Pearson PLC (PSO) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

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Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Pearson's 2025 interim results. Today, we will host a presentation followed by a Q&A session. (Operator Instructions). And with that, I'll hand over to Omar.

各位早安，歡迎來到培生集團2025年中期業績發表會。今天，我們將舉辦一場演講，隨後進行問答環節。（操作說明）接下來，我將把麥克風交給奧馬爾。

Thank you, Alex. Good morning. It's a pleasure to be with you again today, I've been looking forward to it. As well as hearing from Sally and me, we'll be joined later today by our colleagues, Art, Tom, Vishaal, Sharon and Tony for Q&A. Now we're very aware that the external world has changed significantly since our prelims in February.

謝謝你，亞歷克斯。早安.今天能再次見到你真是太好了，我一直都很期待。除了我和莎莉之外，今天晚些時候，我們的同事阿特、湯姆、維沙爾、莎倫和東尼也將加入我們，進行問答環節。現在我們非常清楚，自從二月預考以來，外部世界已經發生了巨大的變化。

So I wanted to first provide a view of the market dynamics that are relevant for our business and our perspective on these. I'll then move on to an update of the strategic and operational progress that we've made so far this year before handing over to Sally, who will give you an overview of our interim financial results. And then we'll open up, as usual, for your questions.

因此，我首先想闡述一下與我們業務相關的市場動態以及我們對這些動態的看法。接下來，我將向大家報告我們今年迄今在策略和營運方面的進展，然後交給薩莉，她將為大家概述我們的中期財務表現。然後，我們將照例開放提問環節。

But before we get going, let me first outline the key takeaways. Firstly, our strategy remains unchanged and is now well established across the organization. The two seismic trends of demographics and AI that we outlined this time last year are playing out exactly as expected. And in a world where AI is decreasing the half-life of skills, we have a vital role to play in shaping the future of learning.

但在正式開始之前，先概述一下重點。首先，我們的策略保持不變，並且現在已在整個組織內充分確立。我們去年這個時候提出的人口結構和人工智慧兩大重大趨勢，正完全按照預期發展。在人工智慧不斷縮短技能壽命的今天，我們在塑造未來學習方面扮演著至關重要的角色。

We're building medium-term growth engines for the company, for example, by gaining momentum in our Enterprise business, while in parallel innovating to ensure our products and services continue to lead the way in the world of learning. Secondly, our execution is going to plan, and I'll share some proof points with you today.

我們正在為公司建立中期成長引擎，例如，透過發展企業業務，同時不斷創新，以確保我們的產品和服務繼續引領學習領域的發展。其次，我們的執行正在按計劃進行，今天我將與大家分享一些證明這一點的要點。

And thirdly, when you put together our strategic clarity and the progress we're making with our execution focus, it only strengthens my conviction in Pearson's medium-term trajectory. And we're also on track to deliver a full year financial performance in line with the expectations we set out in February with phasing playing out precisely as anticipated.

第三，當我們把我們的策略清晰度和我們在執行重點方面取得的進展結合起來看時，這只會增強我對培生中期發展軌蹟的信心。我們全年的財務表現也正按計畫進行，符合我們在 2 月設定的預期，各項進展也完全按照預期進行。

I now want to step back for a moment and consider the environment we're operating in. You all know very well it's been evolving quickly, offering both opportunities and market dynamics to address. I'd like to highlight two overarching points. Firstly, each of these dynamics influences only a small segment of our business, and we understand them deeply, which is a source of strategic advantage.

現在我想暫時退後一步，思考一下我們所處的環境。大家都很清楚，它一直在快速發展，既帶來了機遇，也帶來了需要應對的市場動態。我想重點強調兩點。首先，這些動態因素中的每一種都只影響我們業務的一小部分，而且我們對它們有著深刻的了解，這是策略優勢的來源。

And secondly, our diversified portfolio means that we benefit from market growth overall while being resilient to subsegment trends. So I'd like to start with the US federal government. Our only material direct exposure is through PDRI, which faces some near-term pressure from hiring freezes, which we expect to continue into the second half of the year.

其次，我們多元化的投資組合意味著我們能夠受益於整體市場成長，同時又能抵禦細分市場趨勢的影響。那我想先從美國聯邦政府說起。我們唯一直接持有的實質股份來自 PDRI，該公司近期面臨招聘凍結的壓力，我們預計這種情況將持續到下半年。

However, PDRI's focus on merit-based hiring aligns exactly with the goals of the new administration and its long-term relationship with the Office of Personnel Management positions us well for future opportunities. With the Department of Ed, our core offerings are well aligned with the administration's priorities on outcomes and accountability, and we're ready to support mandates to upskill and develop a future-ready and AI-embedded workforce.

然而，PDRI 注重擇優錄用，這與新政府的目標完全一致，而且 PDRI 與人事管理辦公室的長期合作關係也使我們為未來的機會做好了充分準備。我們與教育部合作的核心產品與政府在成果和問責方面的優先事項高度契合，我們已準備好支持各項指令，以提陞技能並培養面向未來、融入人工智慧的勞動力。

While some disruption cannot be ruled out as changes are implemented, we've seen no meaningful impact on our businesses so far and we are prepared to move quickly to take advantage of emerging opportunities. For a bit of context, federal funding accounts for a relatively small proportion of total funding for K-12 and Higher Ed, and the latter includes grants for research universities where Pearson's exposure is small.

雖然在實施變革的過程中不能排除會出現一些混亂，但到目前為止，我們還沒有看到對我們的業務產生任何實質性的影響，我們已做好準備迅速行動，抓住新出現的機會。簡單來說，聯邦資金在 K-12 和高等教育的總資金中所佔比例相對較小，而高等教育的資金包括對研究型大學的撥款，Pearson 在這些大學的業務規模較小。

On migration, the market backdrop is materially unchanged and is baked into our PTE guidance for the year. The medium-term outlook for PTE and ELL as a whole is undiminished, supported by demographics and our team's strong operational track record of taking market share. Beyond ELL, international mobility has minimal impact, including in the US, where less than 2% of university students are international.

關於移民問題，市場背景基本上保持不變，並已納入我們今年的 PTE 指導方針中。PTE 和 ELL 整體的中期前景依然光明，這得益於人口結構的變化以及我們團隊在獲取市場份額方面強大的營運表現。除了英語學習者之外，國際流動性的影響微乎其微，包括在美國，那裡只有不到 2% 的大學生是國際學生。

So overall, we remain resilient and are well positioned to take advantage of potential opportunities. So now I want to move back to our strategic framework that I shared with you last July, which hopefully you're familiar with, and that includes our why, our what and our how. First, our purpose has never been more relevant. Every day we see people advancing their lives through learning, demonstrating the power of education and skill development.

總的來說，我們依然保持韌性，並已做好充分準備抓住潛在機會。現在我想回到去年七月我與大家分享的策略框架，希望大家已經熟悉了，其中包括我們的目標、目標和方法。首先，我們的目標從未像現在這樣重要。我們每天都能看到人們透過學習來提升生活質量，這充分展現了教育和技能發展的力量。

Yet at the system level, our recent research highlights the huge costs of persistent and widespread skill gaps at key career and learning transition points. These have a very real economic impact, totaling over $1 trillion a year in the US and GBP96 billion a year in the UK. This represents a massive opportunity to ensure that learning keeps pace with the rapidly changing demands of the workforce and supports economic growth.

然而，從系統層面來看，我們最近的研究強調了在關鍵的職業和學習過渡點上持續存在和普遍存在的技能差距所造成的巨大代價。這些都會產生非常真實的經濟影響，在美國每年總計超過 1 兆美元，在英國每年總計超過 960 億英鎊。這為確保學習能夠跟上勞動力市場快速變化的需求並支持經濟成長提供了巨大的機會。

Second, our what. We are a global leader in assessments and verification and we're implementing our strategy to drive performance in our core businesses, realizing execution synergies, expanding into larger and faster-growing adjacent markets and building scale in our medium-term growth vectors of early careers and enterprise skilling. I look forward to telling you more about our progress against all of these shortly.

其次，我們的什麼。我們是評估和驗證領域的全球領導者，我們正在實施我們的策略，以推動我們核心業務的績效，實現執行協同效應，擴展到更大、成長更快的鄰近市場，並在我們早期職業和企業技能的中期成長方向中建立規模。我期待盡快向您報告我們在應對所有這些挑戰方面取得的進展。

Finally, our how underpins our strategic priorities, focusing our internal capital allocation process on higher growth opportunities, unlocking innovation to deliver better learning outcomes and more efficiently and embedding a high-performance culture top to bottom through the organization.

最後，我們的方法論支撐著我們的策略重點，將內部資本配置流程集中在更高的成長機會，釋放創新潛力以提供更好的學習成果，並更有效率地在整個組織中自上而下地嵌入高績效文化。

I'm pleased with the progress we've made over the last 18 months. And as you know, this is a process of continuous improvement. These factors together drive the medium-term guidance I outlined this time last year, which we reiterate today. Let me turn now to our ongoing strategic and operational progress against our four priority growth areas, starting with driving performance in our core business.

我對我們在過去18個月的進展感到滿意。如您所知，這是一個持續改進的過程。這些因素共同促成了我去年這個時候提出的中期發展方向，我們今天重申這個方向。現在，我想談談我們在四個優先成長領域的持續策略和營運進展，首先是推動我們核心業務的業績成長。

All five business units have demonstrated core performance improvements, executing upon the focus areas we outlined at full year results. And that reflects a combination of strong commercial execution and excellent progress in developing and launching innovative new products and services.

