Japanese staffing firm Persol announced it is investing in Labot, a company that handles career-track programming schools and a programming coaching service known as Codegym.

Labot is headquartered in Tokyo.

The investment was made through the Persol Innovation Fund.

Labot, established in 2019, provides an ISA (Income Share Agreement) type programming school with the mission of "investing in the potential of people."  An ISA is a new contract model between educational institutions and students that pays at a predetermined rate after graduation instead of paying tuition fees during the student period.

“We guarantee the quality of education by paying the cost of a high-priced programming school according to the income of the place of employment after graduation, and open the door for inexperienced people such as businessmen and students who want to learn programming,” the company stated. “Many graduates who have studied for about 9 months have a track record of finding employment in web service management companies.”

The Codegym service is a support project that provides free programming learning to up to 1,000 students and a six-month program specialising in new graduate engineers.

The acquisition follows the trend for staffing firms to invest in training services, particularly in the IT sector, to address skills shortages such as Adecco’s acquisition of General Assembly in 2018.

Earlier this year, Persol announced it invested in 3Sunny, a Japanese firm involved in the medical care field, through the Persol Innovation Fund.