Pearson PLC (PSO) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Pearson's 2024 full year results. (Operator Instructions)

大家早安，歡迎關注培生 2024 年全年業績。（操作員指示）

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

說完這些，我就把麥克風交給奧馬爾。

Yeah. Thank you, Alex. Good morning, and welcome to all of you. Thank you for joining us today. As well as hearing from Sally and me, we're also joined by our colleagues, Art, Tom, Vishaal, Tony, and Sharon for Q&A. Many of you will recognize Sharon from the assessments and qualifications Investor seminar that we held back in November 2023. Let me formally introduce it to all of you.

是的。謝謝你，亞歷克斯。早上好，歡迎大家。感謝您今天加入我們。除了聽取 Sally 和我的發言外，我們的同事 Art、Tom、Vishaal、Tony 和 Sharon 也參與了問答。你們中的許多人都會在我們於 2023 年 11 月舉辦的評估和資格投資者研討會上認出 Sharon。下面我正式向大家介紹一下。

Sharon has held many leadership roles over her successful Pearson career and is currently MD of our US Student Assessments in UK and international qualifications businesses. She has a track record of strong results delivery. I'm pleased to announce that Sharon will become our new President of English language learning effective next month.

在 Pearson 的成功職業生涯中，Sharon 擔任過許多領導職務，目前擔任英國和國際資格認證業務的美國學生評估部門的董事總經理。她有著出色的業績記錄。我很高興地宣布，莎倫將於下個月成為我們新任英語學習總裁。

This means that Gio Giovannelli has decided to leave Pearson. Gio has contributed so much to Pearson over the last 12 years. Congrats to Gio. And he's been instrumental in driving the strong revenue and profit growth of our English language learning business. I'd like to thank him for his big contribution and wish him all the best for the next endeavor.

這意味著吉奧·喬瓦內利已決定離開培生。在過去 12 年裡，Gio 為培生做出了巨大貢獻。恭喜 Gio。他對推動我們英語學習業務的強勁收入和利潤成長發揮了重要作用。我要感謝他的巨大貢獻，並祝他在接下來的工作中一切順利。

He'll continue to be available to Sharon and the team over the coming period. Now, I'll kick off with an update on our strategic progress before handing over to Sally, who will run you through our financial results for '24 and our expectations of 2025.

在接下來的一段時間裡，他將繼續為莎倫和團隊提供幫助。現在，我將首先介紹我們的策略進展，然後交給 Sally，她將向您介紹我們 2024 年的財務表現以及我們對 2025 年的預期。

You'll remember that we set out three priorities for 2024. And I'm pleased to say that we successfully delivered on all three. First, we delivered a financial performance in line with market expectations. We grew sales by 3% and profits by 10%. I'm particularly happy with the resulting EBIT margin of 16.9% and strong free cash flow generation.

你們會記得，我們​​為 2024 年制定了三個優先事項。我很高興地說，我們成功地實現了這三個目標。一是財務業績符合市場預期。我們的銷售額成長了 3%，利潤成長了 10%。我對最終的 16.9% 息稅前利潤率和強勁的自由現金流產生感到特別滿意。

Second, as further evidenced by today's announcement of our partnership with AWS, we're building real momentum in the enterprise business. And third, we're scaling the application of AI across a wide range of our products and services, and this is happening across the entire business, and we're starting to see commercial benefits flow through from these initiatives.

其次，正如我們今天宣布與 AWS 建立合作夥伴關係進一步證明的那樣，我們正在企業業務中建立真正的發展勢頭。第三，我們正在廣泛的產品和服務中擴展人工智慧的應用，這種情況正在整個業務中發生，我們開始看到這些措施帶來的商業利益。

We will share various examples during the presentation, and for those of you here in the room, we have lots of great demos for you outside that I would love for you to go and experience. I'm now one year in, and I would like to take a moment to step back, and reiterate some of my initial observations about the company that I shared at our interim's presentation last year, as they are every bit as applicable today as they were then.

我們將在演示過程中分享各種範例，對於在場的各位，我們在外面為你們準備了很多精彩的演示，我希望你們能夠去體驗一下。現在我已經工作一年了，我想花點時間回顧一下，並重申我在去年中期報告中分享的對公司的一些初步觀察，因為它們在今天仍然像當時一樣適用。

Pearson is a financially strong business with good growth options. And it is a trusted business with a respected brand and is viewed as the gold standard by many of our customers. And now a court is in assessments and verification. We spoke last year to you about two seismic trends of AI and demographics that are shaping the world of work and education.

培生是一家財務實力雄厚的公司，擁有良好的成長選擇。它是一家值得信賴的企業，擁有受人尊敬的品牌，被許多客戶視為黃金標準。目前，法院正在對此進行評估和核實。去年，我們與您討論了人工智慧和人口統計的兩大重大趨勢，它們正在塑造工作和教育世界。

Last month at Davos, we published a paper, Lost in Transition. Quite a nice bit of research on the cost of the gaps in the learning to earning transition, which in the US alone accounts for $1.1 trillion of loss. We spoke to dozens of CEOs on the back of this, and they all shared a common concern. How do they upskill their employees while they are busy driving AI-based transformations in their business?

上個月在達沃斯，我們發表了一篇論文，題為《迷失於轉型》。關於從學習到賺錢的轉變過程中的差距造成的成本，有相當多的研究，僅在美國就造成了 1.1 兆美元的損失。我們就此問題採訪了數十位首席執行官，他們都有一個共同的擔憂。當他們忙於推動以人工智慧為基礎的業務轉型時，他們如何提升員工的技能？

This reinforces our conviction in these trends, and I believe strongly that Pearson is uniquely well placed to help address these issues. I'd like now to run through our progress on each of the four strategic priorities that you can see on the slide. Starting with driving call performance.

這加強了我們對這些趨勢的信念，我堅信培生具有獨特的優勢來幫助解決這些問題。現在，我想介紹一下投影片上顯示的四個策略重點的進展。從提高通話效能開始。

I'm pleased with our progress on our execution orientation. The evolution of our products and services and our people initiatives. We achieved many milestones in our two largest business units and delivered what we said we would deliver. Our team and assessments and qualifications, thank you, Art, had a fantastic year of execution.

我對我們在執行方面取得的進展感到滿意。我們的產品和服務以及我們的人員計劃的演變。我們在兩個最大的業務部門取得了許多里程碑，並兌現了我們的承諾。我們的團隊、評估和資格，謝謝你，阿特，度過了出色的一年。

Pearson VUE achieved customer retention of 99%. We successfully renewed key contracts in US student assessments and scale our qualifications business internationally. We also continue to evolve our products and services. In Pearson View, we built out test prep content and sales capabilities.

Pearson VUE 的客戶保留率達到 99%。我們成功續簽了美國學生評估領域的關鍵合同，並在國際上擴展了我們的資格認證業務。我們也將繼續改進我們的產品和服務。在 Pearson View 中，我們建立了考試準備內容和銷售能力。

And in clinical assessment, we launched the fifth edition of the Wechsler scale, the leading measure of adult intelligence in the world. And we extended our digital assessment library for schools. These achievements set us up well for 2025, and this year, Art and the team will focus on maintaining our leading positions through contract renewals and new ones, as well as expanding into faster growing markets.

在臨床評估方面，我們推出了第五版韋氏量表，這是世界上領先的成人智力測量標準。我們也擴展了學校的數位評估庫。這些成就為我們 2025 年的發展奠定了良好的基礎，今年，Art 和團隊將致力於透過續約和簽訂新合約來維持我們的領先地位，並擴展到成長更快的市場。

For example, monetizing our test prep capabilities in Pearson VUE and accelerating our efforts in formative assessments in the US student assessment. Just as we said we would. We successfully returned high rate of growth. For the first time in a decade, and improved our adoption share position in 2024.

例如，將我們在 Pearson VUE 中的考試準備能力貨幣化，並加快我們在美國學生評估中形成性評估的努力。正如我們所說的。我們成功恢復了高成長率。十年來首次，並在 2024 年提高了我們的採用份額。

This was achieved through customer-focused sales execution and rapid innovation in the product. These included the accelerated rollout of our AI powered instructor tools for teachers and study tools for students. Critically, these tools are delivering results for learners, and our research shows that students are 4 times as likely to engage in active and efficient studying when using our AI tools.

這是透過以客戶為中心的銷售執行和產品的快速創新來實現的。其中包括加速推出教師導向的人工智慧指導工具和學生導向的學習工具。至關重要的是，這些工具正在為學習者帶來成果，我們的研究表明，學生在使用我們的人工智慧工具時，參與積極高效學習的可能性要高出 4 倍。

I'd encourage you to check out some great examples of our progress on this in the product demo zone for those of you here, in particular, the new image-powered features, for example, around my labs with, which further enrich and personalize the learning experience.

我鼓勵你們在產品演示區查看我們在這方面取得的一些很好的進展示例，特別是新的圖像驅動功能，例如圍繞我的實驗室的功能，這進一步豐富和個性化了學習體驗。

We also built out a direct sales team to extend our reach directly into the US K-12 channel for advanced placement, dual enrollment, and career and technical offerings. This improves our ability to capture value from this fast growing segment over the medium term. In addition, we successfully scaled and started to monetize our channel's product. Thanks, Tony.

我們還組建了一支直銷團隊，將業務範圍直接擴展到美國 K-12 管道，提供高級安置、雙重註冊以及職業和技術服務。這提高了我們在中期內從這個快速成長的領域中獲得價值的能力。此外，我們成功擴大了規模並開始將我們頻道的產品貨幣化。謝謝，托尼。

These achievements provide a strong basis for 2025 when combined with the execution mindset that Tom and the team have brought to the business unit. They will focus on continuing to win adoption share, further scaling our channel's product, and expanding our target market through our new K-12 channel and opportunities in new collar skills.

這些成就與湯姆和團隊為業務部門帶來的執行力相結合，為 2025 年奠定了堅實的基礎。他們將專注於繼續贏得採用份額，進一步擴大我們通路的產品，並透過我們的新 K-12 管道和新領口技能機會擴大我們的目標市場。

We also successfully delivered on our strategic milestones across our other business units. In virtual learning, we opened three new schools, scaled our career programs, and made numerous operational improvements, including implementing a new portal that halves enrollment times.

我們也成功實現了其他業務部門的策略里程碑。在虛擬學習方面，我們開設了三所新學校，擴大了職業課程，並進行了許多營運改進，包括實施了一個將入學時間縮短一半的新入口網站。

This progress gives us greater confidence in the growth outlook for virtual schools. We're also continually improving the nexus product offering, leveraging the technology piloted in higher education. We've extended our AI study tools into the platform to provide high school students with step by step assistance.

這項進展使我們對虛擬學校的發展前景更有信心。我們也不斷改進 nexus 產品，利用高等教育中試點的技術。我們將AI學習工具擴展到平台中，為高中生提供循序漸進的幫助。

And for teachers, we've launched the AI generated custom assessment, which halves the time it takes to create an assessment. We're confident in delivering improved performance this year, and stronger growth over the long term as we continue to scale our career and college readiness programs, drive improvements in the enrollment performance, and look to expand our school footprint through new school openings.

