The Education and Training market represented an estimated $1.2 trillion of spending in 2008, or roughly 8% of GDP in the United States. What was traditionally a highly fragmented market is being developed and rationalized in both the public and private sectors. A new emphasis on customer service is evolving and consumer expectations are increasing.

In the PreK-12 arena, online, charter and for-profit private schools, and outsourced school management are gaining acceptance and improving school performance. Funding for Title I, federal spending for economically disadvantaged children, and IDEA, federal spending for disabled children, were $14 billion and $11 billion in 2008 respectively, and are encouraging the growth of private sector educational alternatives to more effectively address these needs.

At the college level, private for-profit universities are delivering results. There has been a move beyond the traditional classroom into non-traditional methods of learning at all levels. The traditional four-year degree is evolving into a lifelong learning experience that may or may not commence in college. The federal government has been intensifying its commitment to post-secondary education through an increase in Title IV funding, which includes various programs designed to increase student financial assistance such as Pell grants, the federal direct lending loan program and FFELP loans ($14 billion, $13 billion and $47 billion for 2008, respectively).

An increasingly large proportion of expenditures will be available to the for-profit sector as a wide variety of functions are outsourced for efficiency. New methods of education delivery are being enabled by new technology (specifically online) and this technology, offering leverage, an enhanced educational experience (especially due to the widespread proliferation of broadband), economies of scale and personalization has and will continue to drive adoption. Thus classroom instruction is evolving into digital learning. Children's toys and games have developed educational purposes or aspects. Education and Training companies provide products and services to a diverse demographic group of individual and corporate consumers with educational and training needs for increasing earning power, professional development and personal enrichment.

The Education and Training market bears many similarities to the Healthcare market of the 1970's. It is highly fragmented, subject to widespread consumer dissatisfaction, predominantly low technology, under-managed, marginally profitable and heavily under- represented in the Capital Markets. Throughout the Eighties and Nineties, the Healthcare market experienced a systemic transformation, similar to that which industry experts believe has begun in the Education sector. Epic Partners believes that investing capital and providing financial and management expertise to dynamic and innovative companies within this high growth sector will generate very attractive investment returns.

Epic Partners believes that its unique blend of demonstrated expertise and experience in education, private equity and investment banking offers a compelling combination to companies seeking value-added private equity investment in this rapidly moving field.