所有五個業務部門都展現了核心績效的提升，有效執行了我們在全年業績報告中概述的重點領域。這體現了強大的商業執行力以及在開發和推出創新產品和服務方面取得的卓越進展。

In Assessments & Qualifications, we see continued execution focus through customer wins and renewals across VUE and US Student Assessment, expanding our customer set in clinical with the first statewide adoption of our digital offering and further international expansion for UK & International Qualifications. We're on track to launch new VUE customers, ServiceNow, the Association of Social Work Boards and last month launched Salesforce, all of which will support faster growth in H2.

在評估和資格認證方面，我們看到透過贏得 VUE 和美國學生評估的客戶並續約，持續專注於執行，透過首次在全州範圍內採用我們的數位化產品，擴大我們在臨床領域的客戶群，並進一步拓展英國和國際資格認證的國際業務。我們正按計劃推出新的 VUE 客戶、ServiceNow、社會工作委員會協會，上個月還推出了 Salesforce，所有這些都將支持我們在下半年實現更快的成長。

From a product point of view, We've successfully launched a Pearson Skilling Suite and introduced further AI enhancements in US Student Assessment with the write-up platform. In Higher Education, we're building upon the successful monetization last fall of our Study Prep Tool, previously called Channels, with an expansion into international markets.

從產品角度來看，我們已成功推出 Pearson Skilling Suite，並透過寫作平台在美國學生評估中引入了進一步的 AI 增強功能。在高等教育領域，我們以去年秋季成功實現學習準備工具（以前稱為 Channels）的獲利模式為基礎，將業務拓展到國際市場。

We continue to introduce innovative technologies in our products, including our new go deeper functionality in our AI study tools, which we developed using nearly 130,000 student queries. Our research continues to show that our AI study tools are helping students with their learning, including the development of new cognitive skills and higher order outcomes, in particular when AI capabilities are built directly into the flow of study.

我們不斷在產品中引入創新技術，包括我們人工智慧學習工具中新增的「深入學習」功能，該功能是我們使用近 13 萬個學生查詢資料開發的。我們的研究不斷表明，我們的人工智慧學習工具正在幫助學生學習，包括培養新的認知技能和取得更高層次的成果，尤其是在將人工智慧功能直接融入學習流程的情況下。

In Virtual Learning, spring saw positive enrollment and retention trends, and we completed the rollout of our new enrollment platform and improved our new student acquisition capabilities. Career academies will be fully embedded across the whole network for fall back to school, and we're on track to open two new schools in H2 for a total of 42 by year-end. These factors support sales in H2 and a platform for accelerated growth over the medium term.

在虛擬學習方面，春季入學人數和留存率呈現正面趨勢，我們完成了新入學平台的推出，並提高了新學生的獲取能力。職業學院將在秋季開學時全面融入整個網絡，我們預計在下半年開設兩所新學校，到年底總共開設 42 所。這些因素支撐了下半年的銷售，並為中期內的加速成長奠定了基礎。

In Enterprise Learning & Skills, Vishaal and team continued to build momentum with their enterprise approach as we strengthen our global enterprise sales teams and have landed new wins with HCLTech and Google Cloud. These wins, coupled with pipeline activity, strengthened the conviction we have in the growth potential for our Enterprise opportunity.

在企業學習與技能領域，Vishaal 和他的團隊繼續憑藉其企業級方法保持發展勢頭，我們加強了全球企業銷售團隊，並贏得了 HCLTech 和 Google Cloud 的新訂單。這些成功案例，加上專案儲備的推進，增強了我們對企業發展機會成長潛力的信心。

Vocational Qualifications continued to demonstrate strong execution with international growth in BTEC and new contract wins, including apprenticeship courses with the UK Ministry of Defense and T levels in Health and Science.

職業資格認證繼續展現出強勁的執行力，BTEC 國際業務增長，並贏得了新的合同，包括與英國國防部合作的學徒課程以及健康和科學領域的 T 級課程。

And finally, in English Language Learning, PTE continued to show strong operational performance, and we're further advancing our offerings through our new Pearson English Express Test while expanding our relationships with governments and institutions around the world. We've also won institutional clients in LatAm, building upon recent strength in the region.

最後，在英語語言學習方面，PTE 繼續展現出強勁的營運表現，我們正在透過新的培生英語速成考試進一步推動我們的產品和服務，同時擴大與世界各地政府和機構的關係。我們也贏得了拉丁美洲的機構客戶，鞏固了我們在該地區近期取得的強勁勢頭。

Meanwhile, for educators, we've launched our Smart Lesson Generator that draws from Pearson's massive array of English content and will cut down the hours that teachers take to plan lessons, freeing them up to concentrate on coaching students in the classroom.

同時，對於教育工作者，我們推出了智慧課程產生器，它利用培生龐大的英語內容庫，可以減少教師備課的時間，讓他們有更多時間專注於課堂上指導學生。

I'd like now to take a moment to step back and discuss our progress in the foundational operational improvements we are making in the business. Firstly, we're transforming our revenue operations capabilities under the direction of our recently appointed Chief Business Officer, Naseem Tuffaha.

現在我想花點時間回顧一下我們在業務基礎營運改善方面取得的進展。首先，在最近任命的商務長納西姆·圖法哈的領導下，我們正在轉變我們的收入營運能力。

This is a set of processes and systems that will over time give us improved visibility and leverage on the activities that drive revenue growth from targeting through to enabling and incentivizing sales teams. By using data to better make prioritization decisions, we will develop a stronger, more resilient commercial engine and one that can quickly and effectively scale and deliver results in our competitive markets.

這是一套流程和系統，隨著時間的推移，它將使我們更了解和利用推動收入成長的各項活動，從目標設定到賦能和激勵銷售團隊。透過利用數據來更好地做出優先決策，我們將開發出更強大、更具韌性的商業引擎，能夠在競爭激烈的市場中快速有效地擴展規模並取得成果。

Secondly, we're now taking a modern marketing approach under our Chief Marketing Officer, Ginny Ziegler, where we expect to see near-term improvements in output and cost efficiencies in activities such as branding, social media and events.

其次，在行銷長 Ginny Ziegler 的領導下，我們現在採取了一種現代化的行銷方式，我們預計在品牌推廣、社群媒體和活動等方面，短期內就能在產出和成本效益方面取得進步。

And thirdly, as we discussed before, we're focusing on driving a performance culture, a foundational aspect of which is bringing clarity to our performance expectations across every single role in the company. To this end, we've reduced what were 1,600 roles down to 140 roles, enabling a circa 80% reduction in the number of job families and job categories, facilitating better performance management.

第三，正如我們之前討論過的，我們正在致力於打造績效文化，其基礎在於明確公司內每個職位的績效期望。為此，我們將原有的 1600 個職位減少到 140 個職位，使職位系列和職位類別的數量減少了約 80%，從而促進了更好的績效管理。

In addition, through our focus on continued improvement, we have reduced head count year-over-year, optimizing our spans and layers, resulting in quicker and more effective communication and decision-making across the organization.

此外，透過持續改進，我們逐年減少了員工人數，優化了組織架構和層級，從而實現了整個組織內更快、更有效的溝通和決策。

And finally, AI-driven simplification is progressing at pace as well. For example, we have reached over 40,000 customer interactions with an AI-powered service agent since its very recent launch. And AI content development tools have cut translation times from 18 months to less than three, accelerating speed to market internationally. This progress adds to my confidence in our medium-term guidance for faster growth and margin improvement.

最後，人工智慧驅動的簡化也在快速發展。例如，自最近推出以來，我們已經與人工智慧服務代理進行了超過 40,000 次客戶互動。人工智慧內容開發工具已將翻譯時間從 18 個月縮短到不到 3 個月，並加快了國際市場上市速度。這項進展增強了我對我們中期成長加速和利潤率提升目標的信心。

Let me turn now to our progress on unlocking synergies across the businesses. You will recall we identified three buckets of execution synergies and we've made significant progress already, starting with product and service bundling. Our new brand facilitates the simplification of our product estate helping customers navigate our offerings more effectively, enabling increased bundling opportunities. We're also starting to lead with Pearson research grounded in real-world experience which will improve our share of voice on key topics facing the future of education and learning.

現在讓我來談談我們在釋放各業務部門綜效方面的進展。您應該還記得，我們​​確定了三個執行協同效應類別，並且我們已經取得了重大進展，首先是產品和服務捆綁。我們的新品牌有助於簡化我們的產品組合，幫助客戶更有效地瀏覽我們的產品，從而增加捆綁銷售的機會。我們也開始以基於真實世界經驗的培生研究為指導，這將提高我們在教育和學習未來面臨的關鍵議題上的話語權。

Secondly, we've improved product discovery and development under Tony Prentice's leadership. We've implemented a single product management tool company-wide and migrated over 600 projects. This now gives us a real-time holistic view of product development, enabling better prioritization and ROI tracking.

其次，在托尼普倫蒂斯的領導下，我們改進了產品發現和開發。我們已在全公司範圍內實施了單一產品管理工具，並遷移了 600 多個專案。現在，我們可以即時全面地了解產品開發情況，從而更好地確定優先順序並追蹤投資回報率。

And lastly, on strategic partnerships. We now clearly distinguish between transactional vendors through to strategic relationships, unlocking new value. And we've made progress against two key categories. I've talked to you before about our new relationships with Microsoft and AWS, and I'm pleased to confirm we've now added a third with Google Cloud.