對於教師，我們推出了人工智慧生成的自訂評估，將創建評估所需的時間縮短了一半。我們有信心今年取得更好的業績，並在長期內實現更強勁的增長，因為我們將繼續擴大職業和大學準備計劃，推動入學成績的提高，並尋求通過開設新學校來擴大我們的學校影響力。

We built new foundations in our workforce skills division in 2024. Vishal and the team are building momentum in their enterprise approach and have landed key wins over the recent months with ServiceNow, Microsoft, and now AWS. This is on top of the partnership with the greed that broadens out our capabilities.

2024 年，我們在勞動力技能部門建立了新的基礎。Vishal 和他的團隊正在大力推進企業發展方式，並在最近幾個月與 ServiceNow、Microsoft 以及現在的 AWS 合作中取得了關鍵勝利。這是與貪婪者建立的夥伴關係，它拓寬了我們的能力。

I'm happy to also report that they turned a profit. I'll speak more about the evolution of workforce skills to enterprise learning and skills later in the presentation. For 2025, the focus is on execution for the new business unit, capitalizing on sales momentum and enterprise solutions, aided by the new go to market approach, as well as international expansion and vocational qualifications.

我很高興地告訴大家，他們已經獲利了。我將在稍後的演講中詳細討論勞動力技能向企業學習和技能的演變。2025 年的重點是新業務部門的執行，利用銷售動能和企業解決方案，借助新的行銷方法以及國際擴張和職業資格。

And lastly, we turn to English language learning. Gio and the team continue to execute with strong performance in the institutional business, scaling in key international markets. Delivering an exceptional performance in PTE where we grew sales despite a challenging market backdrop.

最後，我們來談談英語學習。Gio 和他的團隊繼續在機構業務中表現出色，並在主要國際市場擴大規模。儘管市場環境充滿挑戰，但我們在 PTE 領域仍表現出色，銷售額實現成長。

While we expect the immigration market to remain a headwind this year, we remain confident in the medium term outlook for PTE given demographic projections and our competitive strength.

雖然我們預計今年移民市場仍將面臨阻力，但考慮到人口預測和我們的競爭實力，我們仍然對PTE的中期前景充滿信心。

We continue to release AI powered product services for English students and teachers globally. I'd now like to give you a taster of our most recent AI powered product launch, a digital language tutor. You could also take it for a spin in the product zones after the presentation. If we can roll the video, please.

我們將繼續為全球的英語學生和教師推出人工智慧產品服務。現在我想向大家介紹我們最近推出的人工智慧產品——數位語言導師。示範結束後，您也可以在產品區試用一下。如果我們可以播放視頻，請。

(video playing)

（影片播放）

These benefit all five business units, allowing our teams to be more productive, service our customers better, release products to market faster, and ultimately drive cost efficiencies. Let me give you more detail on our progress.

這些使所有五個業務部門受益，使我們的團隊更有效率，更好地服務客戶，更快地將產品推向市場，並最終提高成本效率。讓我向您詳細介紹我們的進展。

We've made a suite of content development tools available for our authoring and editorial teams which are powered by a range of leading LLMs, giving our content teams the best possible tools for their use cases and offering significant time savings. Importantly, these tools are always inside our secure environment, ensuring the protection and ongoing development of our valuable proprietary data sets.

我們為創作和編輯團隊提供了一套內容開發工具，這些工具由一系列領先的 LLM 提供支持，為我們的內容團隊提供了最適合其使用案例的工具，並節省了大量時間。重要的是，這些工具始終位於我們的安全環境中，確保我們寶貴的專有資料集的保護和持續開發。

On customer service, our analysis finds that 40% of incoming support calls are initiated because there is no alternative. This represents a target of approximately 3 million customer service interactions per annum that can be reduced through the application of AI. We're deploying a range of solutions here, including greater automation, AI bots, and agent support to improve and deliver efficiencies in our customer experience.

在客戶服務方面，我們的分析發現，40% 的來電支援電話都是因為沒有其他選擇而撥打的。這意味著透過應用人工智慧可以減少每年約 300 萬次客戶服務互動。我們在此部署一系列解決方案，包括更高的自動化、人工智慧機器人和代理支持，以改善和提高客戶體驗的效率。

Finally, on people, I believe strongly that we, if we have the right people in the right positions with real clarity on expectations and incentives, we get much better outcomes. This is why we have implemented a new career architecture across the whole company that lays out career expectations and career pathways across all the roles.

最後，關於人才，我堅信，如果我們將合適的人才安排在合適的職位上，並明確期望和激勵措施，我們就能取得更好的結果。這就是為什麼我們在整個公司實施了新的職業架構，列出了所有職位的職業期望和職業道路。

We've also optimized organizational spans of control, and put in place other elements of our performance culture. As anticipated, this work has identified efficiencies that we have already implemented. Before I move on, I wanted to take a step back. I'm really pleased with the rapid progress that we've made in driving performance, and you've heard the execution milestones we accomplished in 2024.

我們也優化了組織的控制範圍，並建立了績效文化的其他要素。正如預期的那樣，這項工作已經確定了我們已經實施的效率。在繼續之前，我想退一步。我對我們在駕駛性能方面取得的快速進步感到非常高興，而且您已經聽說了我們在 2024 年實現的執行里程碑。

And we know this is a journey. There's always room to improve. For example, with work ongoing in areas like growth rates in virtual schools, our margin in higher ed, and rolling out our enterprise account management approach. You can be confident that we continue to focus on all these areas, and Naseem Tuffaha, who recently joined us as our Chief Business Officer, is going to help a lot in our ongoing progress here.

我們知道這是一段旅程。總有改進的空間。例如，我們正在進行虛擬學校的成長率、高等教育的利潤率以及企業帳戶管理方法的推廣等領域的工作。您可以放心，我們將繼續關注所有這些領域，最近加入我們並擔任首席商務官的 Naseem Tuffaha 將為我們在這方面的持續進步提供很大幫助。

We spoke last year to you about execution synergies, and I'd like to highlight our progress in the product and software areas. Let me reiterate a point I made last year. Pearson is a major software business. But historically we had not run ourselves in a way to take advantage of modern software approaches.

去年我們與您討論了執行協同效應，我想強調我們在產品和軟體領域的進展。讓我重申一下我去年提出的觀點。培生是一家大型軟體公司。但從歷史上看，我們並沒有以利用現代軟體方法的方式運作。

Under Tony, we've now put in place a product excellence team that is implementing new approaches for product discovery, development, and deployment. This will benefit Pearson as a whole, ensuring a common software product development life cycle, enabling faster innovation and expansion to ever more valuable learning experiences.

在 Tony 的領導下，我們現在已經成立了一支產品卓越團隊，正在實施產品發現、開發和部署的新方法。這將使整個培生集團受益，確保通用的軟體產品開發生命週期，從而實現更快的創新並擴展到更有價值的學習體驗。

It also provides a sharper investment focus on scaling emerging products that have the best chance of commercialization to support our growth ambitions. In addition, we'll benefit from a common approach to a small number of core platform services across Pearson, which will drive cost efficiencies in our product development spend.

它也使我們更加專注於擴大最有可能實現商業化的新興產品的投資，以支持我們的成長目標。此外，我們將受益於培生集團對少數核心平台服務的通用方法，這將提高我們產品開發支出的成本效率。

You can already see the early benefits of this approach through the speed of AI product enhancements that we're already making across the business, and we're pleased to show you another example from assessments and qualifications. Video, please.

您已經可以透過我們在整個業務範圍內進行的 AI 產品增強速度看到這種方法的早期好處，我們很高興向您展示來自評估和資格的另一個示例。請提供影片。

(video playing)

（影片播放）

This sharper focus on product development has several additional benefits. Now, when we look across the entire product estate, we acknowledge it is still quite fragmented, but looking at our products in this holistic way is also a route to simplification.

更加重視產品開發還有幾個額外的好處。現在，當我們審視整個產品領域時，我們承認它仍然相當分散，但以這種整體的方式看待我們的產品也是簡化的途徑。

One way you will see us simplify is through changing our product branding approach, which over time will improve our external signal to noise ratio. We'll deliver changes through clearer product suites, better branding, and more established market positioning. Which will help customers better navigate our offerings and in turn make it easier for them to buy from us.

您將看到我們簡化的一個方法是透過改變我們的產品品牌方法，隨著時間的推移，這將提高我們的外部訊號雜訊比。我們將透過更清晰的產品套件、更好的品牌和更成熟的市場定位來實現變革。這將幫助客戶更好地了解我們的產品，使他們更容易從我們這裡購買產品。

You'll remember our targeted market expansion where we spoke about investing more intentionally in higher growth markets. And on this, I want to mention three things. First, I'd like to explain a little bit more about thinking regarding the formation of enterprise learning and skills.

您會記得我們的目標市場擴張，我們談到要更有針對性地投資高成長市場。關於這一點，我想提三件事。首先我想再解釋一下關於企業學習和技能形成的思考。

You'll recognize this slide from last year, where we identified the enterprise customer segment, you can see the big rectangle there as one of the key opportunities to expand our addressable market from a $15 billion dollar core to a larger $80 billion dollar market growing at 5%-plus.

您會認出去年的這張投影片，我們在其中確定了企業客戶細分，您可以看到那裡的大矩形是將我們​​的潛在市場從 150 億美元的核心市場擴展到成長率超過 5% 的 800 億美元大市場的關鍵機會之一。

To sharpen our focus on this customer segment, we've simplified our approach by bringing together our sales capabilities that target enterprises, both corporations and government agencies excluding education departments. We're building dedicated strategic account management and a joined up go to market approach so that we can better service this customer segment with the full suite of Pearson solutions.

為了加強對這群客戶的關注，我們簡化了方法，整合了針對企業（包括公司和政府機構，但不包括教育部門）的銷售能力。我們正在建立專門的策略客戶管理和聯合的行銷方法，以便我們能夠透過全套 Pearson 解決方案更好地為這一客戶群提供服務。

As we're starting to build momentum. As we've shown through the deals that we recently announced with large scale technology companies, the product bundling across our enterprise offerings, for example, VUE with Credly and Faethm, and also our Pearce and VUE team developing test prep content and capabilities to target the enterprise segment.

當我們開始積聚動力時。正如我們最近與大型科技公司宣布的交易中所展示的那樣，我們的企業產品捆綁銷售，例如 VUE 與 Credly 和 Faethm 的合作，以及我們的 Pearce 和 VUE 團隊開發的針對企業領域的考試準備內容和功能。

Secondly, we're making good progress outside the enterprise space as well. Capturing value from shifting focus to faster growing markets. An example here is informative assessments, in particular, our work with the school districts in North Dakota, where we're providing a comprehensive assessment approach including formative, interim, and summative assessments. That provide a fuller narrative of an ongoing student performance.

其次，我們在企業領域之外也取得了良好的進展。透過將焦點轉移到更快成長的市場來獲取價值。這裡的一個例子是資訊評估，特別是我們與北達科他州學區的合作，我們提供一種全面的評估方法，包括形成性評估、中期評估和總結性評估。這為學生的持續表現提供了更全面的敘述。

Thirdly, we've established our internal capital allocation process which targets investment dollars at businesses that provide a platform for faster growth. We are also progressing steadily with our medium term growth vectors, and you'll recall these are in early careers at enterprise skilling.

