Pearson PLC (PSO) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Pearson's 2023 Preliminary Results. Today, we'll host a presentation followed by a Q&A session. (Operator Instructions)

大家早安，歡迎來到培生 2023 年初步表現。今天，我們將主持一場演講，然後進行問答環節。 （操作員說明）

And with that, I'll hand over to Omar.

接下來，我將把工作交給奧馬爾。

Good morning, everyone. I'm Omar Abbosh. It's good to be here with you today for my inaugural results presentation. I'm proud to be here representing Pearson and its people who are so committed to helping learners around the world. First off, I'll make some introductory comments sharing my early impressions of Pearson. Next, Sally Johnson, who's here with me in London will take us through our business unit financials of' '23. Then I'll conclude the presentation part with our 2024 strategic priorities. And after that, we'll open up for questions, where we're joined by Art Valentine, Gio Giovannelli and Tom Ap Simon from our leadership team.

大家，早安。我是奧馬爾·阿博什。很高興今天能和大家一起出席我的首次成果發表會。我很自豪能夠代表培生及其員工，他們致力於幫助世界各地的學習者。首先，我將做一些介紹性的評論，分享我對 Pearson 的早期印象。接下來，和我一起在倫敦的莎莉·約翰遜（Sally Johnson）將向我們介紹「23」業務部門的財務狀況。然後我將以我們的 2024 年策略重點來結束演示部分。之後，我們將開放提問，來自我們領導團隊的 Art Valentine、Gio Giovannelli 和 Tom Ap Simon 也將加入其中。

Let me begin with our financials. It has been yet another year of strong operational and financial performance for Pearson. Once again, we've surpassed initial expectations with underlying sales growth of 5% and operating profit up 31% to GBP 573 million. 2023 also saw significant margin expansion from 12% in '22 to 16% this year. This is the strongest margin Pearson has seen in 2013. Our cash position is excellent with a 74% increase in free cash flow and 102% operating cash conversion. As a sign of our continued confidence in the cash flow growth of Pearson, I'm pleased to announce an extension of our share buyback by an incremental GBP 200 million.

讓我從我們的財務狀況開始。今年是培生集團營運和財務表現強勁的一年。我們再次超越了最初的預期，基本銷售額成長了 5%，營業利潤成長了 31%，達到 5.73 億英鎊。 2023 年，利潤率也大幅成長，從 22 年的 12% 增加到今年的 16%。這是 Pearson 2013 年以來的最高利潤率。我們的現金狀況非常好，自由現金流增加了 74%，營運現金轉換率為 102%。作為我們對 Pearson 現金流成長持續信心的標誌，我很高興地宣布延長我們的股票回購計劃，增加 2 億英鎊。

These results reflect exciting progress across our whole business, and I want to call out the especially strong financial contributions from assessments and qualifications and English language learning. Overall, this outturn puts us in good stead moving forward and helps us invest in further growth opportunities that will ensure we drive continued shareholder value expansion in the coming years. As you know, I joined Pearson 8 weeks ago. Let me tell you what I've been up to. I spent over 90 hours with leaders from across the businesses and corporate functions in hourly one-on-one session. I've also had in-depth conversations with over 2 dozen customers and spent time with each of my leadership team's own management team to hear their perspectives on many aspects of our business and also so that I can dig into our operations.

這些結果反映了我們整個業務取得的令人興奮的進展，我想指出評估和資格以及英語學習帶來的特別強勁的財務貢獻。總體而言，這一結果使我們有利於繼續前進，並幫助我們投資於進一步的成長機會，這將確保我們在未來幾年推動股東價值持續擴張。如您所知，我於 8 週前加入 Pearson。讓我告訴你我最近在做什麼。我與來自各個業務部門和公司職能部門的領導者進行了 90 多個小時的一對一會談。我還與20 多個客戶進行了深入交談，並與我的每個領導團隊自己的管理團隊進行了深入交談，以聽取他們對我們業務的許多方面的看法，以便我能夠深入了解我們的營運情況。

I spent time with several of our investors as well as other participants in our markets, such as private equity owners of educational and learning assets. The simple reason for this work is to establish priorities and their associated actions. These growth-oriented priorities address strategic, operational, products, people-related and cultural topics. I'd like to share a handful of observations from my first weeks at Pearson. The headline is that I believe Pearson is a rare type of company with the ability to deliver long-term sustainable growth while also pursuing a purpose that genuinely helps the lives of millions of people around the world. How do we do this? Well, at Pearson, we do 3 things. We create and curate world-class learning and assessment content. We distribute that content digitally and through physical materials to millions of users globally. And we help individuals, employers and institutions build and verify skills. So underpinning these 3 activities is the trust that the Pearson brand carries.

我與我們的幾位投資者以及市場的其他參與者（例如教育和學習資產的私募股權所有者）進行了交流。這項工作的簡單原因是確定優先事項及其相關行動。這些以成長為導向的優先事項涉及策略、營運、產品、人員相關和文化主題。我想分享我在培生第一週的一些觀察。標題是，我相信培生是一家罕見的公司，有能力實現長期永續成長，同時也追求真正幫助全世界數百萬人生活的目標。我們如何做到這一點？在 Pearson，我們做了 3 件事。我們創建和策劃世界一流的學習和評估內容。我們以數位方式並透過實體材料將該內容分發給全球數百萬用戶。我們幫助個人、雇主和機構培養和驗證技能。因此，支撐這三項活動的是培生品牌所承載的信任。

I found that customers around the world often in high-stake settings rely on the products and services that we provide and really place a great deal of trust in what we do. This is the trust in the quality of the content and assessment, trust in the efficacy of the learning and trust in the reliability of the outcomes. This leads to deep and long-lasting relationships with many of them, giving us unrivaled competitive advantage in the market.

我發現世界各地的客戶經常在高風險環境中依賴我們提供的產品和服務，並且對我們所做的事情非常信任。這是對內容和評估品質的信任，對學習有效性的信任以及對結果可靠性的信任。這使得我們與其中許多人建立了深厚而持久的關係，從而使我們在市場上擁有無與倫比的競爭優勢。

We have incredibly mission-driven people at Pearson, and they fuel our purpose and culture. For sure, our employees are experts in their various fields. But what really stood out to me in my many conversations is how deeply they truly care about helping other human beings make progress in their lives. Those of you who have studied culture will understand how hard that is to manufacture. I'm pleased to see that we're well on the way to embedding digital and technology capabilities into the DNA of our company. More than 80% of our products and services are now digital or include digital components, and this is true of our Pearson Test of English, delivery of VUE assessments, our Higher Ed Courseware and most recently in the first of the U.K. in our GCSE qualification. We have about 3,000 technologists working across the business to continually improve end customer experiences with the application of digital and AI in our products and services.

培生擁有令人難以置信的使命驅動型員工，他們推動了我們的目標和文化。當然，我們的員工都是各領域的專家。但在我的多次談話中，真正讓我印象深刻的是他們是多麼真正地關心幫助其他人在生活中取得進步。研究過文化的人就會明白製造文化有多麼困難。我很高興看到我們正在將數位和技術能力融入公司的 DNA 中。現在，我們超過 80% 的產品和服務都是數位化的或包含數位組件，我們的 Pearson 英語測驗、VUE 評估交付、高等教育課件以及最近在英國的第一個 GCSE 資格認證都是如此。 。我們有大約 3,000 名技術人員在整個業務範圍內工作，透過在我們的產品和服務中應用數位和人工智慧來持續改善最終客戶體驗。

Finally, we're sitting on vast data sets that have tremendous value in the development of next-generation AI model. In 2023, these included 230,000 tutoring sessions, 347 billion total user engagement points across higher ed, 1.2 billion student interactions at our Connections Academy, 1.4 billion exam item interactions at VUE, where we delivered 20.7 million exams, 366 million unique data points across 2 Interactive in our clinical platform and around 260 billion data points for Mondly. On top of this, in Workforce Skills, we analyzed 8 million to 12 million job ads per month across the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada and map each job ad to an occupation and the skills found in our skills ontology.

最後，我們擁有大量資料集，這些資料集對於下一代人工智慧模型的開發具有巨大價值。到2023 年，其中包括230,000 場輔導課程、高等教育中3470 億個總用戶參與點、Connections Academy 中的12 億學生互動、VUE 中的14 億次考試項目互動（我們在VUE 中提供了2070 萬次考試、2 個領域的3.66 億個獨特數據點）。在我們的臨床平台和 Mondly 的約 2600 億個數據點中進行互動。除此之外，在勞動力技能方面，我們每月分析美國、英國、澳洲和加拿大的 800 萬至 1200 萬個招聘廣告，並將每個招聘廣告映射到我們的技能本體中找到的職業和技能。

In summary, our brand trust, customer relationships, trusted IP, mission-driven people and culture, technology assets and products plus these huge data sets provide the foundation for our continued momentum to drive profit growth into the future.

總而言之，我們的品牌信任、客戶關係、值得信賴的智慧財產權、使命驅動的人員和文化、技術資產和產品以及這些龐大的資料集為我們未來推動利潤成長的持續動力奠定了基礎。

To close off (technical difficulty) reasons that I chose to join Pearson as CEO. Firstly, Pearson is a strong company, one that is performing consistently well and has good growth optionality for the future. Today's results are a continuation of our recent growth track record and our consistent performance, which underpin my confidence. Second, I was drawn to Pearson by its unique and compelling purpose, our ability to help people on their learning journey quite literally changes their lives. We have countless examples of this, which we will share more of. We truly help people and live the life they imagine, precious few other companies can claim this. Thirdly, our world is at an inflection point with AI. The next decade will be all about the application of AI in business, in our communities and in our individual lives. The opportunity to use AI as a tool for better learning while driving growth in our business are immense. We're well positioned to take advantage of the future.

為了消除（技術困難）我選擇加入培生擔任執行長的原因。首先，培生是一家實力雄厚的公司，業績持續良好，未來有良好的成長選擇。今天的業績是我們近期成長記錄和一貫表現的延續，這增強了我的信心。其次，我被培生集團獨特而引人注目的目的所吸引，我們幫助人們完成學習之旅的能力確實改變了他們的生活。我們有無數這樣的例子，我們將分享更多。我們真正幫助人們並過著他們想像的生活，很少有其他公司可以做到這一點。第三，我們的世界正處於人工智慧的轉折點。未來十年將是人工智慧在商業、社區和個人生活中的應用。使用人工智慧作為更好學習的工具，同時推動我們業務成長的機會是巨大的。我們已做好充分準備，充分利用未來。

So in summary, Pearson is strong, has an incredible mission in the world that our people are utterly committed to and is positioned to be a winner in AI.

總而言之，培生很強大，在這個世界上肩負著令人難以置信的使命，我們的員工完全致力於實現這一使命，並且有能力成為人工智慧領域的贏家。

Let me hand over to Sally here.

讓我把任務交給莎莉。

Thank you, Omar, and hello, everybody. I'm going to come on and talk about guidance in a moment, but first, I want to reflect on the strength of our 2023 results. We exceeded the profit expectations that we had at the beginning of the year by GBP 30 million, increasing profit by 31%. We secured GBP 120 million of cost savings, which, alongside the margin from sales growth, increased our margin from 12% to 16%. And we've generated an operating cash conversion of 102% increasing free cash flow by 74% despite onetime reorganization costs, which will fall away in 2024. It's this continued financial progress that underpins our confidence that we'll be able to deliver another good year in 2024 and that we're on track to meet our 2025 guidance.

謝謝你，奧馬爾，大家好。稍後我將談談指導，但首先，我想反思一下我們 2023 年業績的實力。我們超出了年初的利潤預期 3000 萬英鎊，利潤增長了 31%。我們節省了 1.2 億英鎊的成本，加上銷售成長帶來的利潤，我們的利潤率從 12% 提高到 16%。儘管一次性重組成本將在2024 年消失，但我們的營運現金轉換率達到了102%，自由現金流增加了74%。正是這種持續的財務進展支撐了我們的信心，我們將能夠交付另一項成果2024 年，我們可望實現 2025 年的指導目標。

Adjusted earnings per share increased 12% to 58.2p, reflecting the strong increase in operating profit and reduced share count from our share buyback. This was partially offset by interest and tax given the one-off provision benefits we had last year. Net debt increased slightly with strong operating cash utilized by the acquisition of PDRI and dividends alongside the share buyback. Our balance sheet remains strong, providing us with a firm platform from which to invest for future growth whilst continuing to distribute cash to shareholders through our dividend policy and where appropriate, through share buybacks.

調整後每股盈餘成長 12% 至 58.2 便士，反映出營業利潤的強勁成長以及我們股票回購帶來的股票數量減少。考慮到我們去年獲得的一次性撥備福利，這部分被利息和稅收所抵消。由於收購 PDRI 和股息以及股票回購所利用的強勁營運現金，淨債務略有增加。我們的資產負債表仍然強勁，為我們提供了一個堅實的平台，可以為未來的成長進行投資，同時繼續透過我們的股息政策並在適當的情況下透過股票回購向股東分配現金。

Given our strong 2023 result and our confidence in the future, the Board are proposing a 6% increase in the final dividend for a full year dividend of 22.7p. In 2023, we delivered underlying group sales growth of 5%, excluding OPM. By division, assessments and qualifications grew 7%, driven by a 10% growth in VUE, particularly in the IT and healthcare sectors. We saw good growth across U.S. student assessments, clinical and U.K. and international qualifications due to new contract wins, government funding and price increases.

鑑於我們 2023 年的強勁業績和對未來的信心，董事會建議將末期股息增加 6%，全年股息為 22.7 便士。 2023 年，我們的基礎集團銷售額成長了 5%（不包括 OPM）。按部門劃分，在 VUE 成長 10% 的推動下，評估和資格認證成長了 7%，尤其是在 IT 和醫療保健領域。由於新合約的簽訂、政府資助和價格上漲，我們在美國學生評估、臨床以及英國和國際資格方面看到了良好的成長。

Virtual learning decreased 20% for the full year, primarily due to the expected decrease in OPM. Virtual Schools declined 2% for the full year, with lower enrollments due to COVID normalization in the '22-'23 academic year and the loss of a larger public school in the '23-'24 academic year. This was partially offset by an improvement in funding. Higher Education was down 3% for the year, in line with our expectations. In the U.S., sales declines were driven by a loss of adoptions to nonmainstream publishers in the first half of the year as well as pricing mix. There was strong growth in Inclusive Access with 22% sales growth, and we also delivered 2% growth in platform units.

全年虛擬學習下降 20%，主要是因為 OPM 的預期下降。虛擬學校全年下降 2%，由於 22-23 學年新冠疫情正常化以及 23-24 學年一所規模較大的公立學校的流失，入學人數減少。這部分被資金的改善所抵銷。高等教育全年下降 3%，符合我們的預期。在美國，銷售量下降的原因是上半年非主流出版商的採用率下降以及定價組合。 Inclusive Access 業務成長強勁，銷售額成長了 22%，平台單位也實現了 2% 的成長。

English Language Learning delivered outstanding growth of 30%. All 3 segments delivered with PTE, the standout contributor. Test volumes were up 49% against the backdrop of favorable migration policy in Australia and market share gains. Workforce Skills grew 11% for the full year with solid performances in both Vocational Qualifications and Workforce Solutions. Strategically, we won several contracts in VUE, aided by our acquisition of PDRI. We extended our on-screen exams, and we drove growth in our digital platform in clinical. Our renewal rate in VUE remained strong at 94%, down slightly from last year due to one particular factor. In Virtual Schools, we launched our Career Pathways program in 5 schools with more to come in 2024.

英語語言學習實現了 30% 的顯著增長。所有 3 個部分均由傑出貢獻者 PTE 提供。在澳洲有利的移民政策和市場份額成長的背景下，測試量增加了 49%。勞動力技能全年成長 11%，職業資格和勞動力解決方案均表現強勁。從戰略上講，在收購 PDRI 的幫助下，我們贏得了 VUE 的幾份合約。我們擴展了螢幕檢查，並推動了臨床數位平台的成長。由於一個特殊因素，我們的 VUE 續訂率保持在 94% 的強勁水平，比去年略有下降。在虛擬學校中，我們在 5 所學校推出了職業道路計劃，2024 年還將推出更多計劃。

This important initiative build synergies with our workforce-focused businesses and support future enrollment growth. It will also enhance the consumers' experience in a business where we already have a really high NPS score of 67. And we're also pleased to have recently secured new schools in the states impacted in the '23-'24 and '24-'25 academic years, providing us with a strong base for future growth.

這項重要措施與我們以勞動力為中心的企業建立了協同效應，並支持未來入學人數的成長。它還將增強消費者在企業中的體驗，我們的 NPS 分數已經達到 67 分。而且我們還很高興最近在受“23​​-”24 和“24-”影響的州建立了新學校。 ' 25個學年，為我們未來的成長提供了堅實的基礎。

In higher education, we improved our technology support leading to better NPS scores amongst faculty. Our new go-to-market strategy has led to higher retention rates and new adoptions. We launched generative AI study tools with select titles for Pearson+ and Mastering and we'll extend this for full '24 to more than 40 titles. And Pearson+ subscription passed the 1 million milestone and we monetized channels for the first time. In English Language Learning, we won recognition for PTE in Canada for both Student Direct Stream and immigration purposes. In Workforce, we won a contract to provide BTECs to the Jordanian Ministry of Education, and we're seeing success across digital credentialing and strategic workforce planning solutions, where we have several new contract wins, including Cleveland Clinic and ServiceNow.

在高等教育領域，我們改進了技術支持，從而提高了教師的 NPS 分數。我們新的上市策略帶來了更高的保留率和新的採用率。我們推出了生成式 AI 學習工具，其中包括 Pearson+ 和 Mastering 的精選書籍，我們將在整個 24 年將其擴展到 40 多個書籍。 Pearson+ 訂閱量突破了 100 萬大關，我們首次實現了頻道貨幣化。在英語語言學習方面，我們在加拿大的 PTE 考試中獲得了學生直通和移民目的的認可。在勞動力方面，我們贏得了向約旦教育部提供 BTEC 的合同，我們在數位認證和戰略勞動力規劃解決方案方面取得了成功，我們贏得了幾項新合同，包括克利夫蘭診所和 ServiceNow。

So in summary, we're winning contracts and investing in our range of products to drive sustainable, profitable growth.

總而言之，我們正在贏得合約並投資我們的產品系列，以推動可持續的獲利成長。

Group profit grew 31% on an underlying basis to GBP 573 million with significant margin progression, increasing 4% to 16%. This was driven by delivery of about GBP 120 million of cost efficiencies and operating leverage on sales growth, partially offset by increased inflation and investments. At a divisional level, Assessments and Qualifications grew its margin to 22% through operating leverage on sales and margin and OpEx efficiencies, partially offset by inflation. Virtual Learning margins increased to 12% due to cost efficiencies and the disposal of pulls. Higher Education margins increased to 13% with the 2023 cost efficiencies weighted towards this division and offsetting the decline in sales and inflation. English Language Learning margins grew to 11% through operating leverage on sales, partially offset by increased investments and inflation and Workforce Skills was loss-making as we continue to invest in the business with a focus on delivering modular personalized offerings to our pipeline of clients, leveraging our powerful technology stacks.

集團利潤基本成長 31%，達到 5.73 億英鎊，利潤率大幅成長，成長 4% 至 16%。這是由約 1.2 億英鎊的成本效率和銷售成長的營運槓桿推動的，但部分被通貨膨脹和投資的增加所抵消。在部門層面，評估和資格部門透過銷售和利潤率以及營運支出效率的營運槓桿將其利潤率提高到 22%，但部分被通貨膨脹所抵消。由於成本效率和拉動處理，虛擬學習利潤率增加至 12%。高等教育利潤率增至 13%，2023 年成本效率將偏向該部門，抵銷了銷售和通貨膨脹的下降。英語語言學習利潤率透過銷售經營槓桿成長至11%，部分被投資增加和通貨膨脹所抵消，而勞動力技能則出現虧損，因為我們繼續投資該業務，重點是向我們的客戶管道提供模組化個人化產品，利用我們強大的技術堆疊。

Our free cash flow generation is one of the key strengths of our business model. We've maintained a sharp focus on increasing free cash flow as we continue to invest behind opportunities to drive future growth that will support returns for shareholders. We had a strong cash performance, with cash conversion of 102% and operating cash flow of GBP 587 million. This was driven by the trading performance, great cash collections and reduced product spend in Higher Education connected to the cost efficiency program.

