
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
22 | ASCENTIS
The best people to implement the
strategy: this starts with the culture,
which, at Ascentis, is defined as a
strong desire to help people coupled
with an equally strong desire to be
ambitious and competitive. This culture
is constantly reinforced. As CEO I am
supported by a talented leadership
team, a wider management team and
a growing base of staff, moderators
and external verifiers.
The impact of Ascentis
Every year we help more than 130,000
people to work towards educational
qualifications, to enable them to
progress to employment or further
study, including higher education.
For example, our ESOL qualifications
enable learners to demonstrate that
they have good speaking, writing,
listening and reading skills in English.
Not only does this help improve their
everyday life but it’s also an effective
way to show employers the student’s
language skills and is a boost to
their CV. Around 50,000 people
every year study towards an Ascentis
ESOLqualification.
Our Access to Higher Education
qualifications prepare learners for
study at degree level. They are
designed for people who would like
to go to university but who left school
without the qualifications they need.
Many of the learners come from
very disadvantaged backgrounds.
Around 6,000 people every year study
towards an Ascentis Access to Higher
Education Diploma and go on to
secure employment in a wide range
ofprofessions.
Every year we help in excess of
40,000 school pupils in around 2,000
schools with our IDL Literacy dyslexia
intervention programme, which typically
results in pupils’ reading and spelling
ages increasing on average by around
ten months after just 26 hours of use.
Looking to the future
Ascentis is currently experiencing
the most successful period in its
entire history with an annual growth
in our level of charitable activity of
approximately 20 per cent. In the future
we plan to provide our qualification
services to an increasing number of
schools, colleges and independent
training organisations across the UK,
helping more learners than ever before
to improve their life chances. We will
support regional post-16 skills and adult
education strategies such as “Skills for
Londoners” so that we can target our
resources to maximum effect.
We will provide a new software solution –
IDL Numeracy – to schools to help pupils
with dyscalculia. We will then expand our
provision of all IDL products to schools
overseas, focusing on opportunities
in the Middle East, Australia and New
Zealand so that we can help to improve
the lives of people with dyslexia and
dyscalculia on a global scale.
We will continue to develop our
strategy in line with the business
environment in which we operate and
strive for continuous improvement,
being prepared to adapt quickly to
new challenges and opportunities.
In this way we can continue to help
as many people as possible with our
wonderful charitable work.
We are
currently
experiencing
the most
successful
period in our
entire history,
helping more
learners than
ever before to
improve their
life chances
“
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The senior leadership
team