Teach First, McKinsey & Goldman Sachs
EdReform, EduBusiness, In The News, NUS, Teach First, Tuition Fees Monday, November 29th, 2010
Continuing our investigations into Teach First, it is good to know that this charitable organisation has powerful backing.
The founder and CEO at Teach First is Brett Wigdortz. Our Brett has no training in education: he’s not a teacher, policy expert or researcher. He is a businessman, and after gaining an MA in Economics and working “as a a journalist in Asia and at the East-West Center in Honolulu, focusing on energy and economic development issues,” he was at management consultants McKinsey & Co working in Indonesia, Singapore and Manila – focusing on retail banking, organisational effectiveness and Asian microfinance.
It will be bad enough for some that Teach First is run by a guy from McKinsey, but Wigdortz’s baby is also backed by some particuarly unpopular companies. Without doubt the most unpopular of these has to be Goldman Sachs. Not only has GS shelled out huge fines for its unusual approach to the financial markets, its performance bonuses have come under much criticism in recent times and so too the company’s cosy relationship with governments.
In a nutshell, Teach First is run by a guy steeped in the beliefs and tactics of a company (McKinsey) heavily linked to the collapse of energy giant Enron and the deaths in Sept 2006 of 14 UK service personnel; and Me First is a grantee of the most villified of financial groups, Goldman Sachs.
Why we have a former management consultant without a specialty in education and linked to two of the more controversial entities in world business and finance in ultimate charge of the future of some of our most vulnerable kids is beyond us. Anyone?!
You wouldn’t place a secondary school teacher in charge of the training of bankers or management consultants so we don’t see why the vice versa is okay.
Perhaps the Tories like with their utterly miserable idea of increased tuition fees have been spending too much time with blue-sky thinkers and not enough time with the coal-face workers who could tell them what is really going to be effective, and more importantly tell them for free.
They’ve only got to ask…it costs nothing.
“He’s not a policy expert or researcher”. Erm… he did commission and chair Policy first, which contributed towards the Education White Paper. He also spent many months/years researching TFA and educational disadvantage and continues to do so. He’s done more ground breaking work than some education ministers have. How you can say that Brett is not a policy expert or a researcher is beyond me.
In the traditional sense no he’s not a policy expert or researcher, but independently and through TF, he has contributed a huge amount to addressing educational disadvantage and the rich-poor diving in UK education, precisely through policy and research!
The closing dig at the Ttories is complete nonsense, it was under a Labour government that Teach First was launched and supported. The Tories have rightly continued supporting this highly-effective charity, grad scheme and educational programme. Let’s not bring politics into education just for the sake of it.
The writer sounds bitter and highly uninformed.
Have you actually done any research into Teach First and the huge benefits it has had on these schools?
Brett doesn’t teach in the schools and nor does he train the teachers. He runs the business end of Teach First. Latest Ofsted ratings for Teach First: Out of 44 categories they received 44 Outstandings.
Do some research instead of writing garbage articles.