第三，我們建立了內部資本配置流程，將投資資金投向那些能提供更快成長平台的企業。我們的中期成長向量也在穩步推進，您會記得，這些都是企業技能培訓的早期階段。

In our virtual schools business, we've expanded our career programs to over half of our network, and we're seeing very strong student usage and demand for the offering. We've also expanded our career partnerships with associations like the National Technical Honor Society, the CAPS Network, as well as universities like the University of North Texas and Southern New Hampshire.

在我們的虛擬學校業務中，我們已將職業計劃擴展到我們網路的一半以上，並且我們看到學生對該產品的使用率和需求非常強勁。我們還擴大了與國家技術榮譽協會、CAPS 網路等協會以及北德克薩斯大學和南新罕布什爾大學等大學的職業合作夥伴關係。

This helps expand our reach of the career programs and provides students with additional opportunities to identify a unique customized pathway for their own individual career journey. In higher education, the extension of our career and technical offerings, now being sold directly into the USK-12 channel, is also part of our effort here.

這有助於擴大我們的職業計劃的覆蓋範圍，並為學生提供更多機會來確定適合他們個人職業生涯的獨特定制途徑。在高等教育領域，我們擴大職業和技術課程的覆蓋範圍，現在直接向 USK-12 管道銷售，這也是我們努力的一部分。

On enterprise skilling, Vishaal and Art are making steady progress across enterprise learning and skills and the view team. As our multi-year deal with ServiceNow is aimed at accelerating the identification, development, and validation of skills for employers. As part of this, ServiceNow will collaborate with Pearson on research and insights to explore how emerging technologies like agentic AI will transform key technology occupations globally and how to test, credentialize, and award employees for those skills.

在企業技能方面，Vishaal 和 Art 在企業學習和技能以及視圖團隊方面取得了穩步進展。我們與 ServiceNow 達成的多年協議旨在加速雇主對技能的識別、開發和驗證。作為其中的一部分，ServiceNow 將與 Pearson 合作進行研究和洞察，探索代理人工智慧等新興技術將如何改變全球關鍵技術職業，以及如何測試、認證和獎勵員工的這些技能。

And Pearson will use the ServiceNow's AI powered Now platform to boost employee productivity, efficiency, and talent retention. Hot on the heels of the Microsoft announcement last month. Today I'm delighted to let you know about another large scale strategic partnership, this time with AWS.

培生將利用 ServiceNow 的 AI 驅動的 Now 平台來提高員工的生產力、效率和人才留任率。緊接著微軟上個月的公告之後。今天我很高興地告訴大家我們又建立了一個大規模的策略夥伴關係，這次是與 AWS 建立的。

At Pearson, we've had a 13-year partnership with AWS and I'm pleased that we're taking our relationship to the next level. There are three main elements. First, leveraging AWS engineers to help us accelerate our tech transformation across higher education, virtual learning, and English language learning by deploying AWS high-performance cloud infrastructure to improve the learner experience across our products.

在 Pearson，我們與 AWS 已經合作了 13 年，我很高興我們的關係更上一層樓。主要有三個要素。首先，利用 AWS 工程師幫助我們加速高等教育、虛擬學習和英語語言學習的技術轉型，透過部署 AWS 高效能雲端基礎架構來改善我們產品的學習者體驗。

Second, AWS and Amazon are increasingly important customers across a range of talent planning and development areas and have committed to extending our enterprise learning relationship, including Pearson VUE, alongside our GED works program and the Credly platform.

其次，AWS 和亞馬遜在人才規劃和發展領域正成為越來越重要的客戶，並致力於擴展我們的企業學習關係，包括 Pearson VUE、我們的 GED 工作計畫和 Credly 平台。

Third, we will also collaborate on joint go to market opportunities focusing on clinical assessments, professional assessments, and English language learning. We're really pleased to add this partnership as it plays into a number of strategic priority areas for us and helps enhance our AI and technology capabilities in areas that we know AWS are best placed to support us.

第三，我們也將合作開拓以臨床評估、專業評估和英語學習為重點的市場機會。我們非常高興能夠建立這種合作關係，因為它對我們許多策略重點領域都有幫助，並有助於增強我們在 AWS 最適合支援我們的領域的人工智慧和技術能力。

I see this deal through a similar lens as our Microsoft relationship. First, that we've secured the base business that we have with these partners for the coming several years. Second, we're expanding that base business as part of the arrangement to deliver at least mid-single digit growth. And third, we will collaborate on joint go to market activities across many parts of our business.

我從與我們和微軟的關係類似的角度來看這筆交易。首先，我們已經確保了與這些合作夥伴在未來幾年內開展的基礎業務。其次，作為協議的一部分，我們正在擴大基礎業務，以實現至少中等個位數的成長。第三，我們將在業務的多個領域開展聯合行銷活動。

We're really excited by what these partnerships can do for us strategically and operationally, and these deals together support our confidence in our medium-term growth outlook. With regards to the joint go to markets, we're in the early stages of these long-term relationships where our leaders and theirs are co-innovating and co-designing future products and solutions.

我們對這些合作關係在策略和營運方面為我們帶來的益處感到非常興奮，這些交易共同增強了我們對中期成長前景的信心。關於聯合進入市場，我們正處於長期合作關係的早期階段，我們的領導者和他們的領導者正在共同創新和共同設計未來的產品和解決方案。

And as these are built out, we will have incentives for our and their salespeople in place to drive our joint growth. I look forward to updating you on this as we progress.

隨著這些計劃的實施，我們將為我們的銷售人員和他們的銷售人員提供激勵措施，以推動我們的共同成長。我期待著隨著我們的進展向您通報這一情況。

I'll come back to you to discuss our 2025 priorities before we close out, but for now, Sally will take a more in-depth look at our financials.

在我們結束之前，我會回來和你討論我們的 2025 年優先事項，但現在，莎莉將更深入地研究我們的財務狀況。

Good morning, everybody. Excuse me, 2024 proved another year of good financial performance. We saw a 10% increase in profit, with margin expanding from 15.6% to 16.9%. Adjusted EPS increased 7% to 62.1%, reflecting that trading performance, as well as reduced share count due to the buybacks in the year, partially offset by higher interest and tax.

大家早安。對不起，2024 年又是一個財務表現良好的一年。我們的利潤成長了 10%，利潤率從 15.6% 擴大到 16.9%。調整後的每股收益增長 7% 至 62.1%，反映了交易業績以及由於本年度回購導致的股票數量減少，但部分被更高的利息和稅收所抵消。

Cash performance was excellent, with operating cash conversion of 110% and free cash flow conversion of 117%. This strong performance alongside our balance sheet strength, means that we're increasing the dividend by 6%, as well as announcing a share buyback of GBP350 million, which will commence as soon as administratively possible.

現金表現優異，經營現金轉換率為 110%，自由現金流轉換率為 117%。這一強勁表現加上我們資產負債表的強勁，意味著我們將提高 6% 的股息，並宣布回購 3.5 億英鎊的股票，這將在行政上盡快開始。

Before we get into the detail, I think it's worth reflecting on our financial performance over the last five years. This progress shows real momentum across the business, which gives us confidence in delivering another good year in 2025 and in our guidance beyond that.

在我們討論細節之前，我認為值得回顧一下我們過去五年的財務表現。這項進展顯示整個業務領域呈現出真正的成長勢頭，這使我們有信心在 2025 年再創佳績，並對我們之後的業績預期充滿信心。

In 2024, we delivered underlying group sales growth of 3%, excluding OPM. By business unit, assessments and qualifications delivered a solid performance across each sub-business unit, accelerating growth in H2.

2024 年，我們實現了集團基礎銷售額 3% 的成長（不包括 OPM）。按業務部門劃分，評估和資格在各子業務部門均表現穩健，加速了下半年的成長。

Virtual schools declined 1% due to the known school losses, but '24, '25 enrollments were up 4% on a same school basis, and we also opened three new schools. Virtual learning declined 4% given the final portion of OPM ASU in the first half comp. Higher ed returned to growth, given gains in adoption share, enrollments and pricing partially offset by mix.

由於已知學校的損失，虛擬學校的數量下降了 1%，但 24、25 年入學人數在同一所學校基礎上增加了 4%，而且我們還開設了三所新學校。考慮到上半年 OPM ASU 的最後一部分，虛擬學習下降了 4%。由於採用份額、入學人數和定價方面的增長被混合部分抵消，高等教育恢復了增長。

The H2 (inaudible) higher ed growth of circa 3.5% underpins our confidence going forward. English language learning delivered a strong 8% performance driven by institutional, with PTE performing well against a tough market, and workforce skills grew 6% with a solid performance from both vocational qualifications and workforce solutions and momentum given recent partnership contracts with ServiceNow, Microsoft, and now AWS.

H2（聽不清楚）高等教育成長率約 3.5%，這鞏固了我們對未來的信心。在機構的推動下，英語學習取得了 8% 的強勁表​​現，其中 PTE 在艱難的市場中表現良好，勞動力技能增長了 6%，職業資格和勞動力解決方案均表現穩健，並且得益於最近與 ServiceNow、微軟以及現在的 AWS 簽訂的合作合同，發展勢頭強勁。

Group adjusted operating profit grew 10% on an underlying basis to GBP600 million, with margin up 130 basis points to 16.9%. This was driven by margin on sales growth and delivery of cost efficiencies, partially offset by investment and inflation. By business unit, assessments and qualifications grew its margin to 23% due to margin on sales growth, partially offset by inflation.

集團調整後營業利潤基本成長 10%，達到 6 億英鎊，利潤率上升 130 個基點，達到 16.9%。這是由銷售利潤的成長和成本效率的提高所推動的，但被投資和通貨膨脹部分抵消。按業務部門劃分，評估與資格認證的利潤率由於銷售利潤率的增長而增長至 23%，但部分被通貨膨脹所抵消。

Virtual learning margins increased to 13%, with absolute profit reducing due to the final portion of OPM ASU in the first half comp. Higher ed margins remained flat, given sales growth and cost savings were offset by inflation, as well as one-off investment and restructuring costs. English language learning margins increased to 12%, with profit increasing due to margin on sales growth partially offset by currency movements.

虛擬學習利潤率增加至 13%，由於上半年 OPM ASU 的最後一部分，絕對利潤減少。由於銷售額成長和成本節約被通貨膨脹以及一次性投資和重組成本所抵消，較高的教育利潤率保持穩定。英語學習利潤率增加至 12%，利潤的增加是由於銷售利潤率的成長被貨幣變動部分抵銷。

Workforce skills turned profitable, delivering a 4% margin driven by margin on sales growth and cost savings. I highlighted last year that 2024 would see a step change in Pearson's free cash flow generation, and we have seen it increase by more than GBP100 million to GBP490 million.

