Two weeks ago, Jon and I attended the CASSummit in Phoenix.

The science was solid. The people were thoughtful.

But the most important insights didn’t come from the stage. They came from hallway conversations and side meetings with people who’ve been in this business for years.

Training center owners. Instructors. National operators. Vendors.

Different roles. Same message.

“The way we’ve always done it isn’t working like it used to.”

The big picture

Here’s what we’re hearing everywhere:

Classes that had waitlists are now barely filling
Rent, labor, card, and operating costs are up, while class prices are flat
Providers are graduating instructors faster than new students are showing up
Technology is changing how training gets delivered

Our assessment is simple:

The industry isn’t disappearing. But it is reorganizing.

And not everyone is will make it through the next phase the same way.\

Consolidation is already here

You’ve seen the announcements:

Single Source merging into LifeWork Education
CardioPartners acquiring One Beat Medical & Training
Safe Life buying HeartCert ⠀

You’ve also seen the quieter signals.

Facebook posts asking about selling a training business.
Owners looking for an exits
Side conversations that never make the news.

This isn’t something that’s about to happen. It’s already underway.

Over the past several years, larger companies steadily absorbed smaller training centers across the country. That’s happening for one simple reason: the math is getting harder.

Rent is higher. Labor is higher. Compliance takes more time.

When that happens, businesses usually face three options:

Shut down
Sell
Try to grow by buying others

That’s not unique to CPR training. That’s how markets work.

What’s changed is how unforgiving the process has become.

What Buyers Care About Now

The things buyers have always cared about — students, retention, revenue quality, compliance — are no longer flexible.

You can’t just dump a report of students and a set of financial statements and call it done.

Buyers now expect:

Clean, usable student records — not duplicates, not PDFs, not guesses
Proof that students will return, not just one-time volume
Clear revenue sources — open enrollment vs. employers vs. contracts
Compliance records that are complete and easy to produce

If you can’t answer those questions quickly and confidently, one of two things happens:

The price drops fast
Or the deal doesn’t happen at all

And while you’re trying to clean things up, larger players don’t wait. They keep operating, expanding, and cannibalizing your customers.

That’s what consolidation looks like in practice

Training Providers: The Job Has Changed

Walking the exhibition hall at CASS, I heard a vendor say, while pointing at a smart manikin…

“You don’t need instructors.”

That’s uncomfortable to hear. It’s also a reminder: anything that can be standardized will be.

The technology is getting better. Automated stations are improving. Skills checks are becoming more common.

This isn’t just an instructor problem. It’s not just a training center problem.

It’s a training provider problem — across training centers, training sites, and instructors.

What’s changing

Instructors, your role is shifting.

In many settings, you’re now doing skills checks instead of full classroom instruction. That’s not good or bad — it’s just reality.

The instructors who stand out will be the ones who go beyond “check-the-box” training and make learning relevant to real environments.

Generic instruction is being automated. Good instruction still matters.

Training centers and training sites feel this even more.

You can’t be passive anymore.

We’re not going to re-argue the “card mill” debate here. Jon already covered it well in Card Mills Aren’t the Problem. The short version is simple:

Your responsibility is to fill seats.

There are already plenty of instructors. There are already plenty of classrooms and stations.

Demand exists—but it’s fragmented, unorganized, and pushed onto instructors.

Too often, instructors are left to market themselves, fill their own classes, and shoulder the risk alone. That isn’t sustainable.

What Your Job Is Now

If you operate a training center or training site, your job is filling seats — by owning, organizing, and directing demand for your instructors and affiliated providers.

That starts with new business:

Finding students
Building relationships with employers
Making it easy to book, attend, and come back

If instructors aren’t generating revenue for you, the answer isn’t more instructors or cheaper cards.

The answer is better-directed demand.

That means: Calling daycares. Talking to dental offices. Working with clinics and employers.

But demand doesn’t only come from new customers.

Looking at who already sends you students— nd asking how you can serve them better—is often the fastest path to growth.

Where Demand Comes Together

That’s where your course catalog matters.

Generic CPR classes aren’t enough anymore. Customers are asking for training that fits their environment.

This doesn’t mean buying videos and pressing play.

It means designing training around reality:

Allied programs
Workplace-specific scenarios
Courses built around actual job risks.

A daycare doesn’t need the same training as a dental office. A factory floor doesn’t look like a clinic.

Training providers who meet customers where they are don’t just win new business. They consolidate demand, deepen existing relationships, keep seats filled, and give instructors more meaningful work.

That’s not being “salesy.” That’s running a sustainable training business.

The Hardest Problem—and Where We’re Focused

You might be thinking, I’ve heard this before.

I agree. None of this is revolutionary.

What’s different now is scale.

We’re a platform talking to hundreds of training providers and thousands of instructors.

We see the patterns in the data, and we hear them reinforced in conversation

Even with all the new technology, one problem hasn’t changed:

**How do you get people to actually show up?

Smart manikins don’t solve that. Consolidation alone doesn’t solve that.

What we keep seeing instead:

Too many hoops just to sign up
Confusing scheduling and availability
Friction between online and in-person training

That’s where we’re spending our time.

What We’re Building For

At Hovn, our focus is on the parts of this business that actually move the needle:

Making it easier for students to discover and book training.

Turning every scheduled class into a bookable, local, Google-friendly page.

Supporting blended learning in a way that actually gets completed.

Automating link delivery, access, and reminders so students don’t get lost between “paid” and “ready for class.”

Giving training providers visibility into demand—not just certifications.

Showing you which students and employers are due and directing them to your next available class.

Helping instructors and centers coordinate availability without manual work.

Letting centers build around availability without group texts and spreadsheets.

The market is going to reorganize with or without you.

Our goal is to give the providers who want to lead that shift the infrastructure to do it—so they can own demand, fill seats, run tighter operations, and adapt to how this market is changing. ⠀

Because if training providers don’t grow — we don’t either.

This is what we’re building for — and who we’re building with.

—Shubs

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