36 business focus
School support business launched by accountancy firm
Leading independent accountancy practice, Whitley Stimpson, has launched a sister company to provide schools and academies with access to expert consultants specialising in school and academy support, complementing the firm’s growing number of clients in the education sector
Based in Banbury, Inspire2Educate, trading as ASISST (Academy & School Improvement Services Together) will provide head teachers, governors and staff with bespoke advice covering areas including mock Ofsted inspections, employee management, leadership appointments, governor training, capital project management and legal support.
Founded by Dr Fiona Hammans, who has many years of strategic leadership experience at both school and academy trust level and Martin Wyatt, head of education services for Whitley Stimpson, ASISST’s core aim is to ensure the company’s consultants become an
extension of school and academy teams.
Dr Fiona Hammans, chief executive of ASISST, said: “In today’s education sector, there is a real need for on-the-ground support to help guide schools and academies through the various challenges on the journey to excellence, from coaching a new head; teacher development programmes; enhancing the impact of governance to mock inspection.
"Our team of consultants are nationally recognised as excellent leaders themselves,
The TekHub launches creating 100 jobs
A tech start-up designed to help support and stimulate innovation in UK industry has created 100 new jobs in Bracknell.
Based at a 10,000 sq ft office at the Reflex building on Cain Road, The TekHub is a £2 million centre of digital excellence.
A 100-strong army of digital experts – including marketers, designers, developers, analysts and engineers – were recruited for the launch on October 16 and the start-up has plans to recruit a further 50 employees in the New Year.
Its founders, young Berkshire- based entrepreneurs Dilshad and Barinder Hothi, are keen to help the Thames Valley region become known as an international hub of digital excellence to rival the likes of Silicon Valley in the US and the UK’s Silicon Roundabout in Shoreditch.
The Thames Valley already has a strong history in digital tech, with
www.businessmag.co.uk
Reading and the surrounding area being home to some of the biggest technology companies in the world such as Microsoft – where The TekHub co-founder Barinder used to work – plus Oracle, Intel, Symantec and Cisco.
The number of tech enterprises in the area is three times the national average, according to a report by Tech City UK: www.techcityuk. com/reading/
Barinder explained: “The TekHub is to be an innovation centre of digital excellence. Its purpose is to create world-class software from mobile apps to complex web- enabled platforms to compete at a global standard.”
The entrepreneurial couple is already hugely successful. The Hothis are the brains behind Bracknell-based The Knowledge Academy, the world’s biggest training company, with 250 staff and an expected £35m turnover this year, offering over 36,000 training courses globally
Whitley Stimpson acts for a broad range of schools and academies providing finance and governance advice in addition to audits. Clients include multi- academy trusts, SENs, studio schools and free schools.
Wyatt, chairman of ASISST, said: “With our growing number of academy clients across the UK, we recognised there is often a strong need for heads, governors and staff to receive greater support beyond finance and governance advice, to help with the effective running of schools and academies.
Martin Wyatt and Dr Fiona Hammans, founders of new school support business, ASISST
as well as highly-effective practitioners still rooted in the classroom with a wealth of current knowledge and understanding.”
ASISST will operate from Whitley Stimpson’s Banbury office, working with schools and academies across the UK.
"With Fiona at the helm and the expert team of consultants she has recruited, I’m very confident ASISST will be successful in making a difference where it matters, to help ensure children and pupils receive the best possible start in life.”
Details:
info@asisst.co.uk www.asisst.co.uk
Dilshad and Barinder Hothi (centre) with some of the recruits
from San Francisco to Sydney, covering over 50 subject areas from business, finance and legal, to IT, HR and project management. Launched in 2009, its clients include Rolls Royce, HSBC, British Airways, PwC, Disney, the MoD, the NHS and the House of Commons.
Barinder added: “We are tremendously excited to launch The TekHub and we hope that it will be the first of many around the UK that provides a unique platform for digital innovation to the UK economy.
“It has already begun its mission to create new jobs, skills and innovation to lead Britain to the front of the digital innovation race.
“Locating the The TekHub in Bracknell and not London has inspired us to rival the success of other digital communities such as Silicon Roundabout.”
UK-wide the digital economy is worth over £120 billion annually, and digital job growth is set to outperform all other sectors by 2020.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2015
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