The private education and training sector in the Netherlands turned over €3.4bn last year, a 6% rise on 2010, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Thursday.

The figures come from a new report from the SEO economic research institute which was drawn up on behalf of the private training sector NRTO.

Every year, some 1.3 million people, mainly adults, undergo an educational programme in the private sector, the report shows. At the same time, the number of individual companies has fallen by 15% to almost 16,000.

The drop is due to a decline in the number of self-employed trainers and a rise in the number of combination courses, offering both online and face-to-face tuition, SEO says.

The sector expects further growth this year because of the improvement in the economy.