BPP announces the acquisition of Firebrand Training

BPP Education Group, the global leader in professional and vocational education, is delighted to announce its acquisition of Firebrand Training, a specialist IT and Digital training company.

Firebrand delivers accelerated technical skills training in the form of IT certifications, IT apprenticeships, and intensive IT skills bootcamps across the UK and Europe.

Firebrand Training were established over 21 years ago in 2001 and have become a leading provider of IT and Digital training with industry recognised certifications. In 2012, Firebrand started to deliver IT apprenticeships that were developed alongside leading employers in the IT industry to provide cutting edge digital skills. Firebrand’s differentiated ‘accelerated learning’ approach underpins both its commercial training and apprenticeship programmes providing the fastest route to certification through focused, immersive learning.

BPP believes that this partnership will provide valuable growth opportunities for both entities and will create revenue synergies to support the delivery of each entity’s growth strategy.

BPP’s support and commitment will allow Firebrand to fast-track their growth trajectory, whilst further investing in improving quality, customer experience, and expanding its offering to serve the growing demands of learners and companies for specialist IT skills and training.

Following this transaction, Firebrand will continue to run as an independent business, under the leadership and management of their existing teams. BPP will work with Firebrand to share best practice and extend the opportunities available to Firebrand as a member of the BPP Education Group.

Following BPP’s acquisition of Estio Training in October 21, the acquisition of Firebrand will help to facilitate BPP’s focus on delivering a broader portfolio of programmes to provide more learners and clients with access to a leading portfolio of professional courses, apprenticeships and vocational university degrees. This links to BPP’s future growth strategy which, with backing from their sponsor TDR Capital, looks to expand its portfolio and geographical reach with the strategic acquisition of relevant education businesses.

Graham Gaddes, BPP CEO, commented, “The acquisition of Firebrand allows BPP to further grow their presence in the IT and Tech skills market. Offering our customers the ability to study specialised IT certifications, in addition to our existing portfolio of IT apprenticeship programmes and degree courses really does stand the BPP Education Group apart from competitors. We can now cater for customers that have training needs throughout the whole lifecycle of an IT professional. We are really looking forward to working in partnership with Firebrand’s highly skilled team to drive our businesses forward”.

Rob Chapman and Stefano Capaldo, Firebrand Co-CEOs, commented, “We are excited and delighted in equal measure to become part of the BPP Education Group. We could not think of a better partnership, with BPP’s focus on professional education and having the resources to help fuel our growth - it is a perfect fit, as is their culture. We cannot wait to get started”.

Houlihan Lokey were advisors on the transaction on behalf of BPP/TDR Capital, Grant Thornton were advisors for Firebrand.