Now let's talk about money! đź’¶
The OpenClassrooms business model is multi-tiered to align with our mission of making education accessible to all.
All our courses are available to everyone for free (yes, for free!). But we manage to make money anyway. How? 🤑
There are several paid options for both students and employers (which is why we have two sales teams).
Students
An important part of our revenue comes from B2C (business to consumer): we charge customers directly, which in our case, is our students.
Training Paths
Students enroll in one of our signature OpenClassrooms paths - many of which award students an associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s -level diploma accredited by the French board of education. We’ve begun the same accreditation process in the UK and the US.
Paths are conducted online through a mix of videos, online reading, and projects a student would face in a future role.
Students that sign up for a path are paired with experienced professionals in their field who serve as a dedicated mentor. These mentors help with coursework, and career coaches help them find a job. We are so confident in our model that we will refund a student’s tuition if they don’t find a job within six months of graduation!
Paths take from 6 to 18 months to complete and range from 300€ to 500€ per month. Training paths can be started or canceled anytime throughout the year.
Apprenticeships
Students can also choose to follow their training path through an apprenticeship. What does this mean?
The content is the same (courses, projects, mentor), but they do it while working part-time in a company. Yes, it takes more time to complete a path this way, but fees are covered by the employer (the path is free for the student!), and students get a job from day one!
Employers
We sell employers a whole range of products for their different needs. Let’s dive in!
Upskilling – Help employees acquire new knowledge and skills
OpenClassrooms offers courses and intensive online mentoring programs to efficiently arm teams with the targeted coding, data, business, IT, or project management skills companies need. High-quality business services accompany these programs so that managers and HR can accurately oversee their workforce’s digital transformation.
Companies can introduce their employees to new technologies by encouraging them to take the OpenClassrooms courses most relevant to their needs. In this way, we can help companies identify their hidden talent and suggest additional training with one of our short, targeted BOOST programs or a longer path thanks to our reskilling programs.
Reskilling – Help employees change careers
Our reskilling PIVOT programs equip employees for career changes via accredited diplomas with mentorship. These programs empower the workforce to move from job A to job B work for internal mobility in large companies, outplacement strategies (employees leaving a company), or Pro-A (internal apprentices already in a company).
Employees follow an OpenClassrooms path to train for a new job and acquire the most in-demand skills for today and tomorrow’s jobs.
Apprenticeships – Help companies hire and train tomorrow’s talent
We offer our clients an innovative solution to help staff hard-to-fill roles by sourcing promising candidates for the job and then training them through online apprenticeships.
We call this option UPLIFT, as it is an innovative way to uplift the future workforce with the identified skills needed to succeed. UPLIFT is our product to attract, recruit, and grow tomorrow’s talent with apprenticeships, thanks to real-world professional projects, individual coaching, and 1:1 mentoring sessions with experts in the field.
OpenClassrooms was the very first school to offer online apprenticeships. During an apprenticeship, a job seeker works part-time for the company and spends the rest of the week working towards their certification with OpenClassrooms.
Apprenticeships usually last 1 or 2 years, depending on the program. At the end of the contract, the company has the option to hire the apprentice full-time.
As for the other products, OpenClassrooms can set up cohorts of students from all over the world with year-round start dates. Students study wherever they can connect to the internet, so there’s no commute.
It shakes up the education, career mobility, and employment worlds, as fully-accredited online apprenticeships have never been possible before.
Our costs
Of course, the money earned doesn’t all go into OpenClassrooms’ pockets! 💸
Our biggest expenses come from course creation, mentor fees, and operating costs (we’re a fast-growing company!).
Some courses require frequent updates and maintenance. As you know, technology changes quickly!