最後，關於策略夥伴關係。我們現在能夠清晰地區分交易型供應商和策略型合作夥伴，從​​而釋放新的價值。我們在兩個關鍵領域取得了進展。我之前已經和你們談過我們與微軟和AWS建立的新合作關係，現在我很高興地確認，我們又與Google雲端建立了第三種合作關係。

These are long-term strategic partnerships where we could enable revenue growth alongside cloud transformation and unique go-to-market and innovation opportunities. We're working with our partners' amazing strengths across Enterprise, Higher Ed and K-12. And these partnerships are developing as planned and we're starting to see commercial benefit.

這些都是長期的策略合作夥伴關係，我們可以透過這些合作夥伴關係實現收入成長，同時推動雲端轉型，並帶來獨特的市場推廣和創新機會。我們正在與合作夥伴在企業、高等教育和 K-12 領域發揮其強大的優勢。這些合作關係正按計劃發展，我們已經開始看到商業效益。

For example, Amazon has selected us for the integration of our learning products to support their workforce development. We will bring you further updates across these relationships as we progress. We've taken a similar approach to optimizing professional and technology services.

例如，亞馬遜選擇我們來整合我們的學習產品，以支持其員工發展。隨著事態發展，我們將為您帶來這些關係的最新進展。我們在優化專業和技術服務方面也採取了類似的方法。

We're consolidating from many dozen vendors down to a select group of service partners, unlocking cost savings and also ensuring better outcomes through a deeper 360-degree partner relationship where they are invested in our success, of course, opening up balance of trade opportunities as well as joint go-to-market activities.

我們正在將供應商從數十家精簡到精選的服務合作夥伴，從​​而節省成本，並透過更深入的 360 度合作夥伴關係確保更好的結果，他們也致力於我們的成功，當然，這也會創造貿易平衡機會以及聯合市場推廣活動。

I'm pleased to announce our first services partnership with HCLTech, a leader in tech transformation services and a company of over 200,000 people, who we're supporting in their own upskilling journey. So look out for more announcements in the coming months.

我很高興地宣布，我們與 HCLTech 建立了第一個服務合作夥伴關係。 HCLTech 是技術轉型服務領域的領導者，擁有超過 20 萬名員工，我們將支持他們提升自身技能。所以請密切關注未來幾個月的更多公告。

Now moving on to how we're expanding in targeted markets. As I mentioned earlier, we've established a new internal capital allocation process that allocates investment dollars towards faster-growth segments. As I shared last year, we're targeting growth in near adjacent markets, where we have a smaller presence today and believe we're well placed to take advantage of a larger $80 billion-plus market opportunity that grows at a faster rate than our existing core markets.

接下來我們來談談我們如何拓展目標市場。正如我之前提到的，我們已經建立了一個新的內部資本分配流程，將投資資金分配給成長更快的領域。正如我去年分享的那樣，我們的目標是在鄰近市場實現成長，我們目前在這些市場的份額較小，我們相信我們有能力抓住更大的、超過 800 億美元的市場機遇，而且這些市場的成長速度比我們現有的核心市場更快。

One example is our recently announced partnership with McGraw Hill, which will unlock go-to-market opportunities in the formative assessment space. Another is how we've operationalized our district K-12 sales team in Higher Ed, onboarding over 70 sales professionals to take advantage of strong growth trends that we see in college and career readiness programs.

例如，我們最近宣布與麥格勞-希爾公司建立合作夥伴關係，這將為我們在形成性評估領域開拓市場機會。另一個例子是我們如何將我們地區的 K-12 銷售團隊投入高等教育領域，招募了 70 多名銷售專業人員，以利用我們在大學和職業準備課程中看到的強勁成長趨勢。

And finally, we've successfully launched our test prep capabilities in Pearson VUE that we expect to contribute to growth in H2. We're also redirecting investment into innovation. Through Dave Treat and his teams, we're investing in relationships that promote and scale AI and immersive learning partnering with third parties like Meta, Google XR and Vu Technologies to explore what the future of learning may look like.

最後，我們已成功在 Pearson VUE 中推出考試輔導功能，我們預計這將有助於下半年的成長。我們也將投資轉向創新領域。透過 Dave Treat 和他的團隊，我們正在投資於促進和擴大人工智慧和沈浸式學習的合作關係，與 Meta、Google XR 和 Vu Technologies 等第三方合作，探索未來學習的可能面貌。

We have created a dedicated research and innovation space here in 80 Strand where we showcase our latest product solutions to partners, investors and other stakeholders. These investments help shape future products and keep Pearson focused on customer-driven innovation.

我們在斯特蘭德大街 80 號創建了一個專門的研究和創新空間，在這裡我們向合作夥伴、投資者和其他利益相關者展示我們最新的產品解決方案。這些投資有助於塑造未來的產品，並使培生集團專注於以客戶為中心的創新。

Finally, I want to share an update on our progress with our medium-term growth vectors. In Early Careers, we help people develop job-ready skills as they transition from school or university. We have businesses that are relevant in this theme already today, think of virtual schools and its career offerings, Certiport from Pearson VUE and our nascent career and college readiness, K-12 offering in Higher Ed.

最後，我想和大家分享我們在中期成長目標方面所取得的進展。在早期職業發展計畫中，我們幫助人們在從學校或大學過渡到職業生涯初期時培養就業所需的技能。如今，我們已經有一些與此主題相關的企業，例如虛擬學校及其職業課程、Pearson VUE 旗下的 Certiport 以及我們正在開發的 K-12 高等教育職業和大學預備課程。

Now to these offerings, we've now added eDynamic Learning as a core pillar of our Early Careers strategy. We bought eDynamic Learning into the Pearson team because it's a leader in career and technical education and has a track record of delivering excellent strong growth and profitability. The integration of its capabilities with our scale creates a powerful engine to deliver job-ready skills for the next generation of workers at the exact moment AI is transforming their career paths.

現在，我們在這些服務中增加了 eDynamic Learning，作為我們早期職涯發展策略的核心支柱。我們之所以將 eDynamic Learning 納入 Pearson 團隊，是因為它是職業和技術教育領域的領導者，並且在實現卓越強勁的成長和盈利方面有著良好的記錄。將它的能力與我們的規模結合，就能打造一個強大的引擎，在人工智慧改變下一代勞動者職涯道路的當下，為他們提供就業所需的技能。

Turning to enterprise skilling. I've spent time engaging with many CEOs, and I hear a common theme: leaders are grappling with how to better understand the actual skills of their people in a world where skill signals are opaque, and at the same time, we're seeing a declining half-life of skills. This makes it pretty difficult to lead people on a learning path that is fit for a future workplace that must make heavy use of AI technologies.

轉向企業技能培訓。我花時間與許多執行長交流，我聽到一個共同的主題：在一個技能訊號不透明的世界裡，領導者們正在努力更好地了解員工的實際技能，同時，我們看到技能的半衰期正在縮短。這使得引導人們走上一條適合未來工作場所的學習道路變得相當困難，因為未來的工作場所必須大量使用人工智慧技術。

The Pearson's story and our ability to assess and verify human skills resonates with these CEOs. Now on the back of this diagnosis, the opportunity for Pearson lies in helping enterprises build the capabilities they need for talent planning, talent sourcing and talent development in the AI era. We're actively addressing these needs, and we will continue to give you updates on this in due course.

皮爾森的故事以及我們評估和驗證人類技能的能力引起了這些執行長的共鳴。現在，基於這個診斷，Pearson 的機會在於幫助企業建構在人工智慧時代進行人才規劃、人才招募和人才發展所需的能力。我們正在積極解決這些需求，並將在適當的時候繼續向您提供最新進展。

Now before I hand over to Sally for a deeper look at our first half financials, let me summarize. You'll have picked up from our discussion today that there is a lot of progress underway at Pearson, and I'm really pleased with what we've achieved over the past 18 months. It positions us well for the current year and our medium-term outlook. And I look forward to updating you in the future on further progress as we continue to build a better business and deliver improved learning outcomes for more learners.

現在，在將上半年財務狀況交給薩莉進行更深入的分析之前，讓我先做個總結。從我們今天的討論中，您應該已經了解到培生集團正在取得許多進展，我對過去 18 個月我們所取得的成就感到非常滿意。這為我們今年的發展和中期前景奠定了良好的基礎。我期待在未來向您報告更多進展，我們將繼續努力打造更好的業務，為更多學習者提供更好的學習成果。

Sally, over to you.

莎莉，該你了。

Thank you, Omar. And good morning, everybody. We have delivered another solid performance in the first half with sales up 2% on an underlying basis, in line with the guidance that we set out at prelims in February. Adjusted operating profit was also up 2% underlying to GBP242 million.

謝謝你，奧馬爾。大家早安。上半年我們再次取得了穩健的業績，銷售額以基本面計算成長了 2%，符合我們在 2 月初步業績報告中給出的預期。經調整後的營業利潤也成長了 2%，達到 2.42 億英鎊。

Adjusted earnings per share were down to 24.5p, with the positive underlying trading performance and a reduction in share count due to the share buyback more than offset by FX headwinds. Our balance sheet remained strong, driven by another good cash performance, enabling continued investment in the business as well as increased shareholder returns with the $225 million acquisition of eDynamic Learning and the GBP350 million share buyback, which is expected to complete in H2.

經調整後的每股盈餘降至 24.5 便士，積極的潛在交易表現和股票回購導致的股份數量減少被外匯不利因素抵消。在良好的現金流表現的推動下，我們的資產負債表依然強勁，這使得我們能夠繼續投資於業務，並透過以 2.25 億美元收購 eDynamic Learning 和 3.5 億英鎊回購股票（預計將於下半年完成）來增加股東回報。

Reflecting our performance and confidence in the outlook, we're proposing a 5% increase in our interim dividend to 7.8p. At the beginning of the year, we announced that Workforce Skills would evolve to become Enterprise Learning & Skills, incorporating our IT Pro business, which was previously in Higher Ed.

鑑於我們良好的業績和對前景的信心，我們提議將中期股息提高5%至每股7.8便士。年初，我們宣布勞動力技能業務將轉型為企業學習與技能業務，並整合我們先前在高等教育領域開展的IT專業業務。

The comparative figures for H1 2024 have therefore been restated to reflect the modest financial transfers between segments, resulting in a GBP22 million sales and GBP6 million profit moving from Higher Ed to Enterprise Learning & skills. The full year impact of this is now expected to be GBP45 million of sales and GBP12 million of profit.

因此，2024 年上半年的比較數據已重新表述，以反映各業務板塊之間的適度財務轉移，導致 2,200 萬英鎊的銷售額和 600 萬英鎊的利潤從高等教育轉移到企業學習和技能領域。預計全年銷售額將增加 4,500 萬英鎊，利潤將增加 1,200 萬英鎊。

Walking through the key elements of business unit sales performance. Assessments and qualification sales grew 2% with strong growth in Clinical Assessments and UK & International Qualifications, partially offset by declines in Pearson VUE and US Student Assessment. The VUE decline is due to the pause in a contract delivered in 2024 and recommencing in H2 2025 and headwinds in PDRI.

分析業務部門銷售績效的關鍵要素。評估和資格認證銷售額增長了 2%，其中臨床評估和英國及國際資格認證的強勁增長部分抵消了 Pearson VUE 和美國學生評估的下降。VUE 下降是由於 2024 年交付的合約暫停，將於 2025 年下半年重新開始，以及 PDRI 的不利因素。

Virtual school sales declined 1%, as expected, due to the final portion of the impact of the previous school losses. Enrollments for the 2024-'25 academic year increased 5% in the spring semester on a same-school basis and grew 7% including new school openings. We have also seen favorable retention trends in the first half.

正如預期的那樣，由於先前學校虧損的最後影響，虛擬學校的銷售額下降了 1%。2024-25 學年春季學期，原學校入學人數增加了 5%，新學校入學人數增加了 7%。上半年我們也看到了良好的客戶留存趨勢。

Higher Education sales grew 4% with IA growth of 21% and 3% growth in US digital subscriptions. We continue to see good monetization of our Study Prep Tool formerly known as Channels and ongoing engagement with our AI study tools. English Language Learning declined 3%, in line with our expectations with our Institutional business impacted by a strong comp period in H1 last year. And Pearson Test of English was flat performing, well against a tough market backdrop.

高等教育銷售額成長了 4%，其中 IA 成長了 21%，美國數位訂閱成長了 3%。我們繼續看到我們的學習準備工具（以前稱為 Channels）實現了良好的盈利，用戶對我們的人工智慧學習工具也保持著持續的參與度。英語語言學習業務下降了 3%，符合我們的預期，原因是去年上半年同期基數較高，影響了機構業務的發展。在市場環境艱困的情況下，培生英語考試表現平平。

Enterprise Learning & Skills grew 4% with another solid performance from Vocational Qualifications and Enterprise Solutions building momentum during the period. Turning to profit. Group adjusted operating profit grew 2% on an underlying basis, driven by operating leverage on that sales growth, partially offset by inflation.

企業學習與技能成長了 4%，其中職業資格和企業解決方案表現穩健，並在該期間保持了成長勢頭。轉向盈利。集團調整後的營業利潤以基本面計算成長了 2%，這主要得益於銷售成長帶來的營運槓桿效應，但部分被通貨膨脹所抵銷。

For each business unit, Assessments & Qualification margins reduced to 21% due to the margin on sales growth being more than offset by prior year cost phasing and inflation. Virtual Learning margins increased to 16%, driven by cost phasing, partially offset by trading declines. Higher Ed and Enterprise Learning & Skills both saw margin improvement driven by sales growth.

由於銷售成長帶來的利潤被上一年的成本分攤和通貨膨脹所抵消，各業務部門的評估和資格認證利潤率降至 21%。受成本分階段實施的推動，虛擬學習利潤率提高至 16%，但部分被交易量下降所抵銷。高等教育和企業學習與技能業務的利潤率均因銷售成長而提高。

And English Language Learning margins were adversely impacted by sales phasing. Free cash flow was again strong, up GBP129 million from last year to GBP156 million, given similar operating cash performance with good working capital management offsetting the impact of FX and the receipt of the state aid recovery. The state aid amount is GBP97 million on the tax line and GBP17 million on the interest line.

英語語言學習課程的利潤率受到了銷售階段劃分的不利影響。自由現金流再次強勁，從去年的 1.29 億英鎊增至 1.56 億英鎊，這得益於類似的經營現金流表現以及良好的營運資本管理抵消了匯率波動和收到國家援助款項的影響。國家援助金額在稅收項下為 9,700 萬英鎊，在利息項下為 1,700 萬英鎊。

Net debt has decreased by GBP0.2 billion from June 2024 to GBP1 billion actually at June 2025 driven by free cash flow partially offset by dividends and that share buyback. Turning to the outlook for the remainder of the year. We are where we expected to be at the half year point, and we're on track to deliver on the expectations we set out at prelims in February.

淨債務從 2024 年 6 月到 2025 年 6 月減少了 2 億英鎊，實際降至 10 億英鎊，這主要得益於自由現金流，但部分被股息和股票回購所抵消。接下來展望今年剩餘時間的情況。我們已經達到了預期的半年目標，並且正朝著我們在二月份預選賽中設定的目標穩步前進。

Let me walk you through this by business unit as a reminder. Assessments & Qualifications will grow low to mid-single digits in 2025. Growth will be H2 weighted, in particular to Q4, due to new and renewed contracts, including Salesforce, which launched last month, as well as the build of our new test prep business.

為了方便您回憶，我先按業務部門逐一介紹。2025年，評估與資格認證產業將實現個位數低至中等的成長。成長將主要集中在下半年，尤其是第四季度，這主要得益於新合約和續約合同，包括上個月推出的 Salesforce 合同，以及我們新的考試準備業務的成立。

Virtual Learning will return to growth in H2 and for the full year, driven by enrollment increases partially from new school openings for the 2025-2026 academic year. The previously announced school losses will cease to be a headwind in H2. 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.

虛擬學習將在下半年恢復成長，並在全年持續成長，部分原因是 2025-2026 學年新學校的開設帶動了入學人數的增加。先前宣布的學校損失將在下半年不再構成不利因素。2025 年高等教育的成長將高於 2024 年，這得益於我們銷售團隊轉型和產品創新（特別是人工智慧的應用）所取得的成功成果。

English Language Learning full year growth will moderate versus the 8% delivered in 2024 due to the PTE business, which is expected to decline in H2. The business unit growth will be H2 weighted, in particular, to Q4. Enterprise Learning & Skills will grow high single digit in 2025 with Vocational Qualifications seeing solid growth and the addition of those new contracts for Enterprise Solutions, which you've heard about. Growth will increase quarter-on-quarter in H2, supported by those recent customer announcements and pipeline activity.

由於 PTE 業務預計在下半年下滑，英語語言學習的全年成長將放緩，與 2024 年實現的 8% 相比有所下降。業務部門的成長將主要集中在下半年，尤其是第四季。2025 年，企業學習與技能將實現高個位數增長，職業資格認證將實現穩健增長，並且企業解決方案也將新增合同，您已經聽說過這些合同。受近期客戶公告和專案進度的支撐，下半年成長將較上季加快。

Turning to profit. Market expectations at the beginning of the year for adjusted operating profit were GBP656 million at an FX rate of GBP1.23. Subsequently, of course, there's been a significant move in the US dollar rate, so I thought it would be helpful to remind you that every $0.01 movement in the dollar equates to approximately GBP5 million of adjusted operating profit.

轉向盈利。年初市場預期調整後營業利潤為6.56億英鎊，匯率為1英鎊兌1.23英鎊。當然，此後美元匯率出現了大幅波動，因此我認為有必要提醒各位，美元每波動0.01美元，調整後營業利潤大約會變動500萬英鎊。

Now I'm not going to try to forecast FX rates, but if we take the actual average FX rate for H1, which is $1.31 and assume the recent spot rate of $1.32 for the rest of the year, then the average FX rate for the full year would be about $1.32.

現在我不會嘗試預測外匯匯率，但如果我們採用上半年的實際平均外匯匯率，即 1.31 美元，並假設今年剩餘時間的近期即期匯率為 1.32 美元，那麼全年的平均外匯匯率約為 1.32 美元。

So that would mean a $0.09 movement of FX, which reduces adjusted operating profit by GBP45 million down to GBP611 million, which is about where consensus is at the moment. The announced acquisition of eDynamic Learning has recently closed with consideration paid of $225 million at a 13 times adjusted EBITDA.

這意味著匯率將波動 0.09 美元，這將使調整後的營業利潤減少 4,500 萬英鎊，降至 6.11 億英鎊，這與目前的普遍預期基本一致。對 eDynamic Learning 的收購已於近日完成，收購對價為 2.25 億美元，相當於調整後 EBITDA 的 13 倍。

We do not expect this to have a material impact to 2025 group guidance, given near-term integration costs and the acquisition accounting for deferred revenue, which impacts the first 18-month sales recognized. eDynamic Learning has a highly attractive financial profile with strong margins and cash flow and a track record of delivering good growth. We expect this acquisition to be supportive of our medium-term guidance.

鑑於近期整合成本以及收購對遞延收入的會計處理（該處理會影響前18個月的銷售額確認），我們預計這不會對2025年集團業績指引產生重大影響。 eDynamic Learning擁有極具吸引力的財務狀況，利潤率和現金流強勁，並維持著良好的成長記錄。我們預期此次收購將有助於實現其中期業績預期。

In terms of interest and tax, we continue to guide to circa GBP65 million of interest costs with a 90% to 100% free cash flow conversion plus that state aid payment. Our tax guidance is unchanged at between 24% and 25% ETR.

就利息和稅收而言，我們繼續預期利息成本約為 6,500 萬英鎊，自由現金流轉換率為 90% 至 100%，再加上國家援助款項。我們的稅務指引保持不變，有效稅率在 24% 至 25% 之間。

So in summary, we're pleased with the performance we've delivered in H1, which is in line with expectations. We remain on track to deliver our 2025 outlook with known business unit dynamics in place to support stronger growth in H2. And we finished the first half of the year in a strong financial position, driven by another excellent cash performance supporting continued investment in the business as well as increased shareholder returns.

總而言之，我們對上半年所取得的業績感到滿意，這與預期相符。我們仍有望實現 2025 年的展望，目前各業務部門的動態已到位，這將支持下半年更強勁的成長。上半年結束時，我們的財務狀況良好，這得益於又一次出色的現金流表現，從而支持了對業務的持續投資以及股東回報的增加。

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

那麼，接下來我就把麥克風交還給奧馬爾。

Thank you, Sally. So as you've heard, firstly, our strategy remains the same and is now well established across the organization, and this is driving demand for what we do. I believe Pearson has a vital role to play in shaping the future of learning, especially in a world of AI-driven transformation.

謝謝你，莎莉。正如你們所聽到的，首先，我們的策略保持不變，並且現在已在整個組織內得到充分確立，這正在推動對我們工作的需求。我認為培生集團在塑造未來學習方面發揮著至關重要的作用，尤其是在人工智慧驅動變革的世界中。

Secondly, we're executing well against our strategy, including core operational improvements, with progress to unlock our medium-term growth vectors. And thirdly, our strategic clarity and our execution focus strengthen my conviction in Pearson's medium-term trajectory and that we are on track to deliver on our 2025 priorities. With that, Sally and I, along with Art, Tom, Vishaal, Sharon and Tony will be happy to take your questions. Operator, over to you.

其次，我們在策略執行方面進展順利，包括核心營運改進，並取得了進展，並有望實現其中期成長目標。第三，我們的策略清晰度和執行重點增強了我對培生中期發展軌蹟的信心，以及我們正按計畫實現 2025 年優先事項的信心。那麼，我和莎莉，還有阿特、湯姆、維沙爾、莎倫和東尼，將會很樂意回答你們的問題。操作員，請接通。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

James Tate, Goldman Sachs.

James Tate，高盛集團。

Good morning, Omar, Sally, it's James Tate from Goldman Sachs. I've got two questions, please. I think, firstly, on VUE's new and renewed contracts, I know you talked about them having a greater contribution to growth in Q4, but you mentioned ServiceNow and a couple of others already online.

早安，奧馬爾，薩莉，我是高盛的詹姆斯泰特。請問我有兩個問題。首先，關於 VUE 的新合約和續約合同，我知道您談到它們對第四季度的成長做出了更大的貢獻，但您也提到了 ServiceNow 和其他一些已經上線的公司。

Are these all operating and performing in line with your prior expectations? And as we start to think more of that 2026, is it fair to assume that VUE should grow at least mid-single digits as it gets almost a full year benefit from a lot of these new deals.

這些設備的運作和性能是否都符合您先前的預期？當我們開始更多地考慮 2026 年時，是否可以合理地假設 VUE 至少會實現個位數中段的成長，因為它將從許多新交易中獲得近一整年的收益。

And I guess, secondly, you've highlighted some of the new GenAI products rolled out across the portfolio. Could you also provide some more detail on what you see as the opportunity from the technology to drive cost efficiencies across the business? Have these progressed so far? And are there certain divisions where you see greater potential?

其次，我想您也重點介紹了 GenAI 在產品組合中推出的一些新產品。您能否進一步詳細說明一下，您認為這項技術能為企業帶來哪些提高成本效益的機會？這些項目目前進展如何？您認為哪些部門更有發展潛力？

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you very much, James. Appreciate your questions. So as you know, we're probably not going to offer too much guidance on '26 at this point, but I'll let Art talk to you about VUE and what he's seeing with the contracts around ServiceNow, Salesforce and the others. Over to you, Art.

非常感謝你，詹姆斯。感謝您的提問。如您所知，我們目前可能不會對 '26 提供太多指導，但我會讓 Art 來談談 VUE 以及他看到的 ServiceNow、Salesforce 和其他公司之間的合約情況。接下來就交給你了，Art。

Absolutely, good to have you with us today, James. On VUE, in particular, Omar mentioned three specific contracts. Salesforce launched last month. ServiceNow and the Association of Social Work Boards are launching later in this year. And all of those contracts as well as the VUE testing contract portfolio, in general, is performing according to expectations.

當然，詹姆斯，今天能和你在一起真是太好了。關於 VUE，奧馬爾特別提到了三個具體的合約。Salesforce上個月上線了。ServiceNow 和社會工作委員會協會將於今年稍後推出。所有這些合約以及 VUE 測試合約組合總體上都符合預期。

So launch efforts as well as our view as to what the volumes that are going to run through those contracts is absolutely in line with what our expectations are and reflected in the guidance that Sally has given.

因此，我們的啟動工作以及我們對這些合約的交易量的看法，與我們的預期完全一致，也與 Sally 給出的指導意見相符。

Thank you, Art. On GenAI, let me say something about the customer-facing products and then perhaps I'll ask Sally to comment on how we see it playing out in terms of our core operations.

謝謝你，阿特。關於 GenAI，我想先談談面向客戶的產品，然後我可能會請 Sally 談談我們認為它將如何影響我們的核心營運。

So I'm particularly excited about the fact that we are getting more and more evidence, including in the last few months from 2 million students in the US, that when we apply AI correctly in the flow of study, you get higher order outcomes in terms of people's reasoning. So I think there are more and more studies that have happened and that we'll see more of that when you use AI as a teleportation device that moves you from here to the answer, you actually don't learn.

因此，我特別興奮的是，我們獲得了越來越多的證據，包括最近幾個月來自美國 200 萬名學生的證據，這些證據表明，當我們在學習過程中正確應用人工智慧時，人們的推理能力就能獲得更高層次的結果。所以我認為，越來越多的研究表明，當你把人工智慧當作傳送裝置，把你從這裡傳送到答案時，你實際上並沒有學到任何東西。

But when you use AI as a map to take you through the different stages to get to the endpoint, you really do learn and that's our approach. And the work that Tony and the team have been doing across our product set is just really excellent in that space. But to your question on cost efficiencies in our operations, I'll ask Sally to comment.

但是，當你把人工智慧當作一張地圖，引導你經歷不同的階段最終到達終點時，你真的會學到很多東西，這就是我們的方法。Tony 和他的團隊在我們所有產品系列中所做的工作，在這個領域真的非常出色。但對於您提出的關於我們營運成本效益的問題，我會請莎莉發​​表意見。

Yes, of course. So one of the things that's really special about Pearson is that not only can we have AI usage for our customers and our products, but obviously, we have the benefits that other companies do in terms of generating cost efficiencies across our business.

是的當然。因此，Pearson 的一大特別之處在於，我們不僅可以為我們的客戶和產品使用人工智慧，而且顯然，我們還像其他公司一樣，在整個業務中實現了成本效益。

The things that Omar called out for things like content generation, which we're using AI in, now that can be around actually just creation of content or a really nice example would be translation so that we can get our products, for example, in international higher education into languages that just weren't cost-effective before, and we can get them to market in a faster way as well. So it's great for our top line and our customers and also for our cost base as well.

奧馬爾提到的內容生成方面的問題，我們現在正在使用人工智慧，它可以用於內容創作，或者一個很好的例子是翻譯，這樣我們就可以把我們的產品，例如國際高等教育產品，翻譯成以前不划算的語言，而且我們還可以更快地將它們推向市場。所以這對我們的營收、客戶以及成本都大有裨益。

Another example is customer services, where we're putting AI capabilities, and again, helps from a cost point of view, but also helps to make our customer experience more effective as well. So there's lots of examples of where we're using it across the front office and the back office, generating cost savings, making the experience, improve for our customers as well and helping the top line.

另一個例子是客戶服務，我們在那裡應用了人工智慧技術，這不僅有助於降低成本，而且還有助於提高客戶體驗的有效性。因此，我們有許多例子表明，我們在前台和後台都使用了這項技術，從而節省了成本，改善了客戶體驗，並提高了收入。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Okay, who's next?