勞動力技能實現了盈利，在銷售成長和成本節約的推動下，利潤率達到 4%。我去年強調過，2024 年培生的自由現金流產生將發生重大變化，我們已經看到它增加了 1 億多英鎊，達到 4.9 億英鎊。

Operating cash conversion was 110% with favorable working capital given lower inventory purchases as we increasingly become a digital business, good collections, and favorable effects. Investment amortization and depreciation was higher than the cash cost, with CapEx stable year on year, and product development cash spend decreased slightly as we drove further cost efficiencies in higher education.

隨著我們日益成為數位化企業，庫存採購減少，營運現金轉換率為 110%，營運資本充足，收款良好，效果良好。投資攤提和折舊高於現金成本，資本支出較去年穩定，產品開發現金支出略有下降，因為我們進一步提高了高等教育的成本效率。

Our free cash flow conversion was 117%, reflecting operating cash performance and cash tax of less than the adjusted tax charge. In comparison to the prior year, free cash has increased due to the operating cash and below the line reorganization costs dropping away, slightly offset by tax and interest.

我們的自由現金流轉換率為 117%，反映經營現金表現和現金稅低於調整後的稅費。與前一年相比，由於營運現金和線下重組成本下降，自由現金增加，但稅收和利息略有抵銷。

Net debt stood at GBP0.9 billion at the end of 2024, and GBP0.1 billion increase year on year, with free cash flow more than offset by dividends and in year share buybacks. During the year, we issued a GBP350 million education bond, providing long-term financing for the business, and both Moody's and Fitch upgraded Pearson's long-term issuer rating, moving the outlook to stable.

2024 年底淨負債為 9 億英鎊，年增 1 億英鎊，自由現金流被股利和年度股票回購所抵銷。年內，我們發行了3.5億英鎊的教育債券，為業務提供了長期融資，穆迪和惠譽都上調了培生的長期發行人評級，展望為穩定。

Return on capital increased slightly to 10.4%, as whilst the return growth is higher than the capital increase, the particular mix of average versus closing FX rates counterbalanced. Taking a step back, we show on screen a five year view of financial strength with positive cash flow characteristics, comfortable leverage, and improved return on capital.

資本回報率小幅上升至 10.4%，因為雖然回報增長高於資本增加，但平均外匯匯率與收盤外匯匯率的特定組合抵消了這一影響。回顧一下，我們在螢幕上展示了五年來的財務實力，包括正現金流特徵、舒適的槓桿率和提高的資本回報率。

Turning to 2025, we expect each business unit to grow, with group underlying sales growth, adjusted operating profit and tax in line with current market expectations. Underlying free cash flow conversion will be 90% to 100%, with an additional assumption that we receive the GBP100 million state aid repayment this year.

展望2025年，我們預期每個業務部門都將成長，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。基礎自由現金流轉換率將達到 90% 至 100%，另外假設我們今年將收到 1 億英鎊的國家援助償還。

Interest will be circa GBP65 million equating to market expectations of 2025 in interest plus the impact of the GBP350 million share buyback. Included within this guidance is new investment to support our strategy and drive growth, including brand and innovation spend, as well as transformation costs.

利息約 6,500 萬英鎊，相當於市場對 2025 年利息的預期加上 3.5 億英鎊股票回購的影響。本指南包括支持我們的策略和推動成長的新投資，包括品牌和創新支出以及轉型成本。

This investment is more than offset by the margin on sales growth and operational improvements which drive the group's margin expansion. And as a reminder on FX, a [$1] cent move against the pound equates to around GBP5 million of adjusted operating profit.

銷售成長和營運改善帶來的利潤足以抵銷這項投資帶來的損失，進而推動集團利潤率的擴大。關於外匯，需要提醒的是，英鎊兌美元匯率每變動 1 美分，就等於調整後的營業利潤減少約 500 萬英鎊。

As we announced in January, excuse me, workforce skills will evolve to become enterprise learning and skills, resulting in modest revenues and costs being transitioned into the enterprise learning and skills business unit from higher education. We've outlined this impact for 2024 financial terms in the appendix to the presentation.

正如我們在一月份宣布的那樣，勞動力技能將演變為企業學習和技能，從而將適度的收入和成本從高等教育轉移到企業學習和技能業務部門。我們在簡報的附錄中概述了對 2024 年財務條款的影響。

On a business unit basis, assessments and qualifications will grow low to mid-single digit following the successful retention of several contracts in 2024. Virtual learning will return to growth through enrollment increases, partially from new school openings for the '25, '26 academic year.

從業務部門來看，在 2024 年成功保留多份合約之後，評估和資格將成長低至中等個位數。虛擬學習將透過入學人數的增加來恢復成長，部分原因是 25、26 學年新學校的開設。

Higher education growth in 2025 will be higher than in 2024, as we build on the successful results of our sales team transformation and product innovations, particularly using AI. English language learning growth will moderate given the likely impacts of elections on immigration rates in 2025, but we remain confident in the medium term outlook given demographic progressions.

隨著我們在銷售團隊轉型和產品創新（尤其是使用人工智慧）方面的成功成果的基礎上再接再厲，2025 年高等教育的成長將高於 2024 年。鑑於選舉可能對 2025 年移民率的影響，英語學習的成長將會放緩，但考慮到人口結構的進展，我們仍然對中期前景充滿信心。

And enterprise learning and skills will grow high single digits, with both occasional qualifications seeing solid growth and the addition of a number of new contracts for enterprise solutions. As we've previously guided beyond 2025, you can expect CAGR underlying sales growth at mid-single digits, sustained margin improvement equating to an average of 40 basis points per annum, and strong free cash flow conversion in the region of 90% to 100% on average across the period.

企業學習和技能將以高個位數成長，偶爾的資格認證將實現穩定成長，並增加大量新的企業解決方案合約。正如我們先前對 2025 年以後的預測一樣，您可以預期複合年增長率將達到中等個位數，利潤率將持續提高，相當於平均每年 40 個基點，並且在此期間自由現金流轉換率將平均達到 90% 至 100%。

In terms of phasing, as we have seen in other years, growth will generally be weighted to H2, given these known business unit dynamics. Assessments and qualifications growth will be H2 weighted with those new con and renewed contracts and the new test prep business building during the year.

就分階段而言，正如我們在其他年份所看到的那樣，考慮到這些已知的業務部門動態，成長通常集中在 H2。評估和資格的成長將受到這些新合約和續約合約以及年內新的考試準備業務建設的影響，H2 加權。

Virtual learning will decline in H1 given the final impact of the previous school losses and the timing of funding in the previous year. H2 and the full year will grow through enrollment increases for the '25, '26 school year.

考慮到先前學校損失的最終影響以及前一年資金投入的時間，虛擬學習將在上半年下降。由於 25、26 學年的入學人數增加，H2 和全年的招生數量將有所增加。

Given the growth profile of English language learning in 2024, we expect Q1 to decline, with growth increasing in each quarter thereafter.

鑑於 2024 年英語學習的成長情況，我們預計第一季將下降，之後每季的成長率都將上升。

ELS growth will increase quarter on quarter, and higher education growth will remain relatively stable throughout the year. So for the group overall, Q1, which is our smallest quarter, will be muted. H1 will see low single digit growth with strong growth in H2.

ELS 的成長將逐季增加，而高等教育的成長將全年保持相對穩定。因此，對於整個集團而言，第一季（我們最小的季度）將會比較平靜。上半年將出現低個位數成長，下半年將強勁成長。

Our disciplined capital allocation policy remains the same with a focus on maintaining a strong balance sheet, investing both organically and inorganically, paying a progressive and sustainable dividend, and then returning surplus cash to shareholders. The slide you see now demonstrates the application of this policy over the last five years.

我們嚴謹的資本配置政策保持不變，重點是維持強勁的資產負債表、進行有機和無機投資、支付漸進和可持續的股息，然後將剩餘現金返還給股東。您現在看到的幻燈片展示了過去五年來這項政策的應用。

Organic investment is relatively stable at a macro level, albeit internal capital allocation priorities evolve over time and are monitored continuously as Omar described as markets and customers' needs change.

有機投資在宏觀層面上相對穩定，儘管內部資本配置優先順序會隨著時間而變化，並且會隨著市場和客戶需求的變化而受到持續監控，正如奧馬爾所描述的那樣。

Leverage remains comfortable, currently below our medium term average expectation of 2 times EBITDA to maintain optionality to make value enhancing investments. You can also see the GBP1 billion of share buybacks over the period, with a further GBP350 million announced today, given the strength of 2024 free cash flow and our confidence in 2025 and beyond.

槓桿率仍然適宜，目前低於我們中期平均預期的 2 倍 EBITDA，以保持進行增值投資的選擇性。您還可以看到在此期間回購了 10 億英鎊的股票，鑑於 2024 年自由現金流的強勁以及我們對 2025 年及以後的信心，今天又宣布回購 3.5 億英鎊。

Going forward, we will continue to apply this policy and through our strong cash generation, we will continue to invest behind opportunities to drive further growth and create value for our stakeholders. So, in summary, 2024 performance was in line with expectations with excellent margin expansion.

展望未來，我們將繼續實行這項政策，並透過強大的現金創造能力，繼續投資於推動進一步成長和為利害關係人創造價值的機會。因此，總而言之，2024 年的業績符合預期，利潤率擴張優異。

We saw strong free cash flow, and this combined with our strong balance sheet means we're announcing a further GBP350 million share buyback, and our confidence in the future and the strength of the business is reflected in our guidance for 2025 and beyond.

我們看到了強勁的自由現金流，再加上我們強勁的資產負債表，我們宣布進一步回購 3.5 億英鎊的股票，我們對未來和業務實力的信心反映在我們對 2025 年及以後的指導中。

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

說完這些，我就把麥克風交還給奧馬爾。

Thank you so much, Sally. I'd like to turn to the topic of how we track the progress of the business and the metrics we will use. Now the way we think about this is in three tiers. At the bottom of the pyramid, we have hundreds of analytics that we use to track performance of the business every day. So think of things like user engagement or pipeline aging metrics.

非常感謝，莎莉。我想談談我們如何追蹤業務進展以及我們將使用的指標。現在我們從三個層面來思考這個問題。在金字塔的底部，我們有數百種分析方法，用於每天追蹤業務績效。因此，請考慮用戶參與度或管道老化指標等因素。

Next, we have a small number of metrics, less than 20, that the Pearson executive team used to run the business, for example, new bookings. Now at the top of the pyramid are our power metrics, a small number of KPIs that we plan to share externally to track our progress against our strategic priorities.

接下來，我們有少量指標（不到 20 個），是培生執行團隊用來經營業務的，例如新預訂量。現在，金字塔的頂端是我們的權力指標，即我們計劃對外分享的少數 KPI，以追蹤我們在策略重點方面的進展。

We believe these will be more helpful to you in understanding the progress that we're making, and they therefore will replace our current set of strategic KPIs going forward. You will recognize this slide as the executive summary of our strategy that we shared last July.

我們相信這些將更有助於您了解我們正在取得的進展，因此它們將取代我們目前的一套策略關鍵績效指標。您會發現這張投影片是我們去年七月分享的策略的執行摘要。

And you'll remember that assessments forms approximately two-thirds of our business. And that we're very focused on driving growth in the enterprise segment. And for this reason, we will share two power metrics linked to these two themes going forward. First is our assessments and verifications, renewals, and also the level of assessments, new business acquisition.