我們的自由現金流產生是我們商業模式的關鍵優勢之一。我們一直高度關注增加自由現金流，因為我們繼續投資於推動未來成長的機會，從而為股東帶來回報。我們的現金表現強勁，現金轉換率為 102%，營運現金流為 5.87 億英鎊。這是由交易業績、大量現金回款以及與成本效率計劃相關的高等教育產品支出減少所推動的。

As previously discussed, the capital investment profile continues to change with CapEx reducing and focus shifting to investment in product development. The GBP 186 million increase in operating cash has driven a GBP 165 million increase in free cash flow. Free cash flow conversion is 93% lower than the 102% operating cash conversion, given onetime reorganization costs, which will fall away in 2024. I know many of you like to trace the detailed moving parts across the cash flow. And so you can find a reconciliation to the various disclosures in the prelims in the appendix of this presentation.

如前所述，隨著資本支出減少和重點轉向產品開發投資，資本投資狀況持續變化。營運現金增加 1.86 億英鎊，帶動自由現金流增加 1.65 億英鎊。考慮到一次性重組成本，自由現金流轉換比 102% 的營運現金轉換低 93%，而一次性重組成本將在 2024 年消失。我知道你們中的許多人喜歡追蹤現金流中的詳細活動部分。因此，您可以在本簡報的附錄中找到前言中的各種揭露的調整。

Looking at our balance sheet metrics. Net debt increased slightly with strong operating cash utilized by the acquisition of PDRI and dividend alongside the share buyback. Leverage remains comfortable at 1x net debt to EBITDA. And as a reminder, when we think about the application of our capital allocation policy, we calculate headroom against our most stringent rating agency metric, which is currently equivalent to a leverage ratio of approximately 2x. Return on capital was 10.3% compared to 8.7% in 2022, and we continue to be disciplined in our investments and rigorous about secure required returns.

看看我們的資產負債表指標。由於收購 PDRI 和股息以及股票回購所利用的強勁營運現金，淨債務略有增加。槓桿率仍處於 EBITDA 淨債務 1 倍的水平。提醒一下，當我們考慮資本配置政策的應用時，我們會根據最嚴格的評級機構指標計算淨空，目前相當於約 2 倍的槓桿率。資本回報率為 10.3%，而 2022 年為 8.7%，我們繼續嚴格投資並嚴格確保所需回報。

Turning to capital allocation. We've got a disciplined capital allocation policy with a focus on maintaining a strong balance sheet, investing both organically and inorganically, paying a progressive and sustainable dividend and returning surplus cash to shareholders. We've almost finished the GBP 300 million share buyback we announced last September. And today, we're announcing its extension by GBP 200 million, given the strength of our cash flow in 2023 and expectations for 2024. Administratively this will commence as soon as possible.

轉向資本配置。我們制定了嚴格的資本配置政策，重點是維持強勁的資產負債表、有機和無機投資、支付漸進和可持續的股息以及將剩餘現金返還給股東。我們即將完成去年 9 月宣布的 3 億英鎊股票回購。今天，考慮到我們 2023 年現金流的強勁狀況以及對 2024 年的預期，我們宣布延期 2 億英鎊。從管理上來說，這將盡快開始。

Going forward, we will continue to apply our capital allocation policy and through strong cash generation, we'll continue to invest behind opportunities to drive further growth and create value for all our stakeholders.

展望未來，我們將繼續應用我們的資本配置政策，並透過強勁的現金生成，繼續投資於推動進一步成長並為所有利害關係人創造價值的機會。

Moving to the 2024 outlook. We expect group underlying sales growth, adjusted operating profit and tax to be in line with current market expectations. Given our share buyback and its extension announced today, our interest charge will increase to circa GBP 45 million. We also continue to expect to achieve group sales growth of mid-single digits, excluding OPM and the strategic review businesses across the '22 to '25 period, with margins of 16% to 17% expected in 2025. Divisional expectations across that period remain the same. Apart from Workforce where we expect double-digit growth and English, where we expect growth in the teens. Given the changing shape of the group, as you think about the role of FX in our guidance, you should now assume that a $0.01 move against the pound equates to around GBP 5 million of adjusted operating profit.

展望 2024 年。我們預期集團基本銷售成長、調整後營業利潤和稅收將符合當前市場預期。鑑於我們今天宣布的股票回購及其延期，我們的利息費用將增加至約 4500 萬英鎊。我們也繼續預計，在22 至25 年期間，集團銷售額將實現中個位數成長（不包括OPM 和策略審查業務），預計2025 年利潤率將達到16% 至17%。該時期的部門預期仍然不變相同。除了勞動力方面，我們預計將出現兩位數的增長，而英語方面，我們預計將出現十幾歲的增長。考慮到該集團形態的變化，當您考慮外匯在我們的指導中的作用時，您現在應該假設英鎊兌美元 0.01 美元的變動相當於調整後營業利潤約 500 萬英鎊。

I want to turn now to the considerable growth opportunities we have across the business. I'll take each division in turn. We continue to expect Assessment and Qualifications to grow sales at low to mid-single digits for 2024, with opportunities for increased growth beyond that. In Pearson VUE, we will finalize the successful integration of PDRI and expand into adjacent markets, accessing the technology search prep market. We're going to expand our Qualification business internationally and use our technology abilities to launch innovative, future-ready assessments.

我現在想談談我們在整個業務中擁有的巨大成長機會。我將依次處理每個部門。我們仍然預計，到 2024 年，評估和資格認證業務的銷售額將實現低至中個位數的成長，並且還有進一步成長的機會。在 Pearson VUE 中，我們將成功整合 PDRI 並擴展到鄰近市場，進入技術搜尋準備市場。我們將在國際上擴展我們的資格認證業務，並利用我們的技術能力推出創新的、面向未來的評估。

Clinical offers us several opportunities as the market expands given macro trends. We will continue to invest in our digital intellectual property, which drives our competitive advantage and in adjacent opportunities such as the application in pharma clinical trial. For Virtual Schools, we expect enrollments to be lower in the 2024 to '25 academic year due to the loss of a major school in that period and for annual sales to be down a similar level to 2023. We've recently secured those new schools in the states impacted by the '23-'24 and '24-'25 academic years. And whilst this won't be material for 2024, it will help the business to return to growth thereafter.

鑑於宏觀趨勢，隨著市場的擴大，臨床為我們提供了多種機會。我們將繼續投資於我們的數位智慧財產權，這將推動我們的競爭優勢以及鄰近的機會，例如在藥物臨床試驗中的應用。對於虛擬學校，我們預計 2024 年至 25 學年的入學人數將下降，因為該時期一所主要學校的流失，並且年銷售額將下降到與 2023 年類似的水平。我們最近已經獲得了這些新學校在受“23-”24 和“24-”25 學年影響的州。雖然這對 2024 年來說並不重要，但它將有助於業務此後恢復成長。

The other factor driving growth will be the Career Pathways program with an additional 15 schools in 2024. We expect higher education to return to top line growth in 2024 as we receive a full year benefit from the implementation of our new go-to-market strategy with continued momentum from Pearson+. We'll also benefit from continued investment in our digital platforms, channels and those capabilities. We expect margins to improve further in Higher Ed with further cost efficiencies, partially offset by above-the-line restructuring charges in 2024.

推動成長的另一個因素是職業發展計劃，到 2024 年將新增 15 所學校。我們預計高等教育將在 2024 年恢復收入成長，因為我們從新的市場進入策略的實施中獲得了全年收益得益於Pearson+ 的持續推動。我們也將受益於對數位平台、通路和這些能力的持續投資。我們預期高等教育的利潤率將進一步提高，成本效率進一步提高，但部分將被 2024 年的線上重組費用所抵銷。

In English Language Learning, we continue to expect high single-digit growth for 2024. We'll see continued growth in the Pearson Test of English and in the institutional market through selling end-to-end solutions that combine courseware with Assessment and Certification. And Mondly will grow through platform improvements and the introduction of Workplace English. The Workforce Skills, we will achieve high single-digit growth as we drive further international expansion of our vocational qualifications and continue to make headway with our Workforce Solutions business.

在英語語言學習方面，我們繼續預計2024 年將實現高個位數成長。透過銷售將課件與評估和認證相結合的端到端解決方案，我們將看到培生英語考試和機構市場的持續成長。 Mondly 將透過平台改進和工作場所英語的引入來發展。在勞動力技能方面，隨著我們進一步推動職業資格的國際擴張，並繼續在勞動力解決方案業務方面取得進展，我們將實現高個位數成長。

In terms of phasing, you'll remember the weighting of growth to H1 compared to H2 for the Assessment businesses last year. This weighting will realign due to the comp as well as the timing of product releases. There would also be a weighting of growth to Q1 from Q2 in Virtual Schools due to the timing of funding. And in Higher Ed, we expect H1 '24 to mirror H2 '23 and growth in H2 '24. Cash will continue to be a focus, and we expect to achieve a 95% to 100% free cash flow conversion rate, given that high operating cash conversion with no onetime reorganization costs anticipated this year. We're assuming there's not a material divergence between the FX rate used to translate the P&L and cash flows. So in summary, we've achieved financial expectations in 2023. We achieved GBP 120 million of cost savings, expanding margin by 4% to 16%.

就分階段而言，您會記得去年評估業務的上半年成長權重與下半年成長權重相比。此權重將根據比較以及產品發布的時間而重新調整。由於資金的時間安排，虛擬學校的成長權重也會從第二季增加到第一季。在高等教育中，我們預計 24 年上半年將反映 23 年下半年的情況以及 24 年下半年的成長。現金將繼續成為焦點，鑑於今年預期營運現金轉換率較高且沒有一次性重組成本，我們預計將實現 95% 至 100% 的自由現金流轉換率。我們假設用於轉換損益表和現金流量的匯率之間不存在重大差異。總而言之，我們已經實現了 2023 年的財務預期。我們實現了 1.2 億英鎊的成本節約，利潤率擴大了 4% 至 16%。

We're on track to meet expectations in 2024 and remain committed to our targets out to 2025. We have a strong balance sheet, providing optionality and are extending our share buyback by GBP 200 million, and we've improved our free cash flow and expect 95% to 100% conversion in 2024.

我們預計在 2024 年達到預期，並繼續致力於實現 2025 年的目標。我們擁有強大的資產負債表，提供選擇性，並將股票回購擴大 2 億英鎊，我們改善了自由現金流，並預計2024 年轉換率將達到95% 至100%。

And with that, I'll hand back to Omar to bring us to a close.

至此，我將交回給奧馬爾，讓我們結束。

Thank you, Sally. As you've heard, we've delivered strong, steady progress across the group, both in terms of our financial results and our business momentum. We fully intend to build on this track record of execution by continuing to deliver on the promises we make to learners, customers and shareholders. So for 2024, we're laying out 3 strategic priorities for the year. Firstly, we will deliver on our current 2024 market expectations for sales growth and operating profit with an intense focus on organic growth and execution. This is about building an ever stronger performance culture, sales discipline and customer experience orientation.

