“Why on earth did I spend my youth memorizing the Bhaskara Formula or the structure of mitochondria, but no one taught me how to lead people, negotiate a contract or manage my own time?”
If you’ve ever felt like school prepared you to pass tests but not survive Monday morning, welcome to the club.
For centuries, knowledge operated under the logic of scarcity and status. More than an indisputable certificate of wisdom, a university degree served as a title of nobility. And society agreed (even without necessarily agreeing) that having the paper on the wall was enough.
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But, the market has been asking less and less “where did you graduate?” and increasingly demanded “what do you really know how to do?”.
Like the ability to speak in public.
Twenty years ago, an executive would hardly have entered a theater classroom unless they wanted to give up everything to make a living from art. Today, public speaking and performance courses are full of CEOs and directors. They don’t want to get on the Broadway stage, but they want to perform better in corporate politics, which invariably requires safe and assertive communication.
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In short, knowledge stopped being contemplative and became practical. And the numbers prove that this is not a “fad”, but rather an industry.
While traditional higher education faces dropout rates exceeding 57% and struggles with classroom idleness (according to recent data from the Higher Education Map), “new education” advances. According to a survey by CNDL/SPC Brasil, 54% of Brazilian internet users purchased some information product in the last year. People are taking their money out of the long-term theory and investing in the short-term solution.
The new giants (and what they teach us)
This repressed demand for “real life” created empires that were born outside the MEC’s radar, but totally within the radar of profit and efficiency. More than filling a gap left by traditional universities, these businesses are changing our perspective on values (and even prices).
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Want some examples?
Link School Of Business: a “Harvard” da Faria Lima
If the proposal is to live in reality, Link took it to the extreme. Founded by serial entrepreneur Álvaro Schocair Filho and considered one of the most expensive colleges in the country (with monthly fees ranging from around R$13,000 to R$15,000), it deconstructed our TCC reference.
To graduate, the student needs to found a company that earns money and makes a real profit. The institution attracts heirs and new entrepreneurs who prefer networking with big businesspeople in the hallway rather than dusty theory on a blackboard.
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Conquer: the R$400 Million couch
More than a financial success story, Conquer represents a behavioral symptom. Founded by Hendel Favarin and Josef Rubin, the school was born to cure “graduate imposter syndrome”.
They sold the solution to the anguish of those who had the diploma, but didn’t have the tactics. Validation came in figures: in 2024, Wiser Educação (Flávio Augusto’s holding company) concluded the purchase of the operation in a deal valued at around R$400 million.
G4 Business: the resilience of pragmatism
Perhaps the best example that the market is prioritizing real utility more than the diploma is G4 Business. The company, focused on management for SMEs, closed 2025 with revenues of around R$500 million. But the real case here isn’t just growth, it’s resilience. Recently, the brand faced a severe image crisis following sexist speeches by one of its founders, Tallis Gomes.
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In markets based purely on institutional reputation, this could be fatal. However, G4 continues to grow. Why? Because the Brazilian businessman, with cash flow and in need of management, has been looking for the “medicine that cures”. In short: the methodology that promises immediate results won the anti-hero character controversy.
The era of corporate universities
But the real disruption is happening within large corporations. They began to understand that they no longer need to outsource training. In addition to transforming their market authorities into teaching verticals, they are developing gears that feed back on each other, alternating academic theory and marketing practice.
Shall we give some more examples?
XP Educação: the university that was born from investment
The case of XP is emblematic. What started as an internal need to train investment advisors has grown into a robust business vertical. XP realized that capturing “raw” talent and training them in-house – with the company’s culture, speed and technique – was cheaper and more efficient than trying to find the “ready professional” that the market promised but did not deliver.
When founding XP Educação, the company stopped being just a consumer of labor to be a trainer and, above all, a retainer of the best professionals.
Albert Einstein Hospital: excellence that became a college
Einstein was not content with being “just” one of the best hospitals. It has also become one of the most prestigious medical and nursing schools in the country (and also one of the most competitive).
The logic is the same: who better to teach medicine with excellence than those who practice excellent medicine every day? Einstein’s teaching arm today not only trains professionals for the hospital itself, but exports knowledge, proving that technical authority is the new diploma.
Google: the ultimatum of those who know how to dictate rules
The technology giant did not open a physical college, but it did something that further shook academic structures. When launching “Google Career Certificates”, the company publicly declared that, for its vacancies, these short-term courses would have the same weight as a four-year university degree.
It is the final (and global) message that verified competence is worth more than classroom time.
Today’s Idea Therapy?
Don’t get me wrong: the “new education” did not come to declare the death of the university (and that is not what I want). Doctors, engineers and scientists continue to need (a lot) academic depth and research.
But the emergence of these new models has shown that creating educational institutions is no longer an isolated act but has become a strategic part of those who live the tactic.
Now, project this into the future: imagine the revolution we will experience if most large companies decide to transform their training departments into true universities, understanding that their most valuable production line is the employee’s brain.
Wouldn’t it be great to study, for example, design at Apple? Or technology at OpenAI? Or maybe even Disney tourism?
It is even difficult to predict the magnitude of the economic impact of this change. But one thing is certain: if work and learning merge into one, the gap between theory and practice will finally disappear forever.
And, perhaps together, the effort to survive a Monday.
