Profiting from exams

Some interesting stats contained in the latest Pearson plc financial results. Edexcel, the Pearson owned UK awarding body, has reported pre-tax profits up 26% to £70.5m (2008: £56.0m) for the year ended 31 December 2009 on revenue up 22.6% to £252.0m (2008: £205.7m). My Edexcel insiders tell me that a significant chunk of this profit is generated by the BTEC programme, so its little surprise that profits are growing so strongly as many centres abandon traditional GCSE and GCE courses for the internally-assessed, coursework-based BTEC options. To put the Edexcel profit rise into further context, back in 2006 Edexcel made a profit of £25.1m on a £203m turnover. Students can work out the increase in operating profit margin for themselves!