning centers in densely-populated metropolitan areas.
- Kumon offers Math and Reading tutoring programs, which start from the ages of 3 to 13 years old.
- Kumon and Oxford Learning provide after-school toddler tutoring programs for 3 to 6 year old children that help them get an early start on math and reading skills.
- Costs vary around the country, but the average is $150 per subject. Additional Fees include a registration fee of $50, and initial material fees of $15.
SYLVAN LEARNING CENTER
- For over 35 years Sylvan Learning has been one of the leading providers of supplemental education across North America with numerous franchises in Canada. As listed by "Our kids", it is the #1 publication among the after-school programs in Canada.
- Sylvan Learning center offers personal tutoring as well as group tutoring, aided with "IPad" technology tools. They both have online and offline tutoring options.
- Group learning classes are usually no larger than 3 to 4 participants.
- They match the learning goals of the public-school system for math, language arts, and science at all grade levels from kindergarten to 12th grade.
- The center also offers a tutoring program for homework support for elementary and middle-school students. It also has programs that cover test preparation, such as ACT and SAT.
- Initially, the student will take up a Sylvan Insight Assessment priced at $95, that will help to understand the child's strengths and skill gaps.
- The Sylvan Learning Center costs for different programs are the following:
- Personalized tutoring — $48/hour and up
- Academic coaching — $290/month and up
- College test prep — $1,199 and up
- $90 — $180/month per subject
OXFORD LEARNING C
- The Oxford Learning Program offers tutoring programs from age groups of 3 to 13 year olds.
- The R.E.A.D. ELITE is a reading program for 3 to 6 year olds.
- BEYOND TUTORING program is for Grades 1 to 8 and offers homework support and help in key subject areas.
- The ADVANTAGE tutoring program is for Grades 9 to 12 that helps teens to tackle high school studies in aspects of doing homework, tests, assignments, and projects.
- The TEST PREP tutoring program, for University and College, help students to get the highest scores on post-secondary entrance exams. This program requires more than regular studying.
- They also offer French tutoring programs for all grades and ages in reading and writing.
- They have ESL programs for all grades and ages.
- Oxford Learning's prices "vary from one franchise to another". However, locations near Toronto reported prices between $385 and $420 monthly for two hours a week.
SPIRIT OF MATH
- Spirit of Math is a company that specializes in coaching high-achieving students to greater academic height. It has been recognized by PROFIT 500 magazine for five consecutive years (2014 – 2018) as one of "Canada’s fastest-growing companies".
- Their after-school tutoring programs are a good choice to push and challenge gifted students to reach their full potential.
- The company is an innovative leader in mathematics education, offering a system of after-school math classes for high-performing and gifted students.
- It also offers math enrichment by teaching DRILLS, CORE CURRICULUM and PROBLEM SOLVING while promoting cooperation, strategical thinking and inspiring confidence.
- Spirit of Math classes culminate with mental math equations presented to all the class by the teacher or a student. To answer the questions, students to use what they’ve learned in the math program, along with their sharpened listening skills.
- Spirit of Math charges an annual fee of approximately $2,200, entitling students to an hour and a half of instruction per week.
Research Strategy:
We initially researched on the after-school tutoring market in Canada, where Kumon, Sylvan Learning Center, Oxford Learning, and Spirit of Math, were the 4 companies that were cited often across various articles. We then researched each company to understand their footprint in the Canadian market. With this strategy we found that these were international franchise operating companies that were either headquarted in Canada, like Oxford Learning, or had many franchises in Canada, like Kumon, Sylvan Learning, and Spirit Maths. These characteristics made them the leading players in the after-school tutoring program in the Canadian market.
To analyze the after-school tutoring program market in Canada in terms of average cost, the number of participants, and a breakdown of participants by age and gender, we explored the quarterly and annual reports of the selected key players for information, regarding the prices of their services and the number of participants involved in each program. We were able to get the pricing services of the programs offered by each of the key players.
With the pricing details provided, we were not able to get an estimated average price that could represent the after-school tutoring market in Canada as the programs varied across these players. The pricing ranges across these programs also varied from hourly to monthly costs, which made it impossible to triangulate the average cost.
While we were able to identify the ages of the participants based on the program they were enrolled in, none of the reports of the selected programs provided a breakdown of participants by gender.
Next, we searched through each program's website to see if they provided any breakdown of participants by gender. While we found testimonials from parents, teachers, and students (both male and female), none of their websites had any information on participation by gender. Their websites generally focused on what they have to offer.
We then searched for any press releases by the selected after-school tutoring players as well on educational resources like Ontario's Ministry of Education, we were not able to get any statistics on how many students attend private tutoring programs or any statistics on participation by gender. The available information was on the activities and achievements of the programs.
Since the after school tutoring market in Canada is so diverse and there are different players, we conclude that for this reason, there is no central tracking system publicly available to gather the enrollees/participants data of these programs.