NAICS 611630Canadian industry · 6-digitlocal market

Language schools

This Canadian industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing courses in language instruction. These establishments offer language instruction ranging from conversational skills for personal enrichment to intensive training courses for career or educational opportunities. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 498
Under 10 employeesA: 57%
Establishments · USA: 1,584
Employment · USA: 17,958
Payroll · USA: $717M

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–417936%

5–910521%

10–198216%

20–498216%

50–99377%

100–19992%

200–49931%

500+10%

Of 498 Canadian establishments with employees, 57% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario17034%

British Columbia15431%

Quebec11423%

Alberta316%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Educational Services, US · opened 2020

83.5%

1 year

70.3%

3 years

58.2%

5 years

43.1%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 611, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

local competitionmedium capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 611 Educational services

Public education is not a market. Private career colleges, tutoring and skills instruction are, with accreditation and student-loan eligibility as the real barriers.

Who sets the price: Public funding for the core system; the operator for private and vocational training.
The software it runs on: Student information and learning management systems; booking and billing for private instruction.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 6116 Other schools and instruction covers it.

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 6116

Driving, Music & Skills InstructionOne thing must be true

binding constraint: market size

Genuine demand, genuine repeat business, and a ceiling set by hours: revenue is instructor-hours × rate, and neither scales without hiring instructors who can leave with their students. Driving schools add a provincial licensing overlay and vehicle costs. This is a reliable small business and structurally not more than that.

NAICS 61166 vendors named9 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

No vertical software market has been recorded along this branch. What the subsector typically runs on: Student information and learning management systems; booking and billing for private instruction.

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Who works here

The occupations employed in Educational services, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Secondary, elementary and kindergarten school teachers One industry 99.3%

Student monitors, crossing guards and related occupations One industry 98.7%

Managers in education One industry 96.9%

Assisting occupations in education One industry 95.6%

University professors and post-secondary assistants One industry 94.9%

College and other vocational instructors One industry 72.4%

Educational and employment counsellors Mostly one sector 65%

Technical occupations in libraries and public archives Mostly one sector 56.3%

Athletes, coaches, referees and related occupations Mostly one sector 30.8%

Program leaders and instructors in recreation, sport and fitness Mostly one sector 20.4%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Office administrative assistants - general, legal and medical Across the economy 11.6%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 8.8%

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 7.6%

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 5.2%

Other technical trades Across the economy 4.4%

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 4.3%

Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 3%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 2.9%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 2.5%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 2.4%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →