Being the First to Teach

"Ummm, ummm, ummm. Okay, I’ll get off at Westminster and change, that will be quick right?”. That was what was going through my head as I frantically scrambled to make it to my interview with Brett Wigdortz. Turns out I was wrong by the way (about the trains being delayed, not having the interview: this would be a very short Feature if that were to have been the case).

Having chosen probably the weirdest way possible to get to London Bridge, thinking that it would be “faster”, I sat on the tube. I was doing that thing where you nervously play music (to no avail, as when you’re in a rush you can never actually hear or enjoy any songs) and fidget in the chair, willing the tube driver to choose today to attempt to break some kind of World Record for “speediest delivery of late man to interview”. The driver wasn’t in any way trying to become a World Record Holder. I guess some just don’t have the hero genes in them. Arsehole.

Having run out of London Bridge, with a James Bond theme on my iPhone (name dropping both, terrible, I know, but this is 100% true), I promptly grabbed what all students refer to as their one and only saviour, i.e. Google Maps (thank God I haven’t upgraded phones and don’t have Apple Maps, I would have never arrived). I then managed to get turned around and walked in the complete and utter wrong direction. A fact that didn’t register with me until I’d walked a little bit too far.

Luckily, sort of, my phone was ringing, so I had to look at my screen and realise what I had done. Unluckily, it was TeachFirst calling to see where I was and note that I was late for the interview. A quick bit of apologising, and some less than dignified walk/jogging later – you know what I mean; it’s that thing you do where you jog a few metres, walk a few, jog a few, walk a few, and so on – I was on track.

Finally, I arrived at TeachFirst’s shiny, swish office in London. Well, there was an incident involving me and not being able to find the entrance, but that was uneventful/embarrassing so I won’t go into it. Very graciously, Brett has decided to give me his time. I feel terrible for being late and hoped it wasn’t too much of a bother. I walking into the office and sat down in a modern conference room (I even got free water).

Brett casually walks in and greets me, with a coffee in a Thermos flask in his hand. He seems laid back and that puts me at ease.

This first thing that strikes me is that he is American. I don’t know why this was a surprise, given his name, but for some reason I expected him to be English because of TeachFirst being UK. Well, that was going to be mistake two. “One of our alumni is opening up a TeachFirst in Australia” Brett tells me. It turns out it’s going global in only ten years since it’s founding.

Brett’s mother was a teacher, so perhaps teaching has always been in his blood. He tells me of how he still “visits the schools that we are working with”.

Brett tells me about how inspiring it is to see the children doing so well, and how statistics show that great teachers do make a difference. That seems to be his vision, that students want to go into teaching. He doesn’t want it to stop just there though. Brett explains how he wants “the graduates to become ambassadors”. TeachFirst, in his mind, leads students to being interested in education for life, and not just for however long they are at the company and on the scheme. Brett wants the TeachFirst graduates to be governors of schools, or even tutors in their spare time. He says he doesn’t mind if someone does the TeachFirst plan and then goes off to work for a consultancy, as long as they keep being involved in educating young people.

He believes firmly that “you can not give up on people and forget about those who are older”. He doesn’t want to just target those at a younger age and leave a generation of children behind, he wants to be able to get everyone from disadvantaged backgrounds into having better prospects for the future. He also talks about how there is a shortage of highly qualified teachers in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects in schools, particularly lower achieving schools with pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

I move the interview on to more of the entrepreneurship side of TeachFirst to get what “buzzwords” he would say are the most important. A charitythat has grown so quickly is definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, an impressive feat. Now being the third highest recruiter in the UK, I wondered what he thought you needed. Perseverance and hard work are big points that he flags up as being important for any budding entrepreneurs.

The interview wraps up and I realise that I’ve also slightly overrun the allotted time. Brett doesn’t seem to mind too much. I’m then taken around the plush offices. It’s all new, but still manages to retain some character: sometimes brand new offices can really be soulless, but they’ve managed to bring a human touch to it. There’s even an assessment centre going on, and the man on the door was on the TeachFirst scheme and now works there. All of the staff there genuinely seemed very engaged and enthusiastic about the general ethos of the company.

Brett Wigdortz’s book ‘Success Against The Odds’ packed with start-up tips and business advice is available to buy now.

If you would like to find out more about Teach First, sign up to the Teach First Employer Presentation on Wednesday 14th November at 6pm in Read Theatre, Sherfield Building via JobsLive.