好，下一個是誰？

Right, thank you.

好的，謝謝。

Thanks James.

謝謝你，詹姆斯。

Luke Holbrook, Morgan Stanley.

盧克·霍爾布魯克，摩根士丹利。

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I've got -- my main question centers around the Q3 and Q4 weighting for this year again because you're guiding to 4.4% revenue growth for 2025, we've seen 2% in H1. And I guess with the Q4 weighting, you're looking at 7% potential growth, maybe even a little bit higher than that.

謝謝。各位早安。我的主要問題再次圍繞著今年第三季和第四季的權重展開，因為你們預計 2025 年的營收成長將達到 4.4%，而我們上半年只看到了 2%。我估計，如果以第四季權重計算，潛在成長率可能達到 7%，甚至可能更高一些。

But could you just walk us through with what -- some of what you've discussed today around Virtual School contracts launching, Salesforce contracts, other partnerships, VUE contract recommencing. Can you just help us bridge, in a financial context, how we get to that and what's underpinned into Q4? And then I've just got a follow-up.

但您能否簡要介紹您今天討論的一些內容，例如虛擬學校合約的啟動、Salesforce 合約、其他合作關係以及 VUE 合約的重新開始。您能否從財務角度幫我們梳理一下，我們是如何實現這一目標的，以及第四季的基礎是什麼？然後我還有一個後續問題。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Sure. Why don't I take that one and then we'll take your follow-up. So your math is right in terms of the number you're quoting for the second half, first of all. And then it's known things that we've known about from the start of the year in each of the business units, it's slightly different between the business units.

當然。不如我先接手這個，然後再跟進你的問題。首先，你計算出的後半部數字是正確的。然後，還有一些我們從年初就開始了解的、各個業務部門的情況，只是各業務部門的情況略有不同。

So in A&Q and VUE, in particular, and in ELS, it's about those contracts that you've heard Omar and Art talk about and those coming online. In answer to James' question on VUE, just to point out, it might not be obvious to folks who are deep in the business, it does take a while once we're awarded a contract for that to transition sometimes from a previous provider to us. So that's why it feels like we maybe announced some of these a while ago, but they're only coming online now, just in case that's not clear.

所以，尤其是在 A&Q 和 VUE，以及 ELS 中，都是關於你聽 Omar 和 Art 談論過的那些合同，以及即將上線的那些合同。針對 James 關於 VUE 的問題，我想指出，對於業內人士來說，這一點可能並不明顯，但當我們獲得合約後，有時需要一段時間才能將服務從之前的供應商過渡到我們這裡。所以，這就是為什麼我們可能已經宣布過其中一些內容，但直到現在才正式上線的原因，以防有人不明白。

Then in Virtual Schools, you'll remember, for the '24-'25 school year, we were impacted by the loss of that California school. That is now passed. And so we're now thinking about the '25-'26 academic year, which is what impacts H2 revenue, and that will be driven by enrollment growth, and we won't have that lost school issue anymore. And then last but not least, English Language Learning, where we had a tough comp in the first half of the year, which isn't reflected in the second half of the year.

然後，在虛擬學校裡，你可能還記得，在 2024-2025 學年，我們受到了加州那所學校關閉的影響。這件事已經通過了。因此，我們現在正在考慮 2025-2026 學年，這將影響下半年的收入，而收入成長將取決於入學人數的成長，我們將不再面臨學生流失的問題。最後，也是非常重要的一點，英語語言學習，我們在上半年遇到了很大的困難，但這並沒有反映在下半年的成績中。

Understood. And just my second question would just be on the Higher Ed. We saw a step down in growth into Q2, noticing your enrollments look relatively good in that quarter. Just what's the delta on the step down? Or is that just a law of small numbers on the quarterly phasing?

明白了。我的第二個問題是關於高等教育的。我們注意到第二季成長有所放緩，但你們的入學人數在該季度看起來相對較好。降階過程中究竟增加了多少？或者這只是季度分階段實施的小數定律？

You want to take that?

你想拿走它嗎？

I mean, a small number is a piece of it, but let's throw it over to Tom.

我的意思是，少量數字固然是其中一部分，但我們還是把這個問題交給湯姆來討論吧。

Yes. [James] thanks for the question. So a couple of things really happened. Firstly, the core Higher Education business continued and was exactly where we were expecting it to be for the half year. What's really happened is that some of that deceleration you've seen in the second quarter is somewhat of a function of what we were expecting to see in the college and career readiness business this year. It's been a smaller adoption cycle.

是的。 [詹姆斯]謝謝你的提問。所以確實發生了兩件事。首先，高等教育核心業務持續保持成長勢頭，並且完全符合我們對上半年業績的預期。實際上發生的情況是，你在第二季度看到的這種放緩在某種程度上是今年大學和職業準備業務預期發展的結果。這次的推廣週期比較短。

Then secondly, we've obviously been getting our new go-to-market team up and running. And as you can appreciate, bringing [70] new people on board and establishing all those relationships is inevitably going to have a few teething problems, which is why we were clear with where we would be from that point of view.

其次，我們顯然已經組建並經營了新的市場推廣團隊。正如您所理解的，招募 [70] 名新員工並建立所有這些關係，不可避免地會遇到一些初期問題，因此我們很清楚我們在這方面會面臨什麼。

And then the third thing I would say was that there have been some delays in terms of some of the federal government spending for about $7 billion that would go out of the states.

第三點是，聯邦政府約 70 億美元的支出出現了一些延誤，這些支出原本應該撥給各州。

Now that doesn't have any impact on the money that we receive from the states from a college and career readiness perspective, but it did make [superintendent] just delayed purchasing a little bit. So we feel good about where we are from a K-12 perspective. We feel pleased with the overall performance in Higher Education. And we feel confident about the full year guidance.

從大學和職業準備的角度來看，這不會對我們從各州獲得的資金產生任何影響，但這確實導致（校長）推遲了採購一段時間。所以，從K-12教育的角度來看，我們對目前的狀況感到滿意。我們對高等教育的整體表現感到滿意。我們對全年業績預期充滿信心。

Thank you, Tom, and thanks for being up in the middle of the night.

謝謝你，湯姆，也謝謝你半夜起來照顧我。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Nick Dempsey, Barclays.

尼克鄧普西，巴克萊銀行。

Yeah, good morning, guys. I've got three. So the first one, just on Pearson VUE. Can you give us any information -- more information on the contract that was paused? Why was it paused and exactly when does that come back in? And is it common for large contracts that can move the needle on that subdivision to be paused like that?

早上好，各位。我有三個。所以第一個，就在 Pearson VUE 上。您能否提供一些資訊—關於那份暫停的合約的更多資訊？為什麼暫停了？具體什麼時候恢復？像這樣暫停可能對該地區發展產生重大影響的大額合同，是否常見？

Second question, in English Language Learning, if we're expecting PTE to still decline for this year, it feels like you need a really strong growth in the institutional business in the second half. How much of that can you already see coming through? And how much of it is kind of a hope in terms of the sales that you achieved from September?

第二個問題，在英語語言學習領域，如果我們預期 PTE 今年仍將下滑，那麼感覺下半年機構業務就需要強勁成長。你已經看到多少這樣的跡象正在顯現？而這其中有多少是你對九月銷售的期望呢？

And then thirdly, on Higher Education, are you still expecting full 2025 enrollments to be flattish, as I think you said before? And if so, I guess, you're going to need to see growth from other factors coming through. So is that going to be more weighting to Inclusive Access, more price? Or how should we think about that?

第三，關於高等教育，您是否仍然像您之前所說的那樣，預計 2025 年的大學入學人數將保持穩定？如果真是這樣，我想，你還需要看到其他因素帶來的成長。所以，這是否會更重視普惠醫療，而不是價格因素？我們該如何看待這個問題？

Thank you very much, Nick. So on VUE, I mean, I'm going to ask Art to make a quick comment. But I think I can say that this is a very specific individual situation, not something you should expect to see repeated. But over to you, Art.

非常感謝你，尼克。所以關於 VUE，我的意思是，我要請 Art 簡單說幾句。但我認為我可以肯定地說，這是一個非常特殊的個案，不應該會再發生。現在輪到你了，Art。

It's absolutely the case, Omar. It is an international partner. The pause on the contract commenced in the back half of 2024. We are confident in the resumption later this year. And as Omar said, the circumstances are very specific to this customer and not something related to the product or service offering, and thus, it is in fact something that we do not -- that is unusual.

奧馬爾，情況絕對如此。它是國際合作夥伴。合約暫停期從 2024 年下半年開始。我們有信心在今年晚些時候恢復比賽。正如奧馬爾所說，這種情況是這位客戶的特殊情況，與產品或服務無關，因此，這確實是我們不常遇到的情況。

For Sharon, how are you feeling about institutional in the back half? I mean, Nick's asking us if we're just being a bit hopeful here.

Sharon，你對下半年的體制改革有何感想？我的意思是，尼克在問我們是不是有點太樂觀了。

Hi, good morning. Thanks for the question, Nick. So a couple of things to just mention. Obviously, the second half of the year weighting for English as a whole, but particularly for institutional, it's not a new feature of this business. Of course, it's driven very heavily by the academic year cycles and the fact that we have a particularly strong business in Latin America.

