Manchester-based technology training firm Northcoders Group plc said on Tuesday it anticipates reporting a statutory loss for FY2025 “mainly due to the effects of changes in government funding and impairment of assets no longer crucial in current delivery.”
Northcoders is a provider of boot camp technology training for businesses and individuals with courses in software engineering, data engineering and platform engineering. It has a flagship site in Manchester and other sites in Leeds, Newcastle and Birmingham.
In a trading update, Northcoders said: “FY2025 was a challenging year following structural changes to the UK Government’s skills funding system via the Department for Education (DfE), such as regional procurement and altered allocation schedules.
“These shifts led to a significant drop in the number of funded learners across the entire sector. In response, the board focused on safeguarding the core of the business by maintaining disciplined cost controls, ensuring operational resilience, and prioritising higher-quality delivery, particularly in the B2B consultancy division.
“Unaudited group revenue for FY2025 was £5.0 million (FY2024: £8.8 million). Despite a significant drop in funded learners, the group kept strong gross margins thanks to disciplined delivery, careful direct cost management, and a deliberate move away from a volume based funding approach that was adopted in some areas of the training sector.
“During the year, the group earned around £0.4 million from B2C training revenue not funded by government, showing promising early progress in expanding beyond government-backed programmes. This included initial positive results for the newly introduced Next Gen Data and AI training, which the board views as having significant long-term growth potential in line with employer demand.
“DfE funding, where there has been a previous track record of success, has proved to be supportive, with contracts won in Lancashire and the Greater London Authority (GLA).
“These contracts have been awarded in line with our expected seat prices and milestone allocations and will provide students in those areas with life-changing outcomes.
“We look forward to expanding these contracts, especially in London, where demand has been encouraging, with over 30 applications for every available seat. As a result, further funding has been awarded, adding further revenue visibility to training bootcamps for the H1 2026 period.
“Encouragingly Counter, the group’s B2B challenger consultancy brand, increased revenue significantly to £1.5 million for FY2025 (FY2024: £0.9 million), a rise of 67%. Total sales booked for the year reached approximately £2.5 million, with about £1.0 million of contracted revenue rolled over into FY2026, most of which is expected to be delivered in the first half of the year. The Counter pipeline continues to grow …”