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Growing Opportunity - our purpose, our commitment

Founded in 1995, we arean award-winning international provider of English language education, group travel, work experience, accommodation, higher education pathways, and employability services, including apprenticeships.

From year-round language schools and summer centres in the UK and Ireland, to our long history of helping people find employment and upskill, our core purpose is growing opportunity for our learners, partners, and colleagues.

Our values reflect both the very human characteristics of an organisation that cares, alongside a relentless drive for excellence in delivering results, whether in education, or training for people, in contract performance, or in compliance assurance for the organisations that pay us. This drive in turn creates a constant quest for innovation - for new offerings and new technologies, focusing on results, satisfaction, and cost-effectiveness.

We are consultative and collegiate with our partners and very much "on your side, by your side” when tailoring our offerings and delivery to meet your requirements.

Our Values

One Team

Our collective focus is on greatly improving individual lives. We work hard with, and for, all of our stakeholders to make sure opportunity is provided and nurtured whenever possible.

Be Dynamic

Passion for people's learning, employment and cultural experience drives us. The more we achieve 'growth', the more energy we have to relentlessly drive positive change.

Excellence

With decades of knowledge behind us, we set the highest standards. Our competitive desire to be the best can only be fulfilled by knowing our customer's needs intimately. Technology is our friend, not our heartbeat. Fundamentally, we are a face-to-face, human service providing individual solutions for everyone we come into contact with.

We Care

Heartfelt and acutely aware of our responsibilities, we consider every stakeholder's individual need as if it were our own - whether it's the welfare and safeguarding of a learner and international student or the success of a business partner, we care deeply.

Our Team

Growing our business means growing our people

That's because our people literally are our business. - Our workforce is extremely diverse - in race, age, background and gender, endowing us with a wide range of talents and perspectives. Our aspiration is to offer personal growth to all who wish it. Most of our management has come from promotions and we provide active opportunity for talent, contribution and passion to be recognised at every level of the business.

Customer Facing Teams

Our customer facing teams have both performance and satisfaction goals along with real flexibility to meet our customer needs.

In our government work, we may be tailoring our support to an unemployed person experiencing realchallenges in day-to-day life, so they can be ready and confident to join the workforce. The our employment advisors can assist employers by understanding their needs and providing well-prepared candidates.

Our Business Development teams harnesses the combined talents of our organization to deliver proposals finely tuned to commissioner requirements.

For international students, we work with ETOs,building the study or cultural tourism experience that fits their students and their budget from literally thousands of possible permutations. With individual students, we speak with them about their goals and the ideal location, course and accommodations for an unforgettable stay with us.

Then another Ƶ team seamlessly picks up the requirement to ensure it gets delivered to fully meet expectations.

Central Support Teams

Supporting these front line teams, we have central experts to support them in a number of ways:

Marketing, with in depth digital and social marketing expertise.

Quality and Curriculum, ensuring and supporting consistent quality and compliance in all we do and harnessing our training and academic teams in product definition and development.

HR - supporting our managers and team members in areas like training, welfare and career development.

Finance- supporting financial strategy, planning and reporting - and of course day-today work in procurement and payments.

IT- providing the infrastructure, tools, information custodianship and security with systems that frequently cross or bring teams in even more efficient, fast, secure process flows.

Our Senior Leaders

As we grow, our Senior Leadership Team is growing with us. Between them they share decades of knowledge and experience, creating a strong, committed team ready to meet the diversity of our markets, partners and customers.

Board of Directors

Caroline Fox

CEO and Co-founder

Caroline Fox

CEO and Co-founder

Director at Pitman College London before founding Ƶ Training. In role as CEO since June 2013, focused both on personally driving growth and building a senior team to manage and continue that growth.

Jacqui Fox

Director of Strategic Partnerships andCo-Founder

Jacqui Fox

Director of Strategic Partnerships and Co-Founder

From Principal at Pitman College London and Operational Management at Fred Olsen PLC. Now focused on product and capacity development, Jacqui is extensively networked in the International Group Travel market.

Debra Jackson

Chief Operations Officer

Debra Jackson

Chief Operations Officer

Joined Ƶ in January 2018, leading on partnership development, bid development and contracts management, joining from 12 years at People Plus where, as an Executive Team member, she was influential in growing the business to a £150m turnover.

Vishal Verma

Chief Financial Officer

Vishal Verma

Chief Financial Officer

A qualified accountant with extensive board-level experience in business management, governance and financial reporting. Vishal served as an Executive for Ernst & Young LLP and board director for a large educational group before joining Ƶ in 2020.

Joanne Sayer

Chief People Officer

Joanne Sayer

Chief People Officer

Joined Ƶ in 1998. Joanne leads on Operations for Ƶ Training International and Group HR. With a broad knowledge of business operations, she has worked on driving efficiency and cost-effectiveness through process improvements and team development.

Senior Leadership

Deep Khanna

Director of Operations - Employability

Deep Khanna

Director of Operations - Employability

Joined Ƶ in 2017 as Contract Manager for the UK, Ƶ’s largest region, now leads on all operations and P&L performance for Ƶ’s extensive contracts portfolio, managing the demands of exponential growth for the UK business.

David Deere

International Director – Sales and Operations

David Deere

International Director - Sales and Operations

Jacqueline Oughton

Director of Standards and Quality

Jacqueline Oughton

Director of Standards and Quality

Joined Ƶ in 2023. Highly experienced in education skills, leading on strategy, performance and risk, quality, audit, project, corporate services, digital/cyber technology management, and business management in the public, private and third sectors.

Karen M. Wright

Group Director of Business Development

Karen M. Wright

Group Director of Business Development

Experienced Business Development professional with a history of working and winning bids within the Welfare to Work, Skills and Justice sectors. Skilled in Business Planning, Coaching, Partner Management, Bid Preparation, Bid Management and Bid Writing.

Morne Du Toit

Director of IT

Morne DuToit

Director of IT

Joined Ƶ in 2011.Morné has been responsible for creating IT strategy and policy, implementing infrastructure, and leveraging technology to help Ƶ group achieve tremendous performance and growth.

Kathryn Jellings

Director of Business Development - 3SC

Kathryn Jellings

Director of Business Development - 3SC

Kathryn leads the strategy, operations and business development at 3SC, the group's social enterprise. She has an established reputation as an ethical supply chain manager in the health and wellbeing, employment and justice markets.

Paschalis Angelopoulos

Group Head of Digital Transformation

Paschalis Angelopoulos

Group Head of Digital Transformation

Joined Ƶ in 2015, Paschalis has a background in Advertising, Marketing and Communications.With a deep understanding of digital technologies, he isoverseeing their integration across the Group, driving significant change in how Ƶ operates and delivers value to their customers.

Our History

Founded in 1995, we take our name, Ƶ, from our founders, twin sisters Caroline and Jacqui Fox, who are still major shareholders. Rooted in Southeast London, our outlook is both national and international, serving customers from numerous UK regions and more than 90 countries. With the UK as our main location, we have now established presence and activities in Ireland and Spain, with plans for more international presence.

Our clear and abiding sense of purpose - growing opportunity for all our stakeholders - allied to evolving core competences, has enabled the business to grow from two employees in a Lewisham bedroom to a business employing more than 300 people. We believe our core deliverables of education, training and employment opportunities serve societal needs that will only grow, for decades to come.

Perhaps the most gratifying aspect of Ƶ's growth - and the most reassuring for commissioners and partners in the UK - is that more than 90% of Ƶ's growth has been achieved organically.

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Accreditations and Awards

As a Group, Ƶ is affiliated and associated with a wide range of professional organisations who endorse what we do, and what we stand for. We are accredited by the British Council for our English teaching and endorsed by the Education & Skills Funding Agency and Department for Work & Pensions for our training for work programmes. We are members of key professional associations such as English UK and UK Inbound and are a Tier 5 Visa Sponsor for the UKBA.

The is responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policy. As the UK’s biggest public service department it administers a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million people.

The assess the standards of management, resources and premises, teaching and welfare of English language teaching organizations in the UK. We are accelerated across all our UK-based English and Summer schools.

is the quality assurance body for English Language Education in Ireland.

is the EU'sprogrammeto support education, training, youth and sport in Europe.

The is the trade membership body for the employment support sector which supports current and future jobseekers to gain sustain and progress in work.

Each year the helps millions of Europeans improve their lives by learning new skills and finding better jobs.

The is the goverment agencyaccountable for funding education and skills for children, young people and adults in the UK.

is the national association of English language centres in the UK.

is the leading and longest-serving association of English Language Schools in Ireland.

We areone of the few Super Star providers, having won theWork Experience Provider 5 times, the maximul allowed. Well recognisedin the global study and travel industry, the ST Star Awardscelebrate fantastic provision and service in international education.

exist to promote and foster the best possible communicative and performance skills through assessment, content and training which is innovative, personal and authentic.

The is theUK’s global programme for studying, working and living abroad, offering once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for personal and professional development for students.

is thetrade association that represents the interests of the UK’s inbound tourism sector and ensures it is recognised as a leading economic and employment driver in the UK.

is responsible for making millions of decisions every year about who has the right to visit or stay in the country, with a firm emphasis on national security and a culture of customer satisfaction for people who come here legally.

The is the only premium forum joining leading language travel agents, schools, and national associations as one global community.

organisations play a leading role in changing attitudes for the better. They’re changing behaviour and cultures in their own businesses, networks and communities, and reaping the benefits of inclusive recruitment practices.

The is the UK's Department for Education’s (DfE) standard for ensuring the quality of the delivery of high-quality information, advice and guidance (IAG). It isthe quality framework for accrediting IAG contracts, its subcontractors and other services delivered on behalf of the ESFA.

The is a professional membership institute for the employability profession. It represents its members to key influencers and sets the standards for the profession.

is a space where young people can become world ready and work ready, and raise their voice to make a positive difference together. Where they can explore who they are and who they want to be, with no fear of judgement or failure.

Ofsted is the, Children’s Services and Skills. We inspect services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. We also inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people.

Our London, Eastbourne and Dublin schools are all accredited institutions for theScheme in the following German states: Berlin, Hamburg, Hessen,Niedersachsen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen-Anhalt,Schleswig-Holstein.