您好，早安。謝謝你的提問，尼克。有幾件事要提一下。顯然，下半年英語整體的權重，尤其是機構英語的權重，並不是這個行業的新特色。當然，這很大程度上受到學年周期以及我們在拉丁美洲擁有特別強大的業務這一事實的影響。

So we're performing as we expected for the first half of the year. And feeling good about growth in our institutional business in the second half of the year where we expect to see that growth being driven by the business in LatAm, where we're expecting share gains and a strong focus on government deals.

所以，我們上半年的表現符合預期。我們對下半年機構業務的成長感到樂觀，預計這一增長將由拉丁美洲的業務推動，我們預計在拉丁美洲的市場份額將有所增長，並且我們將重點關注政府交易。

And we're very, very focused on the execution plan and working closely with a number of governments across the world to land those deals. So we're performing as we expect right now, and looking forward to strong performance in institutional for the second half of the year.

我們非常非常注重執行計劃，並與世界各國政府密切合作，以達成這些交易。所以，我們目前的表現符合預期，並期待下半年機構業務能有強勁的業績。

Thank you, Sharon. And then, Tom, on Higher Ed, the weighting of enrollment and what else that might assume about the shape of the business in the second half?

謝謝你，莎倫。然後，湯姆，關於高等教育，招生人數的權重，以及這可能對下半年的業務格局產生哪些影響？

Yes, sure. So it's obviously a dangerous game to be playing in terms of getting enrollments at the end of July, given back to school is just around the corner, so I'll stay well clear of that. But I would say that we feel good about where we're seeing growth coming from in terms of pricing. You've seen the IA mix up 21% in the first half of the year. So we're pleased about that in terms of the growth in IA year-over-year.

當然可以。顯然，在7月底招生方面這樣做很危險，因為開學季即將到來，所以我會盡量避免這種情況。但我認為，就價格而言，我們對目前的成長方向感到滿意。你已經看到 IA 在今年上半年出現了 21% 的波動。因此，我們對IA同比增長感到滿意。

And then lastly, some of the work we've been doing on Study Prep will help support us in the second half of the year as we're excited about the rollout of those products. So that's some of the key drivers, which we feel confident about getting into the back half of the year.

最後，我們一直在學習準備方面的一些工作將有助於我們在下半年推出這些產品，我們對此感到非常興奮。所以，以上是一些關鍵驅動因素，我們有信心在今年下半年繼續保持這些優勢。

Thanks, Tom.

謝謝你，湯姆。

Can I just have a very quick follow-up. I think you talked before about flattish enrollment in fall '25 being what you were using when you were thinking about the year. I know you don't want to guess those. Is that still your base case for your planning, Tom?

我可以再快速問一個後續問題嗎？我認為你之前說過，2025 年秋季入學人數基本上持平，這是你在考慮這一年時所依據的假設。我知道你不想猜那些。湯姆，這仍然是你規劃的基本依據嗎？

Yes. Yes, it is.

是的。是的。

Okay, thank you. Cheers, Nick.

好的，謝謝。謝謝，尼克。

Adam Berlin, UBS.

瑞銀集團的亞當柏林。

Hi, good morning, everyone, a few questions for me. The first question is just on higher ed following on from the last question. Can you talk about adoption share performance during the recent sales cycle? Did you win more share than last year? That's the first question.

大家好，早安，我有幾個問題想問大家。第一個問題是關於高等教育的，與上一個問題密切相關。您能否談談最近銷售週期內的用戶採納率表現？今年的市佔率比去年增加了嗎？這是第一個問題。

Second question is can you talk a little bit about this eDynamics business you bought? Can you just be clear exactly what it does? Which business unit will we go into? How much revenue? How fast is it growing? Obviously, we want to put it into our models for next year. So any more information you can provide would be very helpful.

第二個問題是，您能否談談您收購的這家 eDynamics 公司？能具體解釋一下它的功能嗎？我們將進入哪個業務部門？收入是多少？它的成長速度有多快？顯然，我們希望將其納入明年的模型中。所以，如果您能提供更多信息，將非常有幫助。

And then my third question is if you deliver what you're saying you're going to deliver, you're going to have this high single-digit growth in H2. Is that going to -- it feels to me that the drivers of that should all continue into H1 and 2026. Any reasons why that wouldn't be a fair assumption?

我的第三個問題是，如果你能兌現你承諾要兌現的承諾，那麼下半年你的業績就能達到接近兩位數的成長。我覺得這些驅動因素應該會持續到2026年上半年。有什麼理由說明這種假設不合理嗎？

Okay. I'm going to start with Tom. Just a couple of points on eDynamics and then, Tom, you can pick up on the adoption share topic and also maybe get a bit more into exactly what eDynamic does.

好的。我先從湯姆開始。關於 eDynamics，我先簡單提幾點，然後 Tom，你可以談談採用份額這個主題，也可以更深入地了解 eDynamics 的具體功能。

So I'm really happy with the deal that we've done here. I think we've been very disciplined on not just the financial terms of the transaction, which Sally outlined some of earlier, but actually on really tight strategic alignment. I mean, this company is a company that we've been working with for many years. We know that one plus one equals three in this case because we've trialed it for real with customers.

所以我對我們達成的協議非常滿意。我認為我們不僅在交易的財務條款方面（薩莉之前概述了一些）非常自律，而且在戰略一致性方面也做得非常出色。我的意思是，這家公司我們已經合作多年了。我們知道在這種情況下一加一等於三，因為我們已經用客戶進行了實際試驗。

And so I feel very happy about it being a strong addition to our Early Careers strategy. And so it's going to be run by Tom and his team in Higher Ed and so he can talk to you a little bit more about the content of what it is. So Tom, can you pick up first on the adoption share thing and then back on eDynamics, please?

因此，我非常高興它能成為我們早期職涯發展策略的有力補充。所以它將由湯姆和他在高等教育領域的團隊負責，他可以和你更詳細地談談它的內容。所以湯姆，你能先談談採用率的問題，然後再回到 eDynamics 的問題上嗎？

Yes, sure. So from an adoption share perspective in the first half of the year, we increased our share slightly this spring compared to fall last year. And as you know, Nick, the -- sorry, Adam, it's obviously 4:15 in the morning, so I need a little bit more coffee. So in that context, we're obviously very focused on our fall adoption share.

當然可以。因此，從今年上半年的收養份額來看，與去年秋季相比，我們今年春季的份額略有增加。尼克，你知道的——抱歉，亞當，現在顯然是凌晨 4 點 15 分，所以我需要再喝點咖啡。因此，在這種背景下，我們顯然非常關注秋季的市場份額。

As you know, our sales team has got a good degree of understanding of what's going on in the market at this stage. They've made their final sort of forecast as it were based on all the selling that they've done. And so we're feeling good about where we are in that construct.

如您所知，我們的銷售團隊對現階段的市場狀況有相當深入的了解。他們根據已完成的所有銷售情況，做出了最終的預測。因此，我們對目前所處的位置感到滿意。

And then from an eDynamics perspective, the way to think about it really is if you are a middle school or predominantly a high school kid in the US and you are looking for a CTE program, they sell a broad portfolio of content into those schools. So for example, you want to be a journalist, if you want to learn more about business, for example, if you want to do an early course in coding, that's the sort of the courses and the courseware that it provides.

從 eDynamics 的角度來看，如果你是美國的國中生或高中生，正在尋找職業技術教育 (CTE) 課程，他們會向這些學校出售種類繁多的課程內容。例如，如果你想成為一名記者，如果你想了解更多商業知識，例如，如果你想參加早期程式設計課程，這就是它提供的課程和課件類型。

And that's incredibly important because what we're seeing is that the worlds of work and high school are blurring. We see that as you think about sort of growth continuing in the US from a higher education perspective, high school is becoming increasingly important. And we see really good evidence that people who have done CTE courses in high school, a, those high schools have better graduation rates overall.

這一點極為重要，因為我們看到的是工作和高中之間的界線正在變得模糊不清。我們看到，從高等教育的角度來看，隨著美國持續發展，高中教育變得越來越重要。我們看到了非常確鑿的證據表明，高中時期參加過職業技術教育課程的人，以及這些高中的整體畢業率更高。

So it's good from an academic outcomes perspective in terms of efficacy. And secondly, more of those students are more likely to go on to two-year or four-year colleges. And so that's why we think this is really important strategically because it is an extension of what we do, a high-quality outstanding content. And we think we can bring a lot to the eDynamics team in terms of the -- me and the team have built in terms of this business, and we're delighted to be acquiring them and moving forward.

所以從學術成果的角度來看，就有效性而言，它是很好的。其次，這些學生更有可能繼續升上兩年或四年制大學。所以，我們認為這在策略上非常重要，因為它是我們業務的延伸，也就是提供高品質的優秀內容。我們認為，就我和我的團隊在這個業務領域所建立的成就而言，我們可以為 eDynamics 團隊帶來很多東西，我們很高興能夠收購他們並繼續前進。

Thanks, Tom. And Sally, do you want to pick up the last question?

謝謝你，湯姆。莎莉，你想回答最後一個問題嗎？

Yes. Why don't I pick up the specifics on the end of that one and then your one about H2. In case it wasn't obvious, given that Tom answered the EDL question from a business unit perspective, it's going to be going into Higher Ed. From a growth perspective, you can think of it as being alongside some of our higher growth business units. And then I gave you the 13 times EBITDA multiple so that you can work back to the EBITDA number.