謝謝你，莎莉。正如您所聽說的，我們整個集團在財務業績和業務勢頭方面都取得了強勁、穩定的進展。我們完全打算透過持續兌現對學習者、客戶和股東所做的承諾，在這項執行記錄的基礎上再接再厲。因此，對於 2024 年，我們制定了今年的 3 項策略重點。首先，我們將實現當前 2024 年銷售成長和營業利潤的市場預期，並專注於有機成長和執行。這是為了建立更強大的績效文化、銷售紀律和客戶體驗導向。

Secondly, we're sharpening our focus on the enterprise market. This is a large multibillion dollar market with no dominant player, presenting us with a good opportunity. My past experience with hundreds of companies, connections with dozens of enterprise CEOs, plus my recent various customer conversations have made it clear to me that Pearson has many of the capabilities that can help organizations with a challenge ahead of building an adaptable relevant workforce that is properly augmented by AI.

其次，我們正在加強對企業市場的關注。這是一個數十億美元的大市場，沒有主導者，為我們提供了一個很好的機會。我過去與數百家公司合作的經驗、與數十位企業執行長的聯繫，再加上我最近的各種客戶對話，都讓我清楚地知道，培生擁有許多能力，可以幫助組織在在建立適應性強的相關員工隊伍之前應對挑戰。透過人工智慧適當增強。

I'd like to thank Mike Howells for his leadership of the Workforce division, which has been at the center of the capabilities we've built to date, and I look forward to welcoming Vishaal Gupta as the new President of Workforce Skills, who (technical difficulty) next steps are making the most of this opportunity.

我要感謝邁克·豪厄爾斯(Mike Howells) 對勞動力部門的領導，該部門一直是我們迄今為止所建立的能力的核心，我期待著歡迎維沙爾·古普塔(Vishaal Gupta) 擔任新任勞動力技能總裁，他 (技術難度）接下來的步驟是充分利用這個機會。

Finally, we're increasing the intensity by which we infuse our products and services with a wide range of AI capabilities to ensure that we lead on innovation for our end consumers, for example, across Pearson+ and our courseware platform. Everything that you've heard today points to a bright and exciting future for Pearson. What Pearson does matters to the world. So it's imperative that we use our strength to continue building a company that drives value growth so that we can confidently pursue our purpose of adding life to a lifetime of learning and therefore, benefiting the world.

最後，我們正在加強為我們的產品和服務注入廣泛的人工智慧功能，以確保我們在 Pearson+ 和我們的課件平台上引領最終消費者的創新。您今天聽到的一切都預示著 Pearson 光明而令人興奮的未來。培生所做的事情對世界很重要。因此，我們必須利用我們的優勢繼續打造一家推動價值成長的公司，以便我們能夠自信地追求為一生的學習增添生命的目標，從而造福世界。

With that, Sally and I, along with Art, Gio and Tom, will be happy to take your questions. Operator, over to you.

這樣，莎莉和我，以及阿特、吉奧和湯姆，將很樂意回答您的問題。接線員，交給你了。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

We have the first question from Luke Holbrook of Morgan Stanley.

第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的盧克·霍爾布魯克。

My first question is just on the buyback. How did you settle on GBP 200 million as the right amount for the buyback, why potentially not more. And I've just seen you put a press release saying that will go through till auger.

我的第一個問題是關於回購。您是如何確定 2 億英鎊作為回購的合適金額的？為什麼可能不是更多。我剛剛看到你發布了一份新聞稿，說這將持續到螺旋鑽。

And then secondly, just on the Workforce Skills segment, it looks like you channeled in maybe a GBP 15 million that's drove investment that the world market was expecting through the second half of last year. Just interested to hear where that investment was channeled into and are we to expect any change or significant change in the strategy following the new head of the segment?

其次，就勞動力技能部分而言，您似乎投入了 1500 萬英鎊，這推動了全球市場去年下半年預期的投資。只是有興趣了解該投資的具體用途，我們是否預期該部門新負責人之後的策略會發生任何變化或重大變化？

Thank you very much, Luke. I'll just say one little word and then I'll hand over to Sally. On the buyback, I mean, I think the message I'd like you to take is simply that our free cash flows are strong. We're confident that they will continue to be strong. And we just wanted to make sure that the market knows that we will continue to be very prudent, careful stewards of shareholder capital. And that's it. Sally, do you want to dig into that a little bit more?

非常感謝你，盧克。我只說一小句話，然後就把任務交給莎莉。關於回購，我的意思是，我認為我希望您傳達的訊息很簡單，我們的自由現金流強勁。我們相信他們將繼續保持強勁。我們只是想確保市場知道我們將繼續非常謹慎、仔細地管理股東資本。就是這樣。莎莉，你想再深入一點嗎？

Yes, sure. I mean, I wouldn't raise too much into a GBP 200 million versus GBP 300 million. It's about half of the free cash flow that we're expecting to make this year. So we've got an operating free cash flow conversion that is really, really strong. And then applying our capital allocation policy, we've decided to make that share buyback.

是的，當然。我的意思是，相對於 3 億英鎊，我不會籌集太多資金到 2 億英鎊。這大約是我們今年預計產生的自由現金流的一半。因此，我們的營運自由現金流轉換非常非常強勁。然後應用我們的資本配置政策，我們決定進行股票回購。

And then on the Workforce Skills investment from last year?

那麼去年的勞動力技能投資呢？

Sure. We invested in Workforce Skills about what we were expecting to at the beginning of the year. I think probably in terms of that profit piece, it was the growth in sales, where, if you remember, we pivoted in the middle of the year from the approach that we had had to the more modular approach. And therefore, the operating leverage on sales wasn't quite what we'd expected. But I think the thing that I want to underline here is that we are very excited about the growth that we have in Workforce Skills. The market opportunity is absolutely there. And the growth that you see in the future will be strong with strong operating leverage coming as well. So this year 2023 is really about that investment spend.

當然。我們對勞動技能的投資符合年初的預期。我認為就利潤部分而言，可能是銷售的成長，如果你還記得的話，我們在年中從我們必須採用的方法轉向更模組化的方法。因此，銷售的營運槓桿並不完全符合我們的預期。但我認為我想在這裡強調的是，我們對勞動力技能的成長感到非常興奮。市場機會絕對存在。您未來看到的成長將會強勁，營運槓桿也將隨之而來。因此，2023 年確實是投資支出的關鍵一年。

We now have Sami Kassab with BNP Paribas.

現在我們有法國巴黎銀行的薩米·卡薩布。

I have 3 questions, please. First, Omar, what are your current views in terms of the risks and opportunities in Virtual Schools, please, in the context of regulatory risk in particular? Secondly, what impact would you expect on the Higher Ed growth if the U.S. Department of Ed was to go ahead and make inclusive access and opt-in rather than the current opt-out model? And lastly, given your strategy of investing to go into Test Prep at VUE, how do you expect margins at A&Q to develop in '24 and '25? Can they continue to expand? Or will they briefly decline as you increase investments there?

我有 3 個問題，請問。首先，奧馬爾，您目前對虛擬學校的風險和機會有何看法，特別是在監管風險的背景下？其次，如果美國教育部繼續實行包容性准入和選擇加入而不是目前的選擇退出模式，您預計會對高等教育成長產生什麼影響？最後，考慮到您在 VUE 進行測試準備的投資策略，您預計 A&Q 在 24 年和 25 年的利潤率會如何發展？他們還能繼續擴張嗎？或者，當您增加在那裡的投資時，它們會短暫下降嗎？

Thank you very much for those questions, Sami. It's good to hear you. I'm going to go with the first 2 to Tom, and then the third one, I'll pick on Art. So Tom, do you want to comment on how we're seeing the risks and opportunities in Virtual Schools first, please?

非常感謝你提出這些問題，薩米。很高興聽到你的聲音。我將前兩個選擇給 Tom，然後第三個選擇 Art。湯姆，您想先評論一下我們如何看待虛擬學校的風險和機會嗎？

Yes. Thank you, Sami. A few thoughts really from our perspective. If you take a step back, this is a business that's now 30% bigger in terms of students pre-pandemic, NPS is up, academic outcomes are up. And obviously, we've lost the 2 schools which have impacted growth. As Sally highlighted, we're thrilled with the 2 new school wins that we've got. And we see that the underlying performance drivers in this space in terms of improved understanding of the space, better awareness of what Virtual Schools can do for students to continue to support the growth that we're seeing in the future. So we feel good about that.

是的。謝謝你，薩米。從我們的角度來看一些真正的想法。如果你退後一步，在疫情爆發前，這個行業的學生人數增加了 30%，NPS 上升了，學業成績也上升了。顯然，我們失去了影響成長的兩所學校。正如 Sally 所強調的，我們對學校獲得的兩場新勝利感到非常興奮。我們看到這個領域的潛在績效驅動因素是提高對這個領域的理解，並且更好地認識虛擬學校可以為學生做些什麼，以繼續支持我們未來看到的成長。所以我們對此感覺良好。

In terms of Higher Education and the impact of the existing DOE discussions. Obviously, it's something we're monitoring very carefully. And clearly, it is ongoing at the moment. Clearly, includes access is an important part of what we do from a business model perspective that we feel good about our underlying prospects, and we'll wait to see what happens. And regardless of that, those regulations are unlikely to come in until 2025 or 2026, depending on what happens with this. So we still feel good about our underlying opportunities to grow in Higher Education.

就高等教育和能源部現有討論的影響而言。顯然，這是我們正在非常仔細地監控的事情。顯然，目前正在進行中。顯然，從商業模式的角度來看，包含訪問權限是我們所做工作的重要組成部分，我們對我們的潛在前景感到滿意，我們將拭​​目以待，看看會發生什麼。不管怎樣，這些法規不太可能在 2025 年或 2026 年之前出台，具體取決於具體情況。因此，我們仍然對高等教育中潛在的發展機會感到滿意。

Thank you, Tom. And Art, do you want to comment on VUE and margins?

謝謝你，湯姆。 Art，您想對 VUE 和邊距發表評論嗎？

Yes. Absolutely, Sami, you are [dead] on entering more forcefully into that Test Preparation space, excuse me, and taking advantage of the traffic we already have coming to VUE to receive those certification tests is an important part of our growth pillars. The margin impact of that is contemplated already within the guidance that we're giving. So the strong performance of the business absolutely gives us the ability to achieve those growth plans while delivering on the margin guidance that Sally already gave before. So all good.