您會記得，評估約占我們業務的三分之二。我們非常注重推動企業領域的成長。因此，我們將在未來分享與這兩個主題相關的兩個電力指標。首先是我們的評估和驗證、續約，以及評估等級、新業務取得。

And second is the number of customers in our most commercially and strategically material tiers. We have customers at different levels of scale and scope in terms of their usage of peers and services, and the most important are advanced and elite tiers. That individually contribute millions of dollars per annum.

第二是我們的最具商業性和策略意義的層級的客戶數量。就同​​一行和服務的使用而言，我們的客戶具有不同的規模和範圍，其中最重要的是高級和精英層。他們每年各自貢獻數百萬美元。

And we will share with you the absolute number of these customers going forward as a second leading indicator of growth. Now, of course, I'm very pleased to announce today an enhanced customer relationship in our elite tier, which is AWS.

我們將與您分享這些客戶的絕對數量，作為成長的第二個領先指標。當然，今天我很高興地宣布，我們精英層級（即 AWS）的客戶關係得到了增強。

I would now like to share our priorities for 2025, which are simply an evolution of our 2024 priorities. And that's because they've been serving the business well, and we see plenty more to go for. First, we will deliver financial performance in line with market expectations.

現在，我想分享我們 2025 年的優先事項，這些優先事項只是我們 2024 年優先事項的演變。這是因為他們一直為企業提供良好的服務，我們看到他們還有很大的發展空間。一是財務業績要符合市場預期。

Second, we'll continue to lead on the application of innovative technologies like AI across our products and services. And third, we will grow our business across the enterprise customer segment. We've embedded these three priorities across the whole organization through our detailed objectives and key results approach. And everyone knows that this is what we're focused on. So, closing out, I'd like to leave you with these two takeaways.

第二，我們將持續引領人工智慧等創新技術在我們的產品和服務中的應用。第三，我們將在企業客戶領域拓展業務。我們透過詳細的目標和關鍵成果方法將這三個優先事項融入整個組織。每個人都知道這就是我們關注的重點。所以，最後，我想留給你們以下兩點啟示。

Firstly, I'm happy with the strategic and financial progress our team has made in 2024. This leadership team is focused on driving performance in the core business with a strong execution mindset. And I'm pleased with the milestones achieved in our approach to the enterprise market and infusing AI capabilities across our products and services.

首先，我對我們團隊在 2024 年的策略和財務進展感到滿意。該領導團隊致力於以強大的執行力推動核心業務的績效。我很高興看到我們在進軍企業市場以及在產品和服務中融入人工智慧功能方面取得的里程碑。

And second, we're building momentum in the business and putting in place the building blocks for the future sustained shareholder value creation. The opportunities for Pearson in our markets are significant, and we're making good progress towards unlocking them.

其次，我們正在增強業務發展勢頭，為未來持續創造股東價值奠定基礎。培生在我們的市場中擁有巨大的機遇，我們正積極掌握這些機會。

We're, therefore, confident in meeting the financial guidance outlined for 2025 and sustain mid-single-digit growth with ongoing margin improvement in the years beyond that. And we will do it while helping people around the world realize the life they imagine through learning. With that, I'd like to open up for Q&A for me and the team. And if I can please request name and serial number when you go, Adam? There's a mic coming your way.

因此，我們有信心實現 2025 年的財務指導目標，並維持中位數個位數成長，同時在未來幾年持續提高利潤率。我們將在實現這一目標的同時幫助世界各地的人們透過學習實現他們所想像的生活。有了這些，我願意為我和團隊開放問答環節。亞當，當你走的時候，我可以詢問你的姓名和序號嗎？有麥克風朝你這邊過來。

It's Adam Berlin from UBS. Three questions, if I could. I'd really like to hear in your own words, Omar, what you have in mind with these partnerships with AWS and Microsoft? Like what are these -- what are people actually be doing? What's going to be the revenue?

我是瑞銀的亞當柏林。如果可以的話，我有三個問題。奧馬爾，我真的很想聽聽你自己的說法，你對於與 AWS 和微軟的合作有何想法？例如這些是什麼——人們實際上在做什麼？收入會是多少？

What are these businesses? It's just very hard for us to imagine what you're thinking will be the way these new products work. If you can explain it in kind of normal, that would be really helpful. The second question is, I just wanted to get your views on the new -- on how you think the new Trump administration policies could affect your business. I mean the obvious areas in my mind are PDRI and student assessment within AMQ. Any updates you can share with us, positive or negative around that?

這些是哪些企業？我們很難想像這些新產品的工作原理。如果您能以正常的方式解釋它，那將會非常有幫助。第二個問題是，我只是想了解您對新政策的看法——您認為川普政府的新政策會如何影響您的業務。我的意思是，我心中顯而易見的領域是 PDRI 和 AMQ 內的學生評估。您能與我們分享任何有關此事的最新消息嗎，無論是正面的還是負面的？

And thirdly, I just wondered if you could unpack the guidance on English for us a little bit. You've talked about a deceleration from the 8% last year. But could you talk through what you're thinking about in terms of volumes, pricing, institutional? Just help us understand the moving parts in English, that would be very helpful.

第三，我想知道您是否可以為我們稍微解釋一下有關英語的指導。您談到了從去年的 8% 開始的減速。但是您能否談談您在數量、定價、機構方面的想法？只要幫助我們理解英語中的活動部分，將會非常有幫助。

Absolutely. So you said you want me to answer this, the hyperscaler relationships in plain English. So that that's the hardest part of what you just asked there, Adam. But, so -- I mean, I'll talk about how I think of the deals in terms of their composition, and then I'll talk about the financial implications.

絕對地。所以你說你想讓我用簡單的英語來回答這個問題，即超大規模關係。這就是你剛才問到的最困難的部分，亞當。但是，所以——我的意思是，我會談談我對這些交易的構成的看法，然後我會談談其財務影響。

So in terms of their composition, these companies are investing hundreds of billions of CapEx in the ground in AI data centers as we speak, and they've got some of the world's best engineers. And so in making these relationships, we are recruiting some of those engineers to work with Pearson on the development of its own product set, making sure we apply AI in the most advanced way possible. So that's one core component.

因此，就其組成而言，這些公司正在向人工智慧資料中心投資數千億美元的資本支出，並且他們擁有一些世界上最優秀的工程師。因此，在建立這些關係時，我們正在招募一些工程師與培生合作開發自己的產品系列，確保我們以最先進的方式應用人工智慧。這是一個核心組件。

The other core component of course, is they are an existing customer of ours and they are now an expanding customer of ours, and that's part of the agreement. And so that's across the suite of Pearson services. And so you know I can say to you, for example, that Vishaal had Amazon's top six talent people in this building not long ago, and these are people who recruit two million employees a year looking at like all the latest techniques that you can deploy around talent sourcing, talent development, talent planning. And they were like really going deep with us in terms of how does what they have and how does what we have come together in a way to help serve that need for them as a company themselves but also for their customers.

當然，另一個核心要素是，他們是我們現有的客戶，現在是我們不斷擴大的客戶，這是協議的一部分。這就是整個 Pearson 服務套件。例如，不久前，Vishaal 在這棟大樓裡招募了亞馬遜最頂尖的六名人才，這些人每年招募 200 萬名員工，研究在人才採購、人才發展和人才規劃方面可以部署的所有最新技術。他們真的與我們進行了深入交流，了解他們擁有的東西和我們擁有的東西如何結合在一起，以滿足他們公司本身以及客戶的需求。

And that's the third part, which is these joint go to markets. So the joint go to markets, the way you should think about it is, we have software engineers from Tony's team, software engineers from these companies sitting together and saying, like if I could apply an AI engine, that can give me nudges in my flow of work in terms of how am I doing my work and how can I improve whether it's a language capability or a content capability that becomes a really valuable tool and you can expose that to quite big surface areas.

這是第三部分，即聯合進入市場。因此，當聯合進入市場時，你應該這樣想，我們有來自 Tony 團隊的軟體工程師，來自這些公司的軟體工程師坐在一起討論，例如如果我可以應用一個人工智慧引擎，它可以在我的工作流程中推動我如何開展工作以及如何改進它，無論是語言能力還是內容能力，它都會成為一個真正有價值的工具，你可以將它暴露在相當大的表面上。

And so the teams are working on what those exact products are now. Like I said, that takes time because you're developing new software. But as we build them out, there'll be incentives for tens of thousands of Microsoft and AWS sellers and our salesforce to bring those things to their customers. And so that's what the composition of those deals are. I tried that in plain English as much as I could.

因此，團隊正在研究這些確切的產品。就像我說的，這需要時間，因為你正在開發新的軟體。但隨著我們不斷完善這些產品，數以萬計的微軟和 AWS 賣家以及我們的銷售人員將有動力將這些東西帶給他們的客戶。這就是這些交易的組成。我盡可能用簡單的英語來嘗試。

But as I said, financially, you can imagine that at one level you're underpinning the business that we already have, you're expanding the business that we already have at least at mid-single digits, and then you have this optionality of the joint go to markets that could be quite interesting.

但正如我所說，從財務角度來看，你可以想像，在某種程度上，你正在鞏固我們現有的業務，你正在將我們現有的業務至少以中等個位數的速度擴展，然後你就有了這種聯合進入市場的選擇性，這可能相當有趣。

On the topic of the new US administration, I mean, I'll say a couple of words and then maybe I'll ask Art to comment a little bit as well. So the new administration is focused on things like school choice, parental choice, and ultimately building an incredibly adaptive competitive workforce for the US in an era of AI.

關於美國新政府的話題，我的意思是，我會說幾句話，然後也許我會請阿特也發表一點評論。因此，新政府將重點關注學校選擇、家長選擇等議題，並最終在人工智慧時代為美國打造一支適應性極強、具競爭力的勞動力。

Those things play super well to what Pearson does. So, virtual schools will benefit tremendously from school choice. The, this business of, by the way, accountability and meritocracy is also at the heart of a lot of the thinking there. So like maintenance and management of standards is a critical part of this. And then, of course, the whole alternative skill pathways, part of this is a key consideration. Now you asked about PDRI and I maybe you'd like to say something about how you think about it and also schools assessments.

這些事情與 Pearson 所做的事情非常契合。因此，虛擬學校將從學校選擇中受益匪淺。順便說一句，問責制和精英管理制度也是那裡許多想法的核心。因此，標準的維護和管理是其中的關鍵部分。當然，整個替代技能途徑，其中一部分是關鍵考慮因素。現在您問到有關 PDRI 的問題，我可能想談談您對此的看法以及學校評估。

Absolutely. First off, Omar's right, our products and services support the ultimate goals of many of the objectives of the output that we're seeing from the administration.

絕對地。首先，奧馬爾是對的，我們的產品和服務支持了我們從政府看到的許多成果目標的最終目標。

Specific to the Department of Education, Adam, I'll remind the group here that almost all of our work across all of our business, including A&Q, is at the state level, and the thrust of many of the initiatives coming out of the administration are about giving more control to the states from the federal government.

