Training providers between positive development and high competitive pressure
Confidence despite major challenges: According to the SVEB Industry Monitor, providers anticipate a slightly positive development in supply and demand. However, fierce competition is causing them concern.
The annual SVEB Industry Monitor observes developments within the continuing education sector in Switzerland. More specifically, it highlights the providers' perspective on the state and development of the economic situation, supply, demand, and staffing levels in the continuing education sector. The results presented here are based on the SVEB provider survey 2025.
Economic situation and staffing levels neutral
The current results indicate that the supply of continuing education and the demand for continuing education continue to develop slightly positively. Fifty percent of the providers surveyed assess the development of supply for the current year 2025 as rather positive or very positive. For the demand dimension, the figure is 52 percent.
In terms of the economic situation, providers report a neutral development in the previous year. A clear majority of providers also state that their staffing levels have hardly changed in the last year. Aggregated to the industry indicator, the four dimensions of economic situation, supply, demand, and staffing levels—as defined by the SVEB—result in a slightly positive assessment of the industry's development for the last and current year.
This year's monitor also contains analyses on the topics of professionalization (training opportunities for trainers), quality assurance (use of quality labels), and pension funds in continuing education (proportion of trainers who reach the entry threshold for the pension fund).
Personnel and competition as challenges
One issue that concerns providers is the shortage of skilled workers. Providers find it difficult to find and retain suitable staff for their continuing education programs. Furthermore, according to their own statements, providers perceive strong competitive pressure, which intensifies the advertising and promotion of their own programs. They also find it difficult to design good programs under high and, in some cases, increasing cost pressure. Providers also feel compelled to adapt their offerings to current social developments—such as the increased use of AI—in order to remain competitive. In line with these topics, the publication «FOCUS Continuing Education» will be released in spring 2026, focusing on competition in continuing education.
Source: SVEB