是的。當然，薩米，你已經[死了]更加有力地進入測試準備領域，對不起，利用我們已經來到 VUE 的流量來接受這些認證測試是我們增長支柱的重要組成部分。我們給出的指導中已經考慮到了其利潤率影響。因此，業務的強勁表現絕對使我們有能力實現這些成長計劃，同時實現莎莉先前給予的利潤指導。所以一切都好。

Thank you, Art. Back to you, operator.

謝謝你，藝術。回到你身邊，操作員。

We have the next question from Nick Dempsey of Barclays.

我們有來自巴克萊銀行的尼克·登普西的下一個問題。

So first of all, just in terms of your guidance on the return to growth in Higher Education, I think Sally said that the first half of '24 will perhaps be down in the same sort of bracket as second half '23, minus 4%. And then first half in 2023 was 44% of the year. So I'm kind of backing out that you need to grow 4% to 5% in the second half of '24 to get to your guidance. Can you just talk about what's giving you visibility on that. It's always been a market that's been quite hard to predict at this point of the year. Is it share? Is it price? Is it the AI elements? What's making you think you can grow 4% to 5% in the second half of '24?

首先，就您對高等教育恢復成長的指導而言，我認為莎莉說，24 年上半年可能會下降到與 23 年下半年相同的水平，負 4% 。然後2023年上半年佔全年的44%。所以我有點反對你需要在 24 年下半年成長 4% 到 5% 才能達到你的指導。您能談談是什麼讓您對此有了了解嗎？在每年的這個時候，這個市場一直很難預測。是分享嗎？是價格嗎？是AI元素嗎？是什麼讓您認為您可以在 24 年下半年實現 4% 到 5% 的成長？

Second question, just want to look at the divisional organic growth, verbal commentary for '24 for each division. Overall, we are guiding to in line with consensus, but each of the divisions is kind of the same or the worse than consensus as far as I understand it. Is there a bit of element of caution built into those verbal ranges for each division? Or am I missing that there?

第二個問題，只想看看部門的有機成長，以及每個部門 24 小時的口頭評論。總體而言，我們的指導方針與共識一致，但據我了解，每個部門都與共識相同或更糟。每個部門的語言範圍是否都包含一些謹慎的因素？還是我錯過了那裡？

Then the third question, just for Omar. Are you happy with the portfolio as it stands? Or could disposals form any part of your strategy? And also, are you happy with how well invested the group is across all of the areas where you might be able to drive organic growth.

然後是第三個問題，只問奧馬爾。您對目前的投資組合感到滿意嗎？或者處置是否可以構成您策略的一部分？此外，您對集團在您可能能夠推動有機成長的所有領域的投資情況感到滿意嗎？

Thank you very much, Nick. I think Sally -- those 2 first ones are a bit guidance oriented. So maybe you should take them.

非常感謝你，尼克。我認為莎莉——前兩個是有點指導性的。所以也許你應該接受它們。

Yes. So I'm going to take the middle one first, and then I'll touch on some of the elements of Higher Ed and turn over to Tom to talk about what he's seeing from a market point of view, and then we'll come back to you for the last one.

是的。所以我要先講中間的，然後我會談到高等教育的一些要素，然後交給湯姆談談他從市場角度看到的東西，然後我們來回到你的最後一篇。

So in terms of divisional organic growth guidance, I'm giving ranges, but we're really confident with hitting each of those. And overall, I can't see your model, but really confident on hitting the group, which is about 4% organic growth revenue for 2024, and that's how we've modeled things for the year. So I don't think you're missing anything, but happy to follow up on the detail that you've got, if that's helpful.

因此，就部門有機成長指導而言，我給了範圍，但我們非常有信心達到每一個目標。總的來說，我看不到你的模型，但對達到這個目標非常有信心，即 2024 年有機成長收入約為 4%，這就是我們對今年的建模方式。因此，我認為您沒有遺漏任何內容，但如果有幫助的話，很樂意跟進您所掌握的細節。

And then in terms of Higher Ed returning to growth and the phasing, probably a little bit less of a decline in the first half of the year than you quoted. I was kind of trying to give the shape of it rather than the actual numbers. But you're quite right, we will see growth in the second half of the year. And the things that you call out are all contributory factors to that. So share growth, AI really important to that, but also the product enhancements that Tom and the team have been making. I'm sure Tom will come and talk about the things that he's been doing in the sales team, price and element, but probably not a particularly strong one within that. So Tom, do you want to talk about what you're seeing in the market at the moment?

然後就高等教育恢復成長和分階段而言，今年上半年的下降可能比您引用的要少一些。我試圖給出它的形狀而不是實際的數字。但你說得對，我們將在下半年看到成長。你指出的事情都是促成因素。因此，分享成長，人工智慧對此非常重要，而且湯姆和團隊一直在進行產品改進。我確信湯姆會來談論他在銷售團隊中所做的事情、價格和元素，但可能不是其中特別重要的事情。湯姆，您想談談您目前在市場上看到的情況嗎？

Yes, sure. I mean as Sally has highlighted, there's a broad range of factors. We know that enrollment stabilized in 2023 and grew slightly up 1% in the space that we are in. We know how we started the year in terms of January and February from a performance perspective, and we're pleased with that. Fundamentally, our performance in 2024 is driven by a lot of the things we did in 2023. So the new operating model we put in place with [TN] driving performance in maths, science, business and economics. All of those require slightly different strategies. We've got that in place now.

是的，當然。我的意思是，正如莎莉所強調的，有許多因素。我們知道，入學人數在2023 年趨於穩定，並在我們所處的空間中小幅增長了1%。我們知道從表現角度來看，我們在1 月和2 月開始了這一年，我們對此感到滿意。從根本上來說，我們 2024 年的業績是由我們在 2023 年所做的很多事情所推動的。因此，我們採用的新營運模式 [TN] 推動了數學、科學、商業和經濟方面的表現。所有這些都需要略有不同的策略。我們現在已經做好了。

We're very excited about the performance of the new sales teams. We've done a lot of work around sales operations to really get a lot sharper there. But from a product perspective, last year, we didn't have as an exciting a product lineup as we do this year. So as we think about some of the investments we've made, for example, interactive reading assignments, things like we've done with the AI study tools, we're seeing really good and really strong engagement from faculty in the market on these and I'm getting very regular feedback from the sales team on that.

我們對新銷售團隊的表現感到非常興奮。我們在銷售營運方面做了很多工作，以便真正變得更加敏銳。但從產品角度來看，去年我們並沒有像今年那樣令人興奮的產品陣容。因此，當我們考慮我們所做的一些投資時，例如，互動式閱讀作業，以及我們使用人工智慧學習工具所做的事情，我們看到市場上的教師在這些方面的積極參與我經常從銷售團隊那裡得到有關這方面的回饋。

And then the other point I would make is that the K-12 adoption cycle, that is something we have reasonably good visibility into at this stage of the year. That's a more positive trend for us in 2024. So to summarize, the operating models in place, the sales team is battening down and doing a better job from an execution perspective, the product lineup is better, and we have sort of a firm view on the macro environment.

我要說的另一點是 K-12 的採用週期，我們在今年的這個階段對這個週期有相當好的了解。這對 2024 年的我們來說是一個更積極的趨勢。總而言之，營運模式已經到位，銷售團隊正在嚴陣以待，從執行角度來看做得更好，產品陣容更好，我們有一個堅定的觀點關於宏觀環境。

Tom, thank you very much. And actually, Nick, I'm going to just pile on to what Tom said. So I'm double clicked a bit with Tom and his team. And what I can tell you is the sales operations' precision in that team is very good. The folks there are really on their market. They understand exactly the dynamics, the competitive dynamics, the product dynamics and exactly where customers are at. And under Tom's leadership, I feel very confident about where we're headed in Higher Ed.

湯姆，非常感謝你。事實上，尼克，我將繼續補充湯姆所說的話。所以我對湯姆和他的團隊有點印象深刻。我可以告訴你的是，該團隊的銷售運作精確度非常好。那裡的人確實在他們的市場上。他們準確地了解動態、競爭動態、產品動態以及客戶所處的位置。在湯姆的領導下，我對我們高等教育的發展方向非常有信心。

On your other question that you asked me about portfolio and how we're investing across that portfolio, I mean, I'll say a couple of things. There's incredible power in the breadth of capability that Pearson brings. So if you think about the world from a customer segment point of view, so the K-12, the Higher Ed, the Workforce, individual citizens are often span all of those segments. If you think about it from a domain point of view, in terms of creating content, learning-based content, assessment-based content, all the solutions and technologies that you need to provide to the delivery institutions of all that learning. Again, we have a lot of offers and capabilities and products that span those domain areas.

關於你問我的關於投資組合以及我們如何在該投資組合中進行投資的另一個問題，我的意思是，我會說幾件事。 Pearson 帶來的能力範圍之廣令人難以置信。因此，如果你從客戶群的角度思考世界，那麼 K-12、高等教育、勞動力、公民個人往往涵蓋所有這些細分市場。如果您從領域的角度考慮，那麼在創建內容、基於學習的內容、基於評估的內容方面，您需要向所有學習的交付機構提供所有解決方案和技術。同樣，我們有許多跨越這些領域的產品、能力和產品。

And so I'm actually very happy with the breadth that we can bring because it can be a very forceful component of our strategy. Now the other thing about the portfolio is that our business units give us incredible clear line of sight of accountability. We have a very good match of responsibility and authority in each of our business units with clear strong incentive regime on each of the management teams so that people know what they're solving for and they know what they're on the hook for. And I like that as well. I like the clarity there.

因此，我實際上對我們能夠帶來的廣度感到非常滿意，因為它可以成為我們策略中非常強大的組成部分。現在，有關該產品組合的另一件事是，我們的業務部門為我們提供了令人難以置信的清晰責任視線。我們的每個業務部門的責任和權力都非常匹配，每個管理團隊都有明確的強有力的激勵制度，這樣人們就知道他們正在解決什麼問題，也知道他們面臨著什麼問題。我也喜歡這樣。我喜歡那裡的清晰度。

But if you ask me to think going forward, I mean I'll turn -- I'll share with you a couple of my philosophies. I mean, of course, as a management team, you would expect us to leave no stone unturned. We're going to look at all strategic options, and we will do that all the time. And if great opportunities arise, we'll jump on them. But my focus is growth. And I specifically believe in focus to scale. You can get more growth when you're incredibly focused. So the way I look at the portfolio all the time is to say, are we really focused in the areas where the profit pools are moving? And are we having a good enough insight into our market so that we really put our energy in our resource where it ought to be for the future.

但如果你讓我思考未來，我的意思是我會轉而與你分享我的一些哲學。我的意思是，當然，作為一個管理團隊，你會期望我們不遺餘力。我們將考慮所有戰略選擇，並且我們將一直這樣做。如果出現很好的機會，我們會抓住它們。但我的重點是成長。我特別相信專注於規模。當你極度專注時，你可以獲得更大的成長。因此，我一直看待投資組合的方式是說，我們真的專注於利潤池移動的領域嗎？我們是否對市場有足夠的洞察力，以便我們真正將精力投入未來應有的資源。

Back to you, operator.

回到你身邊，操作員。

We now have a question from Tom Singlehurst of Citi.

現在花旗銀行的湯姆辛格赫斯特向我們提出了一個問題。

A couple if it's okay. On English Language Learning, I know we've only got the ramp-up of the sort of the nonstudent part of the Canada contract from the beginning of this year. But can you just talk at a high level how you think about the risk associated with the geopolitics of sort of migration and probably scope for sort of reductions in quotas for sort of immigration in markets like Canada and how that policy (inaudible). It would be great if you can just talk about that a little bit.

如果可以的話，一對。在英語語言學習方面，我知道從今年年初開始，我們只增加了加拿大合約中的非學生部分。但是，您能否從高層次談談您如何看待與移民地緣政治相關的風險，以及加拿大等市場移民配額減少的可能範圍，以及該政策如何實施（聽不清楚）。如果您能稍微談談這一點那就太好了。

Second question on the AI study tools, that program that you initiated at the beginning of this academic year, clearly looks like it's going quite well. I mean it's expanding rapidly. I'm interested in whether that is primarily a tool to just drive engagement and then bring with it adoption share and more usage or whether it's something that could drive meaningful revenue in the short term or medium term?

關於人工智慧學習工具的第二個問題，您在本學年之初啟動的該計劃顯然進展順利。我的意思是它正在迅速擴張。我感興趣的是，這是否主要是一種推動參與度，然後帶來採用份額和更多使用的工具，或者它是否可以在短期或中期帶來有意義的收入？

And then final question on, I suppose, political risk. I mean, Sami mentioned regulatory risk in Virtual School, which I'm not sure there is. But at the same time, the point with all of your activities to a degree is that policymakers can choose to interfere as they perhaps might do with increased access. How should we think about that risk running into an election year?

我想最後一個問題是政治風險。我的意思是，薩米提到了虛擬學校的監管風險，但我不確定是否存在。但同時，您所有活動在某種程度上的要點是，政策制定者可以選擇幹預，就像他們可能會增加訪問權限一樣。我們該如何看待選舉年的風險？

That's great, Tom. On the first question, I'm going to go straight to Gio, and then we'll pick up on AI next. So Gio, could you pick that one up, please?

太好了，湯姆。關於第一個問題，我將直接討論 Gio，然後我們接下來討論 AI。那麼吉奧，你能把那個拿起來嗎？

Yes, sure. Thank you, Tom. The high stakes assessment remains an exciting opportunity for us. The policy changes that you're referring to in 2024, we see them as a one-off normalization of inflows of students and migrants after the exceptional intakes that we had post pandemic and that we had anticipated. But first of all, the impact and the timing of that normalization depends on further regulation and could take time. Second, there is a long-term growth in this segment that will continue because students and migrants contribute meaningfully to these countries' economies. Just for example, a recent survey that we published in a couple of weeks in Australia, as that 72% of PTE test takers are employed in high skilled jobs and they make 38% more money than the country's median salary. So you can understand the impact of that.

是的，當然。謝謝你，湯姆。高風險評估對我們來說仍然是一個令人興奮的機會。您提到的 2024 年政策變化，我們認為這是在大流行後我們預期的大量學生和移民流入之後的一次性正常化。但首先，正常化的影響和時間取決於進一步的監管，並且可能需要時間。其次，這一領域的長期成長將持續下去，因為學生和移民對這些國家的經濟做出了有意義的貢獻。舉個例子，我們最近幾週在澳洲發布的一項調查顯示，72% 的 PTE 考生從事高技能工作，他們的收入比該國工資中位數高出 38%。所以你可以理解它的影響。

Now a couple of factors to understand the impact. Number one, people usually need to take the test before they apply to Visa. So there's not a linear correlation between the number of visas available and the tests that are taken. The second thing is these policy changes may result in actually an increased level of proficiency required to get a visa. And this would mean that people have to test more time to get to the English level required. And so that will turn into increased number of tests. The other thing to take into account, we've been growing share over the last 3 years, and we think there's still opportunity to grow share even if the market doesn't grow as much as in the past. And the reason for that is we believe we give an end-to-end experience to our customer, in this case, the test taker which is superior to competition in terms of the way you find the test, the way you book it, the way you take it all in one go and the way you are assessed fairly and without bias. And then the way you get to your test results very quickly and the way you can use them, they are basically accepted everywhere in the world now.

現在透過幾個因素來了解其影響。第一，人們在申請簽證之前通常需要參加測試。因此，可用簽證數量與參加的測試之間不存在線性相關性。第二件事是這些政策變化實際上可能會導致獲得簽證所需的熟練程度提高。這意味著人們必須花費更多的時間來測試才能達到所需的英語能力。因此，這將導致測試數量的增加。另一件需要考慮的事情是，過去三年我們的份額一直在增長，我們認為即使市場成長不如過去那麼多，我們仍然有機會成長份額。原因是我們相信我們為客戶提供了端到端的體驗，在這種情況下，考生在找到考試的方式、預訂考試的方式、考試的方式等方面都優於競爭對手。您一次性接受所有事情的方式以及公平且無偏見地評估您的方式。然後，您非常快速地獲得測試結果的方式以及使用它們的方式，現在它們基本上已被世界各地所接受。

The other -- and last point is that we have unlocked other growth opportunities in the PTE space, and we believe we can continue to do that. So in summary, those factors that you mentioned are real. But we feel confident about the growth that we have, the high single digit in 2024. And just to bear in mind, more than half of the revenue that we have in the division is outside of the high-stakes assessments. And in that space, we've been growing double digit every year consistently as we have in PTE in the last 3 years. So we think we have a track record and a team that knows how to innovate and to execute in there. Thank you, Tom.

另一個也是最後一點是，我們已經在 PTE 領域釋放了其他成長機會，我們相信我們可以繼續這樣做。綜上所述，你提到的這些因素都是真實存在的。但我們對 2024 年的高個位數成長充滿信心。請記住，我們該部門一半以上的收入不屬於高風險評估。在這個領域，我們每年都以兩位數的速度成長，就像過去 3 年 PTE 的成績一樣。因此，我們認為我們擁有良好的記錄和一支知道如何創新和執行的團隊。謝謝你，湯姆。

Gio, thank you very much. And Tom, I just want to like emphasize a little bit what Gio was saying there is that, of course, we are incredibly aware of the macro trends and what's happening in the world of migration. But even when the trend in migration is trending downwards, that doesn't mean the demand for migration is trending downward and it's the demand for migration that drives the test takers. And so that's something that I think you should be cognizant of.

吉奧，非常感謝你。湯姆，我只是想強調一下吉奧所說的，當然，我們非常了解宏觀趨勢以及移民世界中正在發生的事情。但即使移民趨勢呈下降趨勢，這並不意味著移民需求呈下降趨勢，而是移民需求驅動考生。所以我認為你應該認識到這一點。

Okay. On the AI topic, Tom, I'd like to come to you with this question of engagement versus monetization that Tom was asking us here. Maybe talk about us a little bit from your courseware perspective but also from Pearson perspective as well, please?

好的。關於人工智慧主題，湯姆，我想向您提出湯姆在這裡問我們的參與度與貨幣化的問題。也許可以從您的課件角度以及 Pearson 的角度來談談我們，好嗎？

Yes, absolutely. I mean I think the point I would make here is that we're incredibly excited by the engagement we're seeing with these tools today based on Pearson+ and in our corporate products. We had a meeting with some customers a week ago, and the feedback from the customers as they saw the new study tools, they were blown away because it allows them to teach differently. So as you think about the fact that in any sort of a higher education institution today, there's a lot of time that [backup] you're spending on getting the basics right with students and helping them understand.

是的，一點沒錯。我的意思是，我認為我在這裡要指出的一點是，我們對今天看到的基於 Pearson+ 和我們公司產品的這些工具的參與感到非常興奮。一週前，我們與一些客戶舉行了一次會議，當客戶看到新的學習工具時，他們的回饋讓他們大吃一驚，因為這讓他們能夠以不同的方式進行教學。因此，當你想到這樣一個事實時，在當今任何類型的高等教育機構中，你都會花費大量時間[備份]來向學生提供正確的基礎知識並幫助他們理解。

What we're increasingly seeing is that the role of faculty is changing. So this gives them more of an opportunity to move from a provider with basic instruction to starting to facilitate critical thinking differently is changing the role of faculty, and we're helping them do that. So it's changing the way they think about content, changing the way how -- in terms of how they think about working with content. And it's essentially benefiting from our rich data sets aligning that to our AI-driven study tools. And providing really exciting additional support from our (inaudible) students.

我們越來越多地看到，教師的角色正在改變。因此，這給了他們更多的機會，從提供基本指導的提供者轉變為開始以不同的方式促進批判性思維，這正在改變教師的角色，我們正在幫助他們做到這一點。因此，它正在改變他們思考內容的方式，改變他們對待內容的方式。它本質上受益於我們豐富的數據集，將其與我們的人工智慧驅動的研究工具相結合。並由我們的（聽不清楚）學生提供真正令人興奮的額外支持。

Now I think we're only in the foothills of what we can do with all of this. And so I'm incredibly excited about how we leverage this technology through every element of our Higher Education ecosystem. So not only do we have some of the tools in place for students this year, we're also building additional functionality into the platform from an instructor perspective as we think about how they create assignments. So we're using the AI to help them set up their assignments differently and think differently about how and where they curate assessment content to provide incredibly rich learning experiences for students. So we're incredibly excited about what we're doing.