亞當，具體到教育部，我要提醒大家，我們幾乎所有業務（包括 A&Q）的工作都是在州一級進行的，而政府出台的許多舉措的主旨都是將聯邦政府的控制權交給各州。

We're quite experienced at dealing with different types of states with different viewpoints on these types of things, so we're quite comfortable continuing to navigate that now of course we're watching carefully the announcements that are coming out and there is volatility happening in all of the departments and we've got the right relationships to stay plugged into that.

我們在與不同類型的國家打交道，了解他們對這類事情的不同觀點，所以我們很樂意繼續處理這個問題，當然，我們正在密切關注即將發布的公告，所有部門都發生了波動，我們建立了正確的關係來保持這種關係。

On PDRI specifically. I'll remind this group here PDRI is a relatively small part of the overall Pearson portfolio, less than 2% of our revenue, and while it does do a lot of direct federal government work, the core value proposition of PDRI is around merit-based hiring.

具體來說，關於 PDRI。我要提醒這個群體，PDRI 在整個 Pearson 產品組合中所佔的比例相對較小，不到我們收入的 2%，雖然它確實做了很多直接的聯邦政府工作，但 PDRI 的核心價值主張是基於績效的招聘。

The overwhelming bulk of its offerings help hiring agencies identify candidates who have the exact skills and the exact knowledge to fill the jobs that they need. This again is absolutely in line with what the objectives of the administration are the passage of things like the recent chance to compete act, really wonderfully support that value proposition.

其提供的絕大部分服務都旨在幫助招聘機構找到擁有所需職位所需的確切技能和知識的候選人。這再次完全符合政府的目標，例如最近通過的《競爭機會法案》，確實很好地支持了這個價值主張。

Now again, in the current swirl of things that are happening, we're paying very close attention to specific contracts, although much of our work is with military and public safety functions like TSI which are viewed differently. In the scope of the administration actions, so we're very bullish on the long term match between our value proposition and what's coming out while at the same time monitoring each of those specific things.

現在，在目前發生的一系列事件中，我們再次密切關注具體的合同，儘管我們的大部分工作是與軍事和公共安全職能部門（如 TSI）相關的，而這些部門的看法有所不同。在管理行動範圍內，我們非常看好我們的價值主張與最終結果之間的長期匹配，同時監控每一件具體的事情。

Now on ELL, normally, I would throw this at Sharon, who is not yet officially in position. She's been going through a fantastic transition with Gio, which we strongly appreciate. But you asked really about guidance unpacking. So I'm going to ask Sally to pick up on that.

現在關於 ELL，通常我會把這個問題拋給尚未正式上任的 Sharon。她和吉奧正在經歷一段奇妙的轉變，我們對此非常感激。但您真正詢問的是指導解包。所以我要讓莎莉注意到這一點。

Anyway to be fair. You used the word decelerate. I used the word moderate. So English is still going to grow really well, just not quite as much as it did last year because PTE is probably going to decline a little bit because of the Australian and Canadian elections caused the market to fluctuate a little bit this year.

無論如何都要公平。您使用了“減速”這個詞。我使用了“適度”這個詞。因此，英語仍然會保持良好的成長勢頭，只是不會像去年那麼強勁，因為 PTE 考試可能會略有下降，因為今年澳洲和加拿大大選導致市場出現小幅波動。

We're really confident that those demographic points that we've laid out mean that, that's going to be a great market for us in the future. There's just a little bit of volatility in it this year. Our institutional business grew brilliantly last year. It will grow brilliantly this year as well.

我們非常有信心，我們所列出的人口統計數據意味著，這對我們來說將是未來一個巨大的市場。今年的波動性有點小。去年我們的機構業務成長顯著。今年它也會長得非常茂盛。

I pointed out that phasing piece, but the full year, super confident in the growth in that business. And you saw the video of that English language shooter. I think it's out in the demo area as well and the assessment -- the lesson building tool within English as well. Those sorts of innovations that we're bringing to that product is really going to drive growth in those markets.

我指出了這個階段，但就全年而言，我對該業務的成長非常有信心。你也看到了那個英語槍手的影片。我認為它也出現在演示區和評估區——英語課程建立工具中。我們為該產品帶來的這些創新確實會推動這些市場的成長。

And then last but not least, we're also looking at things from a geographical point of view and looking at driving growth in MENA and in Latin America, in particular as well. So really confident in English for this year.

最後但同樣重要的一點是，我們也從地理角度看待問題，並特別關注推動中東和北非地區以及拉丁美洲的成長。所以我對今年的英文非常有信心。

Thank you, Sally. Okay, who's next? Yes sir.

謝謝你，莎莉。好的，下一個是誰？是的，先生。

Yeah, it's Nick Dempsey, Barclays got three as well, please. So first of all, following the logic of the shape of the year, if low single digit in the first half is somewhere around two, then you need about seven in the second half. It feels like quite a lot.

是的，是尼克·登普西 (Nick Dempsey)，巴克萊銀行也有三位。因此，首先，按照年度形態的邏輯，如果上半年的低個位數在 2 左右，那麼下半年就需要 7 左右。感覺還挺多的。

So can you just maybe give us a sense of how much of that you have good visibility on, to prevent people worrying about it being difficult to climb up there in the end of the year. The second question, in higher education, you're pointing to similar rates of growth all through the year, but I guess the really strong, surprisingly strong enrollment growth in fall 24 flows through the first half, but almost certainly doesn't flow through second half.

那麼，您能否讓我們了解一下您對其中多少內容有較好的了解，以免人們擔心年底攀登會很困難。第二個問題，在高等教育方面，您指出全年的成長率都差不多，但我猜 24 年秋季真正強勁、出人意料的入學人數成長只發生在上半年，而幾乎肯定不會發生在下半年。

So what do you have up your sleeve to maintain the rate of growth in the second half against a likely lower enrollment environment? And the third question also on higher ed.

那麼，在入學人數可能下降的環境下，您有什麼辦法來維持下半年的成長率呢？第三個問題也與高等教育有關。

(inaudible) McGraw Hill, I think, have been outperforming Pearson on top line for a couple of years now, and as far as I can see when you listen to them, it's because they have a much higher percentage from inclusive access, which has been growing well for them. So how do they get to that higher level or percentage terms and are you going to be able to catch up so that you can start to match their growth?

（聽不清楚）我認為，麥格勞希爾幾年來在營收方面的表現一直優於培生，據我所知，當你聽他們說話時，這是因為他們從包容性訪問中獲得的百分比要高得多，這對他們來說一直增長良好。那麼他們如何達到更高的水平或百分比，您是否能夠趕上並開始匹配他們的增長？

Thanks, Nick, for your forensically detailed questions, which is perfect. So Sally, why don't you take the one on H2 visibility, please?

謝謝，尼克，你提出的詳細問題非常完美。那麼，莎莉，你為什麼不選擇 H2 可見度的呢？

Sure. So we don't have perfect visibility, but I've got good visibility. Obviously, internally, I have got a detailed budget, which is why I'm able to share how the quarterly kind of growth dynamics are going to play out. And as we look to H2, all of those things I talked about from a business unit basis is what's building that growth.

當然。因此，我們的可見度不是完美的，但我的可見度很好。顯然，在內部，我有一個詳細的預算，這就是為什麼我能夠分享季度成長動態將如何發揮作用。展望下半年，我從業務部門角度談到的所有這些事情都是推動這一成長的因素。

So higher education relatively stable throughout the year. I'll let Tom double down on the higher ed bit when he talks. That English piece that I just talked to as well, seeing that growing throughout the year, then the contract wins and the renewals that we've had in both assessments and qualifications and in ELS, I know we call it workforce, all of those dynamics we built a detailed bottom-up budget that shows that phasing throughout the year.

因此全年高等教育相對穩定。我會讓湯姆在演講時加倍強調高等教育的部分。我剛才談到的那個英語部分，看到它在全年都在增長，然後我們在評估和資格以及 ELS 中贏得了合同並進行了續簽，我知道我們稱之為勞動力，所有這些動態，我們都建立了一個詳細的自下而上的預算，顯示了全年分階段的發展。

And pointing to some of the data points that we use. So for example, in English and in PTE, we're using detailed data around trends about students moving and immigration across borders, detailed bottom-up budgets in terms of what we're expecting in market share, what we're expecting to see in terms of enrollments, which we are expecting them to be relatively flat for H2, but what we're seeing in market share, what we've done in product, that data point that we showed you for fall back-to-school last year around double-digit growth in our AI products.

並指出我們使用的一些數據點。例如，在英語和 PTE 方面，我們使用了有關學生流動和跨境移民趨勢的詳細數據，以及關於市場份額預期、入學人數預期的自下而上的詳細預算，我們預計下半年入學人數會相對持平，但我們看到的市場份額、我們在產品方面所做的工作，以及我們向你們展示的去年秋季開學期間我們的 AI 產品實現了兩位數增長的數據。

We're going to have a lot more of those in next year. So really confident in both that phasing profile, but also that growth dynamics that we've given you for the full year.

明年我們還會舉辦更多這樣的活動。因此，我們對這一分階段概況以及我們給予的全年成長動力都非常有信心。

Thanks, Sally. All right, Mr. Tom. The first one on enrollment growth by H2.

謝謝，莎莉。好的，湯姆先生。第一篇是關於下半年入學人數成長的文章。

I mean a couple of things to think about. So firstly, as Sally highlighted or we highlighted in the presentation, good growth in the second half of last year. We're confident about good growth in the first half of this year. Obviously, January and February are pretty much underway now. They're the third and fourth biggest month of the year, and we're tracking well and in line with that progress.

我的意思是有幾件事要考慮。首先，正如 Sally 或我們在演講中所強調的那樣，去年下半年增長良好。我們對今年上半年的良好成長充滿信心。顯然，一月和二月現在已經開始了。這是今年第三和第四大月份，我們正在順利追蹤並跟上這一進展。

Clearly, your opportunity for the fall is somewhat dependent on how you've done from an adoption share perspective this spring and where we win new adoptions in the spring, that's an additional business that we can retain in the fall.

顯然，您秋季的機會在某種程度上取決於您今年春季從收養份額的角度來看的表現，以及我們在春季贏得新收養的情況，這是我們可以在秋季保留的額外業務。

And clearly, some of the things that we've been doing around reorganizing the sales team means that there are segments of the market that we haven't really gone after properly in the past that we're going after much more aggressively now.

顯然，我們在重組銷售團隊方面所做的一些事情意味著，有些市場我們過去沒有真正深入過，但現在我們正在更積極地涉足這些市場。

We've got a much more focused sales team now. We've got sales teams focused on winning new business, retaining new business. We're thinking about the customer life cycle very carefully. We've got a much stronger approach to sort of sales operations and how we think about the market and segmentation.

我們現在擁有更專注的銷售團隊。我們的銷售團隊專注於贏得新業務、保留新業務。我們正在非常仔細地考慮客戶生命週期。我們對銷售營運以及市場和細分的看法採取了更強有力的方法。

So we feel very good about the selling side of things. And then on the product side of things, a very close partnership with Tony. I think we're building a much more robust product value proposition. And you saw that last year with some of the wins that we saw in some of the products powered by AI.

因此，我們對銷售方面的情況感到非常滿意。然後在產品方面，與 Tony 建立了非常密切的合作關係。我認為我們正在建立更強大的產品價值主張。去年，我們看到一些基於人工智慧的產品取得了成功。

So with all that in mind, plus some pricing, we feel fairly good about sort of the second half dynamics from a growth perspective. The other thing to say is from an international perspective, international obviously had a tough year last year. So we expect to see that factored into the first half of this year. So where you see more growth in higher education in the second half, a lot of that's driven by international. We've got a great leader in the international team. He's built a great new team out.

因此，考慮到所有這些因素，再加上一些定價因素，從成長角度來看，我們對下半年的動態感到相當樂觀。另一件事是從國際角度來看，去年國際情勢顯然十分艱難。因此我們預計這一因素將在今年上半年得到體現。因此，下半年高等教育將出現更多成長，其中很大一部分是由國際化推動的。我們的國際團隊有一位出色的領導者。他組建了一支出色的新團隊。

They've been making a number of changes in terms of sales operations, in terms of increasing our footprint in key emerging markets. So we're looking forward to seeing a return to growth in international this year in higher education, and that will also help.

他們在銷售營運方面做出了許多改變，以擴大我們在主要新興市場的影響力。因此，我們期待今年看到高等教育國際化水準的恢復成長，這也會有所幫助。

Then lastly, on the IA piece, I might dispute some of your analysis on sort of the relative growth rates of some of our competitors once you break them down in a bit more detail, and we can chat about that offline, if you like.

最後，關於 IA 部分，如果您更詳細地分析我們一些競爭對手的相對增長率，我可能會對您做出的分析提出異議，如果您願意的話，我們可以線下討論一下。

What I would say is, as Sally alluded to, we did a good job of taking share for the first time last year, both in the spring and the fall. That hasn't happened for a long time. So we feel very pleased about that. And also from an IA perspective, it's a law of marginal gains. And what do I mean by that?

我想說的是，正如莎莉所提到的，去年我們在春季和秋季首次獲得了不錯的市場份額。這樣的事已經很久沒有發生過了。因此我們對此感到非常高興。而且從 IA 的角度來看，這是一個邊際收益法則。我這樣說是什麼意思呢？

If you've got a math title, you're already going to have relatively high sell-through. So the pricing reduction you get in math is not going to offset the revenue growth you're getting by moving that into AI. So clearly, that's not necessarily a discipline you'd want to.

如果你有一個數學頭銜，那麼你的銷售量就會相對較高。因此，數學上的價格降低不會抵消將其轉移到人工智慧上所獲得的收入成長。顯然，這不一定是你想要的學科。

There are some other products that you might have in print, for example, on eText, which makes sense to move into AI. So we've built in more analytics in terms of understanding where it makes sense to move some titles into AI that we wouldn't have necessarily done so in the past. So it's very much a horses for courses approach in terms of disciplines. If you've got disciplines like we do with high market share in those STEM areas, they're not natural candidates to move into AI because you're giving more of a discount away in terms of the discount versus price as you're thinking about revenue.

您可能在印刷品上擁有一些其他產品，例如電子文本，這些產品轉向人工智慧是有意義的。因此，我們建立了更多的分析機制，以了解將某些標題轉移到 AI 是否合理，而過去我們不一定會這樣做。因此，從學科角度而言，這在很大程度上是一種因材施教的方法。如果你擁有像我們一樣在 STEM 領域擁有高市場份額的學科，那麼它們並不是進入人工智慧領域的自然候選者，因為當你考慮收入時，你會在折扣與價格方面給予更多的折扣。

And clearly, we're thinking about the most cost-effective and holistic approach for students in terms of value creation in the first place. And really, what we want to do is we want to provide great quality products to students at reasonable prices and try and think about how we manage the channel as best as possible because what we've seen over time is that there's been a lot of buildup in the channel, which is a potential area of sort of thinking through how we manage that more efficiently and more effectively in the future.

顯然，我們首先考慮的是為學生創造價值最具成本效益和最全面的方法。實際上，我們想要做的是以合理的價格向學生提供優質的產品，並嘗試思考如何盡可能最好地管理渠道，因為隨著時間的推移，我們看到渠道中已經出現了很多積累，這是我們思考未來如何更有效率、更有效地管理渠道的一個潛在領域。

And the AI strategy certainly propagates more complexity in the channel, not less. And we'd obviously like less complexity because, as I said, we're about trying to get great products with great learning outcomes into the hands of students at reasonable prices. So thinking through all of that very carefully is really important as we think about our holistic strategy.

而且人工智慧策略肯定會在通路中傳播更多的複雜性，而不是更少。而且我們顯然希望減少複雜性，因為正如我所說，我們致力於以合理的價格將具有出色學習成果的優質產品交到學生手中。因此，當我們考慮整體戰略時，仔細考慮所有這些因素非常重要。

Thank you, Tom. The gentleman over here.

謝謝你，湯姆。那邊的這位先生。

Yeah, morning, Steve Liechti from Deutsche Numis. Just following on Nick's question about the first half, second half. I don't know if you can give us any sort of idea in terms of exposure to discretionary or project-type spend relative to subscription. Just to remind us there, that would be helpful.

是的，早安，來自 Deutsche Numis 的 Steve Liechti。我只是繼續回答尼克關於上半場和下半場的問題。我不知道您是否可以就與訂閱相關的自由支配或項目類型支出的風險向我們提供任何想法。只是提醒我們一下，那將會很有幫助。

And then equally, if you look at your guidance for the full year in revenue terms, I guess a fair question would be, how much is kind of in the bag and signed sealed backlog type revenue in that and how much is still to be done? So that's kind of first point.

同樣，如果您從收入角度來看待全年預期，我想一個合理的問題是，其中有多少是已經確定的、已簽署密封的積壓收入，還有多少是尚未完成的？這是第一點。

Second point, just on the share buyback in -- well, last year, whatever, you kind of said we're running out sort of net debt leverage sort of below where we would think it should be because we want to do M&A. You kind of alluded to that a bit in your commentary. Just the fact that you're doing the GBP350 million buyback now, does that mean some of the stuff that you thought you might be interested in from an M&A perspective isn't there? Or have you sort of lost interest in doing that and focusing more on the organic stuff? Just anything you can give us there, please? Thanks.

第二點，就股票回購而言——嗯，不管怎樣，您說我們的淨債務槓桿率低於我們認為的水平，因為我們想要進行併購。您在評論中稍微提到了這一點。事實上，您現在正在進行 3.5 億英鎊的回購，這是否意味著從併購角度來看您可能感興趣的東西並不存在？或者你對此失去了興趣，而更關注有機的東西？您能給我們點什麼嗎？謝謝。

Yeah. I mean just one thing to remind you, which I know you know and Sally will dig into the guidance is for the services part of our business, so think of things like school assessments, VUE PVS, those are very long-run contracts. So when you've got a multiyear contract in place, like a lot of the revenue backlog is in place. But just -- Sally, over to you.

是的。我只想提醒你一件事，我知道你知道，莎莉會深入研究針對我們業務的服務部分的指導，所以想想學校評估、VUE PVS 之類的事情，這些都是非常長期的合約。因此，當您簽訂了多年期合約時，許多收入積壓就已經到位了。但只是──莎莉，交給你了。

That was how I was going to answer it. So I'm not going to call out anything particular. You were kind of asking about big exposures. There isn't anything like that in there. And then there's a proportion of our businesses like students pointed behind me because its business, like the student assessment business, for example, where it is long-term contracts, we're already delivering against them, that's using your words in the bag.

這就是我要回答的問題。所以我不會特別指出任何事。您問的是有關大額曝光的問題。那裡沒有那樣的東西。然後，我們有一部分業務，例如學生，他們指出我身後的業務，因為這是學生評估業務，例如長期合同，我們已經在履行合同了，這就是在兌現承諾。

And then something like higher education, we will be going -- we're going into full back-to-school with knowledge of that adoption pipeline that we've built, but then the sales happen nearer to when the kids are going back to school. So it's a mixture across the piece.

然後，像高等教育這樣的領域，我們將會——我們將帶著我們已經建立的採用管道的知識全面進入返校階段，但銷售將發生在孩子們返校的時候。所以它是整個作品的混合體。

And then have we lost interest in M&A versus share buybacks? That kind of was the heart of the question?

那麼，我們是否對併購和股票回購失去了興趣？這就是問題的核心嗎？

Yeah. So I should I start that and then. So our capital allocation policy is clear, invest in the business, the dividend, the leverage that you talked to. And then -- and we apply the policy in that way, and then the Board makes a decision about whether a further return to shareholders is the right thing to do. We're not the sort of business where a kind of M&A budget for the year makes sense.

是的。所以我應該從那裡開始，然後。因此，我們的資本配置政策很明確，投資於您談到的業務、股利和槓桿。然後——我們以這種方式應用政策，然後董事會決定是否應該進一步回報股東。我們不是那種制定年度併購預算有意義的企業。

It's about the opportunity that comes up and a tool that we can use that helps to move our strategy forward. We're really focused on organic growth. But at points in time, the stars will align on a piece of M&A makes sense. But it will be about driving the strategy of the business at the right return as opposed to I've got a budget in the year, and I'm going to fill out the budget. So that's the way we think about it. Do you want to add?

它是關於出現的機會和我們可以用來推動我們的策略向前發展的工具。我們真正關注的是有機成長。但在某些時間點，事情會朝著併購的方向發展，這是有意義的。但這是為了以正確的回報推動業務策略，而不是我今年有預算，然後我要填寫預算。這就是我們的想法。您想添加嗎？

Totally agree with what Sally said. I mean, our leaders here have got their organic growth baked in their budgets, and that's the plan. If someone's got a brilliant idea of some M&A target, which by the way, must be part of a pre-agreed deeply debated strategy and based on a pipeline of targets that we've been thoroughly investigating and typically working with testing out that our capabilities jointly make a difference for customers, then we can consider it, but it means that we adjust the plan, if you're going to bring an M&A into your organic plan, fine, but your plan has just gone up. So that's okay as well. So for us, it's a tool for accelerating organic growth. Anyone else?

完全同意 Sally 所說的。我的意思是，我們的領導人已經將有機成長納入了預算，這就是計劃。如果有人對某個併購目標有絕妙的想法，順便說一句，這個目標必須是經過深入討論的預先商定的戰略的一部分，並且基於我們一直在徹底調查的目標渠道，並且通常會一起測試我們的能力是否會共同為客戶帶來變化，那麼我們可以考慮，但這意味著我們會調整計劃，如果你要將併購納入你的有機計劃，很好，但你的計劃，剛剛上升。所以這也沒關係。所以對我們來說，它是加速有機成長的工具。還有其他人嗎？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

James Tate, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的詹姆斯·泰特。

Good morning. Apologies I can't be there, but I've got two questions, please. I think firstly, margin improvement in A&Q was quite strong last year with, I think, operating profit dropped for around 55%. Just wanted to ask if there are any one-offs you'd like to flag for last year? And if not, is this the sort of operating leverage we should expect going forward in the division?