是的。我為什麼不先了解那篇文章結尾的具體內容，然後再了解你關於 H2 的文章呢？如果還不明顯的話，鑑於湯姆是從業務部門的角度回答EDL的問題，那麼它將會進入高等教育領域。從成長的角度來看，你可以把它看作是與我們一些高成長業務部門並肩發展。然後我給了你 13 倍 EBITDA 倍數，這樣你就可以反推 EBITDA 數值了。

The [DA] bit, of course, is relevant for this business. And I do need to think about the acquisition accounting for deferred revenue, which will impact 2026. And then in terms of thinking about H2 and the exit rate into next year, I'm not going to guide on 2026 at this point, but all the things that we're talking about in terms of these new customer contracts coming online, of course, are going to be customer contracts that move into next year. The comp things are not quite so relevant for next year, but Virtual Schools and that '25-'26 academic year, obviously relevant for the first half of '26 as well.

當然，[DA] 部分與這項業務相關。我確實需要考慮收購對遞延收入的會計處理，這將對 2026 年產生影響。至於下半年以及明年的退出率，我現在不會對 2026 年的情況做出預測，但我們討論的所有關於新客戶合約上線的事情，當然都是指那些會延續到明年的客戶合約。明年的比賽相關事宜可能不太重要，但虛擬學校和 2025-2026 學年顯然也與 2026 年上半年相關。

Thanks, Sally.

謝謝你，莎莉。

Sorry, Sally. eDynamics margin, is that broadly in line with the group or --

抱歉，莎莉。 eDynamics 的利潤率，與集團整體水準大致一致嗎？--

Yes, they've got great margins -- nice margins.

是的，他們的利潤率很高——相當不錯。

Okay, thanks. Thank you very much.

好的，謝謝。非常感謝。

Thank you. At this time, we have no further questions from the telephone lines. And so I'll hand over to you, Alex, to read the written questions.

謝謝。目前，我們沒有接到其他電話諮詢。那麼，接下來就交給你，亞歷克斯，來讀一下書面問題。

So Steve, I think we've answered your questions already but obviously come back to me if that's not the case. And then, Sami, again, we've answered some of them, but I'll pose the remaining one. Do you expect to sustain double-digit organic revenue growth in Clinical Assessment and UK Qualifications in H2?

史蒂夫，我想我們已經回答了你的問題，但如果還有其他問題，請隨時與我聯繫。薩米，我們已經回答了一些問題，但我會提出剩下的一個。您預計下半年臨床評估和英國資格認證業務的自然收入成長能否維持兩位數？

So actually, I'm really happy with how the launch of the new products in Clinical have been faring in the market. But so, Art, do you want to comment a little bit on how you would like to guide Sami on his question on PSQ and Clinical?

實際上，我對臨床領域新產品的上市表現非常滿意。那麼，Art，你能否就如何指導Sami解答他關於PSQ和臨床方面的問題發表一下看法？

Would love to. I don't believe we're giving sub-BU guidance for H2 on the call, but very happy to comment on the trading characteristics of both of those business units. Omar teed it up very nicely with Clinical. Strong product releases have carried over into this year. And a headline for that business continues to be very, very strong digital adoption.

非常樂意。我認為我們不會在本次會議上給出下半年的子業務單位業績指引，但我很樂意對這兩個業務單位的交易特點發表評論。Omar 用 Clinical 很好地引出了話題。今年延續了強勁的產品發布動能。而該產業的一大亮點仍然是其非常強勁的數位轉型。

You will have seen in the notes that the State of Tennessee has adopted our digital library subscription, which was a very, very nice win for us. And upcoming in the second half, we have product releases that we're very, very happy about, most notably the Wechsler Memory Scale and the Delis-Kaplan Executive Functioning System, two products that we expect good performance out of.

您可能已經從備註中看到，田納西州已經採用了我們的數位圖書館訂閱服務，這對我們來說是一個非常非常好的勝利。下半年，我們將推出一些令我們非常非常高興的產品，其中最值得一提的是韋氏記憶量表和德利斯-卡普蘭執行功能係統，我們預計這兩款產品將取得良好的表現。

And then in the UK & International Quals business, strong volume performance throughout the year. Very, very good international growth. We expect those trends to continue throughout the second half, and they're absolutely part of the story around us reaffirming our guidance for the full year.

此外，英國和國際資格認證業務全年銷售表現強勁。國際成長非常非常出色。我們預計這些趨勢將在下半年持續下去，它們也完全符合我們目前的局勢，並再次印證了我們對全年業績的預期。

Any further questions?

還有其他問題嗎？

Just one quick confirmation from Sami. What is the share of IA in your US Higher Ed business?

薩米只需再確認一下。在您的美國高等教育業務中，IA（資訊架構）佔比是多少？

Over to you, Tom. Do we break that one out? The share of IA?

接下來就交給你了，湯姆。我們把那件事單獨拿出來說說嗎？IA的份額是多少？

Well, I mean, we said last year, it was mid-30%. So that's a good starting point. And then obviously, we disclosed it was up 21% for the first half and we've disclosed the overall Higher Education growth rate, so you can probably extrapolate from there.

嗯，我的意思是，我們去年說過，這個數字是 30% 左右。所以這算是一個不錯的起點。然後很顯然，我們已經揭露了上半年成長了 21%，我們也揭露了高等教育的整體成長率，所以你們大概可以據此推斷出結果。

But we're pleased with our IA growth rate in the first half. And really, we think what we're really about is meeting the customer where they are. And so there was a glorious win we recently had at the University of Indiana in anatomy and physiology.

但我們對上半年的 IA 成長率感到滿意。實際上，我們認為我們真正要做的事情就是從客戶的角度出發，滿足他們的需求。因此，我們最近在印第安納大學的解剖學和生理學比賽中取得了輝煌的勝利。

And actually, it was a wonderful opportunity to reinvent what was, by and large, a print adoption into a digital IA courseware adoption where they've been using a print book of ours and one of our competitors' digital products, but they haven't really been using the digital product properly at all.

實際上，這是一個絕佳的機會，可以將原本以印刷形式為主的IA課件轉變為以數位形式為主的IA課件。他們一直在使用我們的一本印刷書籍和我們競爭對手的數位產品，但他們根本沒有真正正確地使用數位產品。

And once we were able to walk the faculty member through the fabulous quality of the mastering platform that we have as well as his real love for our product, that actually secured the adoption and that turned a sort of a $2,000 print adoption into a sort of $100,000-plus adoption more broadly, which is just a beautiful example of our sales team really getting close to the customer, understanding what the customer needs are.

當我們向這位教職員工詳細介紹了我們出色的母帶製作平台以及他對我們產品的真正喜愛之後，就促成了這次合作，並將原本價值 2000 美元的印刷品採用額變成了超過 10 萬美元的更廣泛採用額。這正是我們銷售團隊真正貼近客戶、了解客戶需求的絕佳範例。

And that was something that we used IA for because it was able to bring pricing down for the students. And it's just a really good example of one of our sales reps listening to the customer, understanding what they need, being clear about their pedagogical desires and understandings and providing a great solution to the faculty and the students at really good pricing.

而這正是我們使用 IA 的原因，因為它能夠降低學生的學習成本。這真是個很好的例子，我們的一位銷售代表認真傾聽客戶的需求，了解他們的教學願望和理解，並以非常優惠的價格為教職員工和學生提供了一個很好的解決方案。

Great. Thanks, Tom. Alex?

偉大的。謝謝你，湯姆。亞歷克斯？

Hello, I see a bit of piecemeal question answering here, but I'll let you off. So two more, both for A&Q. Do you expect US Student Assessment will revert to growth in H2? And then also, how should we think about the scale and impact of VUE test prep in '25 and '26?

你好，我看到你在這裡的回答有點零散，不過我就不計較了。所以還有兩份，都是給 A&Q 的。你認為美國學生評量指數在下半年會恢復成長嗎？此外，我們應該如何看待 2025 年和 2026 年 VUE 考試準備的規模和影響？

Okay. Those are both for you, Art. So the first one is around do we expect US Student Assessments to go back to growth in H2?

好的。這兩樣都是送給你的，Art。所以第一個問題是：我們是否預期美國學生評估在下半年會恢復成長？

Yes, we do. Again, the results of -- our expectations for each sub-BU are baked into that overall H2 guidance. But specific to US School Assessment, in H1, we had the impact of some delivery timings that in the second half will contribute very positively to the overall picture. So good outlook there.

是的，我們有。再次強調，我們對每個子業務單位的預期結果都已納入下半年整體業績指引中。但具體到美國學校評估，上半年，一些考試時間表產生了影響，這將在下半年對整體情況產生非常積極的影響。所以前景不錯。

On the test prep business in the second half of '25, complemented by the launch of the Pearson Skilling Program, which we announced earlier this year, that business is continuing to scale. Our go-to-market hires are getting placed out in the field and continuing to deliver. And we do expect to see results from that in H2, which, again, are part of the story around the overall second half guidance.

2025 年下半年，隨著我們今年稍早宣布推出 Pearson Skilling 計劃，考試輔導業務持續擴大規模。我們招募的市場拓展人員已經到崗，並且持續取得成效。我們預計下半年將看到相關成果，而這又是下半年整體業績指引的一部分。

Thank, you, Art. Okay, so I think that's it in terms of questions. So all of you online who joined us today, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate you and look forward to talking to you next. Thank you.

謝謝你，藝術。好的，我想問題就這些了。今天所有在線上加入我們的朋友們，非常感謝你們的陪伴。我們非常感謝您，期待下次與您交流。謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。