Under the Epidemic, IT Training Brand "IT Brotherhood" Announced Suspension of Work
As the impact of the epidemic expands, many industries have been hit hard, and some small and medium-sized enterprises are struggling on the brink of life and death. Just last night, the founder of the IT vocational training company Brothers announced that the company will close its Beijing campus due to the epidemic.
Last night, Li Chao, founder of IT vocational training Brothers Education, posted a message on his WeChat official account. A letter to all students, employees and shareholders of Band of Brothers, announcing that the company was in crisis.
The founder sent a handwritten letter overnightThe open letter states:
“From now on, Band of Brothers Beijing Campus will stop recruiting students and all employees will be laid off;
The Shanghai and Guangzhou campuses have been operated independently and are no longer affiliated with the group headquarters. They can change brands and conduct business normally.
For the Shenyang and Xi'an campus businesses, and school cooperation businesses, the relevant persons in charge will lead the employees to change brands according to their own circumstances. They can choose to start their own business and be responsible for their own profits and losses.
During the epidemic, Band of Brothers will provide online teaching for students and strive to help employees find new jobs.”
From railway worker to IT training leader
Band of Brothers was founded in 2007. It has been twelve years since its inception. It is affiliated to Yidiyou (Beijing) Education Consulting Co., Ltd. and is headquartered in Beijing.
The Brotherhood has established teaching centers in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shenyang, Shijiazhuang, Xi'an, Wuhan and other cities.
The information center on the official website shows thatFounder Li Chao failed to get into high school and became a railway worker at the age of 19By chance, he got the opportunity to study in the Computer Department (Adult Education) of Dalian Jiaotong University.
In 2003, he came into contact with open source software such as Linux and PHP, and firmly believed that it was the direction of the future. After graduation, he worked as a programmer in an Internet company in Dalian.
In August 2004, he came to Beijing with only 1,000 yuan in his pocket and soon became an IT lecturer. He has worked as a lecturer, lecturer manager, teaching supervisor, and teaching director.
At the end of 2006, he founded the "IT Brotherhood". From 2011 to 2013, the Brotherhood grew rapidly and opened Java / Python / Artificial Intelligence / PHP / UI / Linux Cloud Computing / Front-end / Online Marketing / Industrial RobotsAnd other majors.
The epidemic is fierce, but the first to fall is the training
Since 2015, Brothers began to embrace capital and received a total investment of more than 10 million yuan from Shanshui Venture Capital and Weifang Dadi. With the introduction of capital, Brothers entered a period of rapid development, with rapid expansion of subject categories and campuses, and successfully listed on the New Third Board in September 2016.
But after Brothers went public, it went downhill, with a turnover of 150 million yuan in 2016, which dropped by tens of millions of yuan every year. Brothers spent too much effort on market investment and accumulation of teaching staff.
“In 2018, we still had hundreds of millions, but in 2019, we ran out of money, so our turnover was reduced to more than 50 million."
Last year, in order to stop losses, Brotherhood of Brothers tried to encourage employees to start their own businesses in Shanghai. Subsequently, the Shanghai and Guangzhou campuses began to operate independently and bear their own profits and losses.
By 2020, the number of employees in Brothers Band had been reduced to nearly 130, and the company's account was only tens of thousands of yuan at its most tight. On the one hand, he controlled foreign debts, and on the other hand, he was also trying to cut costs, such as moving the Beijing campus, which had an annual rent of 4 million yuan, to a new location with an annual rent of 1 million yuan.
Li Chao mentioned in his open letter:
“ The epidemic has undoubtedly made matters worse for the Brotherhood, which has little financial reserves, heavy burdens, and has been making losses. Before the holiday, we tightened our belts, delayed salary payments, mobilized everyone, and cut costs in order to make a comeback during the peak enrollment season after the holiday.
But we didn’t expect this epidemic to come so suddenly and violently, disrupting all our plans. . .”
The state of emergency brought about by this aggressive epidemic has become the last straw that broke the camel's back for the IT brotherhood.
The next stop for IT training?
Different from professional courses such as Geek Time, which aim to advance technology, the style of IT Brotherhood is more like entry-level basic career training, and the backgrounds of students are more diverse.
In the past two years, there has been almost no news of financing for adult IT training companies. The increasing maturity of computer education in domestic universities and the rising requirements of the talent market have become obstacles to traditional adult IT training.
Dana Technology (NASDAQ: TEDU), which previously focused on adult IT training, has also shifted to children's programming.
In its unaudited annual report for 2018, the number of adult business students only increased by 14.7%, while the number of youth business students more than quadrupled.
In the future, traditional IT training will definitely face greater challenges than the epidemic.
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