早安.抱歉我不能到場，但我有兩個問題請問。我認為首先，去年 A&Q 的利潤率成長相當強勁，但我認為營業利潤下降了約 55%。只是想問一下您是否想要標記去年的任何一次性事件？如果不是，這是否是我們應該在該部門未來預期的經營槓桿？

And then secondly, just looking at margin for the full year came in at 16.9% at the group. Given sort of -- you originally guided for 16.5%, how should we think about sort of group margin over the next couple of years? Do you think there's potential for outperformance of the 40 bps?

其次，僅看全年利潤率，該集團的利潤率為 16.9%。鑑於您最初預測的 16.5%，我們應該如何考慮未來幾年的集團利潤率？您認為有超越 40 個基點的潛力嗎？

Thanks, James. I'm sorry, automatically. Thanks, James. I hear you poorly. I can hear it in your voice. Sorry to hear that. I hope you get better soon. On the margin improvement and any one-offs, there's no one-offs as such that I'd call out, but that improvement well done was driven by sales growth and some cost efficiencies that we had in the year as well.

謝謝，詹姆斯。我自動地表示抱歉。謝謝，詹姆斯。我聽不清楚你的意思。我能從你的聲音中聽出來。我很遺憾聽到這個消息。我希望你早日康復。關於利潤率的提高和任何一次性的收益，我不會特別指出任何一次性的收益，但這種良好的改善是由銷售額的成長和我們今年的一些成本效率所推動的。

I generally think about the operating leverage in that business, depending on which business, sub-business unit it is being between 40% and around about 60%. So 40% would be a kind of VUE business and 60% would be a clinical business. And then the margin, I'm not sure I did guide to 16.9%. I think I guided to being happy with expectations.

我通常會考慮該業務的經營槓桿，取決於哪個業務、哪個子業務部門，其槓桿率在 40% 到 60% 左右之間。因此，40% 將是 VUE 業務，而 60% 將是臨床業務。至於利潤率，我不確定我是否將其指導為 16.9%。我認為我引導人們對期望感到高興。

Obviously, we're delighted with the 16.9%. You can tell from guidance for 2025, we're going to see margin improvement in 2025. And then obviously, I've guided to the 40 basis points improvement over time.

顯然，我們對 16.9% 感到滿意。從 2025 年的指引中可以看出，我們將在 2025 年看到利潤率的提高。然後顯然，我已經指導了 40 個基點的改進。

To kind of break down where that comes from, it's super simple and actually applies across each of the business units as well. It's operating leverage on sales growth and then cost efficiencies that we will find as part of business as usual as new technologies come into place as we do things differently, offset by investment to drive that growth. So those three elements of it, same at each business unit, same for business from an overall perspective.

要弄清楚它的來源，非常簡單，實際上也適用於每個業務部門。隨著新技術的出現以及我們以不同的方式開展業務，我們會發現銷售額成長和成本效率的經營槓桿作用已成為正常業務的一部分，而投資則可以推動這一成長。因此，這三個要素對於每個業務部門來說都是相同的，從整體角度來看對業務來說也是相同的。

Yeah. I mean I'm going to just pile on, James. I mean, firstly, get well soon. Our philosophy on margin is as follows, which is Pearson is focused on building amazingly good products, that help learners and educators. And because they bring value, we will see that in our margins.

是的。我的意思是我要繼續說下去，詹姆斯。我的意思是，首先，早日康復。我們的利潤理念如下：培生致力於打造令人驚嘆的優質產品，為學習者和教育工作者提供協助。因為它們帶來了價值，所以我們會在利潤中看到這一點。

So healthy margins is a sign of delivering amazing products to our customers, and that's our incredible focus. Now -- and as Sally said, we want to apply the use of any kind of technology management innovations in running our business to constantly drive efficiency and productivity.

因此，健康的利潤率是我們向客戶提供優質產品的標誌，這也是我們關注的重點。現在——正如莎莉所說，我們希望在業務運營中運用任何類型的技術管理創新來不斷提高效率和生產力。

So for me, it's like -- it's not like you're ever done. Like this is a game of continually improving, and that's the push that I think we all feel, and you should expect to see that from us in the coming years. Anyone else on the platform?

所以對我來說，這就像是──你永遠都做不完。這是一場不斷進步的遊戲，我想這是我們所有人都能感受到的動力，你應該期待在未來幾年看到我們取得這樣的進步。平台上還有其他人嗎？

There are no further phone questions, and I would now like to pass over to Alex for questions from the platform.

沒有其他電話問題了，現在我想將麥克風交給 Alex，回答平台上的問題。

Thank you. Yeah, we've got one question from Sami at BNP Paribas. Two questions. Firstly, despite improving contract renewal rates at VUE, your A&Q guidance points to low to mid-single-digit growth. Under what scenario would you deliver low single-digit growth, i.e., contract losses in US school, expected volume pressures in VUE or any other scenario?

謝謝。是的，我們收到了來自法國巴黎銀行的薩米的一個問題。兩個問題。首先，儘管 VUE 的合約續約率有所提高，但您的 A&Q 指導顯示成長率將保持在低至中等個位數。在什麼情況下您會實現低個位數成長，例如美國學校的合約損失、VUE 的預期交易量壓力或任何其他情況？

The second question, despite enrollment growth in US higher ed, paid users to Pearson did not increase. Why was that?

第二個問題是，儘管美國高等教育的入學人數成長，但培生的付費用戶並沒有增加。為什麼會這樣呢？

Yeah. I mean, Sami, obviously, in any competitive business, if you lose customers, and that's not a good outcome. So obviously, we're very focused on not doing that. But do you want to respond to that what would it take to make sure that A&Q is at the upper end of our guidance rather than at the lower end?

是的。我的意思是，薩米，顯然，在任何競爭激烈的行業中，如果你失去客戶，那都不是一個好的結果。所以顯然，我們非常注重避免這樣做。但是您是否想回答這個問題，需要做些什麼才能確保 A&Q 處於我們指導的上限而不是下限？

Absolutely. And I think we called out in our statement what the elements of growth are for '25 within A&Q. And it is the launch of new contracts that we won last year. So we feel very, very good about that. That's an execution task that we have a wonderful track record on.

絕對地。我認為我們在聲明中指出了 A&Q 25 年的成長要素是什麼。這是我們去年贏得的新合約的啟動。因此我們對此感到非常非常好。這是一項執行任務，我們在這方面有著出色的記錄。

We are continuing to invest in go-to-market resources for our test prep offering, which you'll see we're now referring to as the Pearson Skilling solution, and that will ramp up throughout the year.

我們將繼續投資於我們的考試準備產品的市場資源，您將看到我們現在將其稱為 Pearson Skilling 解決方案，並且該解決方案將在全年逐步增加。

And we are focusing on formative and interim assessment, as Omar pointed out in his introductory remarks. So those are the growth levers that we're counting on. We wouldn't be committing to this guidance if we didn't feel very, very strongly about delivering on them. But those are the things that we're watching closely.

正如奧馬爾在開場白中指出的那樣，我們專注於形成性評估和中期評估。這些就是我們所依賴的成長槓桿。如果我們沒有非常強烈的意願去實現這些指導，我們就不會承諾執行這些指導。但這些都是我們正在密切關注的事情。

Thank you. I've got a couple of words on Pearson+. But Tom, I think you should go first around like the subscriptions and then we'll make a comment.

謝謝。我對 Pearson+ 有幾點想說。但是湯姆，我認為你應該先了解訂閱情況，然後我們再發表評論。

Yeah, sure. I mean, I think firstly, Pearson has been a great success for us, and we're delighted with it. It's one of our three product lineups, right? We've got the MyLabs. We've got Pearson+ and then we've got channels.

是的，當然。我的意思是，我認為首先，培生對我們來說是一個巨大的成功，我們對此感到非常高興。這是我們三大產品系列之一，對嗎？我們有 MyLabs。我們有 Pearson+，然後我們有頻道。

So we're excited with that breadth of product portfolio in the higher education space. I think secondly, in terms of any growth there, what's really happened is that as we think about distribution, one of the things we need to get right is how we integrate that into Inclusive Access.

因此，我們對高等教育領域如此廣泛的產品組合感到非常興奮。我認為其次，就任何成長而言，真正發生的情況是，當我們考慮分銷時，我們需要正確處理的事情之一是如何將其融入包容性訪問中。

So that's one of the things that's on our road map and we're working through. But -- so it's part of our broader portfolio strategy. What we need to really get right is great products for each different part of the market in terms of segmentation and understanding.

這是我們路線圖上正在努力實現的目標之一。但是——這是我們更廣泛的投資組合策略的一部分。我們真正需要做的是從細分和理解的角度為市場的每個不同部分提供優質的產品。

So you've got courseware, you've got Pearson and you've got channels. They're all appealing to faculty and students in different ways in terms of driving increased sort of active learning. And so as we're working through some of the integration pieces with the LMS and the integrations, you'll expect to see that Pearson number grow over time. So it's nothing I would be particularly concerned about. It's an important part of the strategy, and it's a great part of the portfolio for us to have.

所以你有課件，有培生，有通路。他們都以不同的方式吸引教師和學生，以推動主動學習的增加。因此，當我們處理 LMS 和整合的一些整合部分時，您會看到 Pearson 數字隨著時間的推移而增長。所以這並不是我特別擔心的事情。這是我們策略的重要組成部分，也是我們投資組合的重要組成部分。

Yes. Thanks, Tom. I mean just my two little -- two pennies on top of it is the reason I'm so happy that Pearson invested in Pearson+ is we learned some very useful new things. One is around a modern full stack cloud-native technology platform and the application of some of the most innovative techniques around AI. And a lot of the thinking that happened there is what we're propagating across the rest of Pearson. And so I think that's super good.

是的。謝謝，湯姆。我的意思是，我很高興 Pearson 投資 Pearson+，因為我們學到了一些非常有用的新東西。一是圍繞著現代全端雲端原生技術平台和人工智慧領域一些最具創新性的技術的應用。在那裡產生的許多想法正是我們向培生其他部門傳播的。所以我認為這非常好。

The second thing is we learned a lot about engaging directly with end users in a different form and different channels. And again, that's proved very useful, and you'll see us leverage that in clever ways going forward. So Sami, thank you very much for the question.

第二件事是，我們學到了很多關於以不同形式和不同管道直接與最終用戶互動的知識。事實證明，這非常有用，而且您將看到我們在未來以巧妙的方式利用這一點。所以薩米，非常感謝你的提問。

So we're out of questions. Anyone else in the room? Going, going? Okay. Well, so thank you so much for being with us. I mean, seriously, for those of you here, please do take a few minutes and go and have a look at the products out there. I think you'll find them enjoyable and hopefully productive. So thanks for being with us. We appreciate you.

所以我們沒有問題了。房間裡還有其他人嗎？去嗎？去嗎？好的。好吧，非常感謝您與我們在一起。我的意思是，說真的，對於在座的各位，請花幾分鐘時間去看看那裡的產品。我想你會發現它們很有趣且很有成效。感謝您與我們同在。我們感謝您。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。