現在我認為我們對這一切的努力只是剛起步。因此，我對我們如何在高等教育生態系統的每個要素中利用這項技術感到非常興奮。因此，今年我們不僅為學生準備了一些工具，而且在考慮學生如何創建作業時，我們還從教師的角度在平台中建立了額外的功能。因此，我們使用人工智慧來幫助他們以不同的方式設定作業，並以不同的方式思考如何以及在何處策劃評估內容，從而為學生提供極其豐富的學習體驗。所以我們對我們正在做的事情感到非常興奮。

As you mentioned, (inaudible) will be driving increased product usage and increased adoptions in the near term. And then obviously, as we're thinking about our broader ambition and vision, we're very clear that everything we have to do in the higher education landscape and indeed across the company will be heavily driven by bringing AI into our ecosystem and benefiting from that in terms of the additional hyper-personalization that convert to students. It means students where they need to be, and everyone learns differently and that's the power of AI that can help meet everyone where they are and provide that personalized learning.

正如您所提到的，（聽不清楚）將在短期內推動產品使用量和採用率的增加。顯然，當我們思考更廣泛的雄心和願景時，我們非常清楚，我們在高等教育領域乃至整個公司要做的一切都將在很大程度上通過將人工智能引入我們的生態系統並從中受益來推動。就轉化為學生的額外超個性化而言。這意味著學生在他們需要的地方，每個人的學習方式都不同，這就是人工智慧的力量，可以幫助滿足每個人的需要，並提供個人化的學習。

And what's also just sort of funny on an anecdotal note, it can help anyone actually talk in the morning. And all of our faculty whenever they're talking about this, they always reference to AM at the time that somehow students are learning and the AI study tools come into their own to 2 a.m. is a new hour to be doing homework.

有趣的是，它可以幫助任何人在早上真正說話。我們所有的教員每當談論這個問題時，他們總是會提到上午，當時學生正在學習，人工智慧學習工具開始發揮作用，凌晨 2 點是做作業的新時間。

Always on tutor. Thank you, Tom. I mean -- so you heard this concept of more telemetry in the product, capturing more data points for us that allow us to do more AB testing to constantly enrich the product. So yes, for sure, it will help with engagement, keeping people on our platform for longer. But as you can get the hint there from Tom, the more we're focused on real-world problems like helping an educator understand exactly where a student is struggling, the more we can monetize as well. And you can expect to see more of that in the future.

永遠在導師身邊。謝謝你，湯姆。我的意思是——所以你聽說過產品中更多遙測的概念，為我們捕獲更多數據點，使我們能夠進行更多 AB 測試，以不斷豐富產品。所以，是的，毫無疑問，這將有助於提高參與度，讓人們在我們的平台上停留更長時間。但正如你可以從湯姆那裡得到的暗示，我們越關注現實世界的問題，例如幫助教育工作者準確了解學生的困難所在，我們就越能從中獲利。未來您可以期待看到更多這樣的情況。

And then the last one there, Tom, on policymakers and virtual schools. How would you like us to think about that one?

最後一篇是湯姆，關於政策制定者和虛擬學校。您希望我們如何看待這個問題？

Yes. Look, I mean, I think, Thomas, you pointed out, whether it's on education or a special schools, there are ongoing regulatory challenges across the higher education space. That's actually one of the beauties of Pearson because we understand it deeply, whether it's in assessment, whether it's in K-12, from a virtual school perspective whether it's in higher education, it takes deep expertise to navigate all of the different things we do on a day-to-day basis. We have a really strong network in [mobile] space at the second level and at the state level. We monitor these things all the time and as part and parcel of life, and we do our best to be very proactive and think about this 12, 24, 36 months in advance.

是的。聽著，我的意思是，我認為，托馬斯，你指出，無論是教育還是特殊學校，整個高等教育領域都面臨著持續的監管挑戰。這實際上是培生的優點之一，因為我們深入了解它，無論是在評估中，無論是在K-12 中，從虛擬學校的角度來看，無論是在高等教育中，都需要深厚的專業知識來駕馭我們所做的所有不同的事情日復一日。我們在二級和州級的[行動]領域擁有非常強大的網路。我們一直在監控這些事情，並將其視為生活的一部分，我們盡最大努力保持積極主動，提前 12、24、36 個月考慮這一點。

Of course, [special] election year, there's always a chance of a bit for things happening in D.C. The obvious point I'd make about the K-12 market is that all of that really driven at the state level, so that's going to be less that you see at the state level presently outside D.C. and compared to what you see at the sort of the federal level. So we feel fairly good about what we're seeing at the moment in terms of how visibility into the market. As I said, we monitor all very closely. We have regular discussions with lobbyists on a weekly, monthly basis and whatever we're tracking we're tracking but we feel good about life at the moment.

當然，在[特殊]選舉年，華盛頓特區總是有可能發生一些事情。我對 K-12 市場的一個明顯觀點是，所有這些都是由州一級真正推動的，所以這將與您在聯邦一級看到的情況相比，目前在華盛頓特區以外的州一級看到的情況要少一些。因此，我們對目前所看到的市場可見度感到相當滿意。正如我所說，我們非常密切地監控一切。我們每週、每月與遊說者進行定期討論，無論我們正在跟踪什麼，我們都在跟踪，但我們對目前的生活感覺良好。

And then the last point I'd add on that, Tom, is that when you meet [Lauren] and the team who run virtual schools, their proximity to the market, their proximity to state officials is incredibly helpful. And I think our being incredibly local actually is incredibly defensible position for us. So actually, I feel strong about it. And I think it's easy to forget across this huge U.S. marketplace. There are only 2 national players, one of them is Pearson. I was getting a bit confusing there with Tom talking to Tom, but anyway, I think I figured it out. But operator, back to you, please.

湯姆，我要補充的最後一點是，當你見到[勞倫]和經營虛擬學校的團隊時，他們與市場的接近，與州官員的接近非常有幫助。我認為，我們的本土化其實對我們來說是非常有防禦力的。所以實際上，我對此感覺很強烈。我認為在美國這個巨大的市場中很容易被遺忘。國家隊球員只有2名，皮爾森就是其中之一。湯姆和湯姆說話讓我有點困惑，但無論如何，我想我已經明白了。但是接線員，請回電。

We now have Adam Berlin from UBS on the line.

現在我們接到了瑞銀 (UBS) 的亞當柏林 (Adam Berlin) 的電話。

Three questions from me, please. First question is for Tom Ap Simon. Can you emphasize -- in the presentation, you talked about some adoption wins. Can you just give the example. You may have anonymized with them, can you just talk through 1 or 2 examples of where you won the adoption and why? And if you can make the adoption, the examples around the big introductory courses, can we get a sense of what's getting people to change the Pearson and how big that could be?

請教我三個問題。第一個問題是問湯姆·阿普·西蒙的。您能否強調一下——在演示中，您談到了一些採用的成功。你能舉個例子嗎？您可能已經匿名了，您能舉出 1 到 2 個例子來說明您在哪裡贏得了採用以及為什麼？如果你能採用大型入門課程的例子，我們能否了解是什麼促使人們改變 Pearson 以及改變的規模有多大？

Second question is on English. Gio, I think you just said that only half of the revenue is from high-stakes exams, did you mean half in the Test of English revenue or half of the whole of English revenue? And for the high -- when you're talking about English growth's high single digit, what are you assuming about Australia and Canada? Do you think Australia volumes can still grow given the comps and the change in policy in 2024?

第二個問題是關於英語的。 Gio，我想你剛才說只有一半的收入來自高風險考試，你是指英文測驗收入的一半還是整個英文收入的一半？至於高成長——當你談論英國的高個位數成長時，你對澳洲和加拿大有何假設？鑑於 2024 年的比較和政策變化，您認為澳洲的銷售仍能成長嗎？

And finally, a question for Omar, on -- just really interested in your view on the Workforce Solutions product that Pearson has built. Do you think it's a bit for purpose and just needs to be kind of deployed in the market? Or do you think that based on the conversation you'd be having there, there's a bit of product development work to do until it's really ready for the market?

最後，向奧馬爾提出一個問題——只是非常想知道您對培生打造的勞動力解決方案產品的看法。您是否認為這有點有目的，只需要在市場上部署？或者您認為根據您在那裡進行的對話，在真正為市場做好準備之前還需要進行一些產品開發工作？

Thank you so much. Tom, you go first.

太感謝了。湯姆，你先走。

So I really like the question. So a good example is in one of our interactive calculus title. And that's a new title that we've relaunched this year. It's a 3 semester course, it's all video-based as well as sort of the e-text that you would expect. What we like about that product, in particular, and what's helped win on adoption so far is the integrated reading assignment. And this is where we bring a text and sort of formative assessment together so that you as a student or you as an instructor, it's all in one flow. And that means it's sort of riddle that you will do a little bit.

所以我真的很喜歡這個問題。我們的互動式微積分標題之一就是一個很好的例子。這是我們今年重新推出的新遊戲。這是一個為期 3 個學期的課程，全部基於影片以及您所期望的電子文字。我們特別喜歡該產品的地方，以及迄今為止幫助贏得採用的原因是整合的閱讀作業。這就是我們將文本和形成性評估結合在一起的地方，以便您作為學生或作為講師，這一切都在一個流程中。這意味著你需要做一點謎語。

So as you think about sort of the pedagogical approach within bringing the assessment together with the content right in one screen. Now as people are learning, that's a very powerful approach. And then aligned to that, it's the AI study tools as well. So people have always appreciated the really outstanding pedagogical approaches that we've got that's now being backed up by more learning science-driven and AI tools to help as well as a different approach in terms of the way we couple with the product between the assessments as well as the e-text. That's a very powerful story. It's really resonating strongly with faculty. And so I would say things about the interactive reading assignment as well as the study tools. We're just opening up more conversations on campus, right, more and more faculty at Pearson and want to understand about what we can do here. And those 2 features in particular really resonating in the market.

因此，當您考慮將評估與內容集中在一個螢幕上的教學方法時。現在，隨著人們的學習，這是一種非常有效的方法。與此一致的是人工智慧學習工具。因此，人們一直欣賞我們所擁有的真正出色的教學方法，這些方法現在得到了更多學習科學驅動和人工智慧工具的支持，以提供幫助，並在評估之間與產品結合的方式方面採用了不同的方法以及電子文本。這是一個非常有力的故事。這確實引起了教師們的強烈共鳴。所以我會談談互動式閱讀作業和學習工具。我們只是在校園裡展開更多的對話，對吧，越來越多的培生教員想要了解我們在這裡能做什麼。這兩個功能尤其在市場上引起了共鳴。

Thank you, Tom. Gio, please?

謝謝你，湯姆。吉奧，請嗎？

Yes. Thank you, Adam. The first part of your question is when I referred to the half of the revenue, I meant that we do recognize that there is policy restrictions in many of the receiving countries, but let's bear in mind that the beauty of ELL is that it has a very diversified revenue base. One of the interesting things is more than 50% -- actually 52% of our ELL revenue come from areas that are not high-stakes assessment and have grown consistently. That's the institutional and the Mondly business. So that business, we expect to continue to grow as well as, as I said, I won't repeat the dynamics on the high stakes there.

是的。謝謝你，亞當。你問題的第一部分是，當我提到收入的一半時，我的意思是我們確實認識到許多接收國存在政策限制，但我們要記住，ELL 的優點在於它有收入基礎非常多元化。有趣的事情之一是超過 50%——實際上我們 ELL 收入的 52% 來自不屬於高風險評估且持續成長的領域。這就是機構和 Mondly 的業務。因此，我們預計該業務將繼續成長，正如我所說，我不會重複那裡的高風險動態。

On the second part of your question, whether the Australia volume can still grow. I think as I said, the restrictions that have been announced have been really introduced in specific regulation yet. So we need to see what the regulation could be. Second thing is people will still want to emigrate or work on study, Australia, the fantastic destination to go on this. We will publish a research in 2 weeks that has specifically to do with Australia, and it's very exciting news coming up there. People will apply to the test before getting an admission to university or an immigration visa. So that will continue to happen. And also, if the policy changes say, for example, that you need a higher PTE score or actually all their scores because that's the way it works. People will need to retake the test more time to get to the desired score. And so what ultimately will impact in the demand of test is not a linear correlation.

關於你的問題的第二部分，澳洲的銷售是否還能成長。我認為正如我所說，已經宣布的限制措施還沒有真正落實到具體的監管。所以我們需要看看監管可能是什麼。第二件事是人們仍然想移民或工作學習，而澳洲是實現這一目標的絕佳目的地。我們將在兩週內發布一項專門與澳洲相關的研究，這是一個非常令人興奮的消息。人們會在獲得大學錄取或移民簽證之前申請考試。所以這種情況將會繼續發生。而且，如果政策發生變化，例如，你需要更高的 PTE 分數或實際上所有的分數，因為這就是它的運作方式。人們需要更多時間重新參加測驗才能獲得所需的分數。所以最終影響測試需求的並不是線性相關。

And then the third thing is in Australia, we have grown share consistently. We have a high share, but we believe there's still margin to grow further. So I think that's the ultimate effect on Australia volumes, for us it's uncertain, but there is different factors that point in the right direction.

第三件事是在澳大利亞，我們的份額持續成長。我們擁有很高的份額，但我們相信仍有進一步成長的空間。因此，我認為這對澳洲銷售產生最終影響，對我們來說這是不確定的，但有不同的因素指向正確的方向。

Thank you Gio, and then, Adam, on the last question on Workforce Solutions. What I can tell you is customer at Cleveland Clinic that I spent time with couldn't stop waxing lyrical about how amazing for them is and how it's at the heart of their workforce strategic planning for the company right down at the micro, not the skill level but task level in the business to really understand how they need to evolve their workforce in the future. And actually, it's challenging us to stay on the front foot of innovation in the way we have been for years. And so actually, I just love that interaction with them, and that's a customer who is really on the front end of where the world is going, and I feel very confident about that.

謝謝吉奧，然後謝謝亞當，關於勞動力解決方案的最後一個問題。我可以告訴你的是克利夫蘭診所的客戶，我花了很多時間與他們交談，不停地抒情地談論對他們來說有多麼神奇，以及它如何成為他們公司勞動力戰略規劃的核心，從微觀上講，而不是技能級別，而是業務中的任務級別，以真正了解他們未來需要如何發展員工隊伍。事實上，我們多年來一直保持創新領先地位，這對我們來說是一個挑戰。事實上，我只是喜歡與他們的互動，他們是真正處於世界發展趨勢前端的客戶，我對此感到非常有信心。

Similarly, I spent time with a customer at one of the huge hyperscalers on the West Coast in the U.S. And again, this lady is explaining to me why she's chosen Credly to deploy across the entire workforce of that big company and how it's a key part of their way of the development of their own people and really understanding in a granular way, how that motivates, how that inspires and also how frankly, people can credentialize themselves as they want to move up and get promotions and develop their careers. So I'm extremely confident that a lot of the assets that we have under the hood are very pertinent to this marketplace.

同樣，我曾與美國西海岸一家大型超大規模企業的一位客戶待過一段時間。這位女士再次向我解釋了為什麼她選擇 Credly 來部署該大公司的整個員工隊伍，以及它如何成為關鍵部分員工的發展方式，並真正細緻地了解如何激勵、如何激勵，以及坦白說，人們在想要晉升、晉升和發展職涯時可以如何證明自己。因此，我非常有信心，我們擁有的許多資產都與這個市場非常相關。

Now as you think about product going forward, there's never a day where you suddenly say, stop I'm done with the product. Any good product company is constantly evolving the product to meet customer needs, adding new innovations to monetize and increase value and you can expect Pearson to do that as well. Operator?

現在，當您考慮產品的未來發展時，您永遠不會有一天突然說，停下來，我已經完成了該產品。任何優秀的產品公司都會不斷改進產品以滿足客戶需求，並添加新的創新來貨幣化和增加價值，您可以期望培生也這樣做。操作員？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

And I would now like to hand it back to Jo for the online platform question.

現在我想把線上平台問題交還給 Jo。

So we've got -- we got 4 questions from Lisa from Goldman Sachs, but I think we've probably covered 2 of them, Lisa. So I'm going to go for the remaining 2. First one, losses worsened for Workforce Skills in 2023. Can you comment on the profitability to expect in 2024, given this lower-than-expected top line growth of high single digit. What's driving the slowdown to high single-digit growth for the division, are seeing weakness in corporate demand environment of your products are not gaining enough traction?

所以我們收到了來自高盛的 Lisa 的 4 個問題，但 Lisa，我想我們可能已經回答了其中的 2 個問題。因此，我將討論剩下的 2 個因素。第一個因素是 2023 年勞動力技能損失加劇。考慮到低於預期的高個位數收入成長，您能否對 2024 年的預期獲利能力發表評論。是什麼導致該部門的成長放緩至高個位數成長，您的產品在企業需求環境疲軟的情況下是否沒有獲得足夠的吸引力？

And then the second question is on A&Q margins. Very strong in 2023, can you sustain further improvement from here? And what is the operating leverage of the business?

第二個問題是關於 A&Q 利潤率。 2023 年非常強勁，您能在此基礎上保持進一步的進步嗎？該業務的營運槓桿是多少？

Thanks, Jo. I think, Sally, that's for you.

謝謝，喬。我想，莎莉，那是給你的。

Sure. Lisa, nice to hear from you. So the profitability in Workforce Skills, I think I covered the 2023 piece. So thinking about 2024, I think you'll see the operating leverage on that high single-digit revenue dropping through and then us coming into a first of all, profitability perspective. I think the thing to do, though, is to look further out in Workforce Skills where we expect to see further growth. At the moment, I'm guiding for the businesses that we've got right now. I think as we think about what more we can do with those assets, we'll see higher growth out into the future. And of course, the operating leverage on that will really start growing profits as we look out for the future. So I think that's the way to think of Workforce Skills.

當然。麗莎，很高興收到你的來信。因此，我認為我涵蓋了 2023 年勞動力技能的獲利能力。因此，考慮到 2024 年，我認為您會看到高個位數收入的營運槓桿下降，然後我們首先進入盈利前景。不過，我認為要做的事情是進一步關注勞動力技能，我們預計會看到進一步的成長。目前，我正在指導我們現有的業務。我認為，當我們思考我們可以利用這些資產做更多事情時，我們將看到未來更高的成長。當然，當我們展望未來時，營運槓桿將真正開始增加利潤。所以我認為這就是思考勞動力技能的方式。

In terms of the A&Q margin, in 2023, we've got the operating leverage on the top line. We've also got some cost efficiencies. And then A&Q, of course, also benefits from the fantastic growth that we've had with Pearson Test of English because one of the great synergies that we have at Pearson is that we're using our VUE test centers to deliver those tests. So really brilliant margin from that team in 2023. As you heard from Art, that brilliant margin and that operating leverage means that we can afford to invest in the business and further growth into the future. but the operating leverage will still grow margins into the future as well. So the CFO can have her cake and eat it, which is brilliant.

就 A&Q 利潤率而言，到 2023 年，我們的營運槓桿處於頂線。我們也取得了一些成本效益。當然，A&Q 也受益於 Pearson Test of English 的快速成長，因為 Pearson 的巨大協同效應之一就是我們使用 VUE 考試中心來提供這些考試。團隊在 2023 年將獲得非常出色的利潤。正如您從 Art 那裡聽到的那樣，出色的利潤和營運槓桿意味著我們有能力投資於業務並進一步實現未來成長。但營運槓桿仍將在未來提高利潤率。這樣，財務長就可以魚與熊掌兼得，這真是太棒了。

In terms of the operating leverage, the way I think of that business, it's slightly different depending on which segment you're looking at, but it's between 40% and 60%, depending on which businesses you're looking at. Thanks for your question, Lisa.

就營運槓桿而言，我對該業務的看法，根據您所關注的細分市場的不同，略有不同，但在 40% 到 60% 之間，具體取決於您所關注的業務。謝謝你的提問，麗莎。

I'll hand back to Omar.

我會把事情交還給奧馬爾。

Okay. Well, just to say thank you. Thanks so much for being with us, spending time with us. We know you're busy people, and we really appreciate you being focused on Pearson. I'm personally looking forward to getting to know you all, hopefully meeting you over the next weeks and months. I've enjoyed my first 8 weeks or so, I think it's 2 months next Friday. So yes, thanks so much, and see you all very soon.

好的。嗯，只是想說謝謝。非常感謝您與我們在一起，與我們共度時光。我們知道您很忙，我們非常感謝您關注 Pearson。我個人期待著認識你們所有人，希望在接下來的幾週和幾個月內見到你們。我很享受我的前 8 週左右，我想下週五就是 2 個月了。所以，是的，非常感謝，很快再見。

Thanks, everyone. Bye.

感謝大家。再見。

Thank you all for joining. I can confirm that does conclude today's conference call with Pearson. You may now disconnect your lines, and please enjoy the rest of your day.

感謝大家的加入。我可以確認今天與皮爾森的電話會議確實結束了。現在您可以斷開線路，並享受接下來的一天。