Welcome to GSL Education – passionate about building effective partnerships with educational professionals and schools since 2000
We hope you enjoy reading our exciting journey, from humble beginnings in 1990, to the official opening of GSL Education in 2000, and the proud and established company we are today. We hope you feel inspired to join the GSL family.
Our Story
Education at our roots
With experience within education itself, GSL was created out of a motivation to contribute to the provision of education for all young people. Our core objective has always been guided by raising standards in education and providing a better opportunity for the disadvantaged.
Throughout our history, GSL have built our business on the experiences gained through direct support for education including: initiatives to create access to education and teaching in the UK and abroad; collaboration with universities to address teacher shortages; and targeted initiatives within schools.
Charitable beginnings
The building block for GSL, was the founding of the ‘Keen Students School’ (KSS) - a charitable trust, aimed at helping hundreds of struggling GCSE and A-Level Students to successfully re-sit their examinations.
Between 1990 and 2016 KSS provided pupils, lacking in motivation, the tools they needed to obtain university degrees and forge successful careers for themselves beyond schooling. KSS became nationally recognised as a “great model” (former Education Secretary - Estelle Morris).
Inspired by the success of KSS, GSL currently provides GCSE tutoring to hundreds of students in disadvantaged communities in East London. Students particularly at risk of failing in English, Maths and Science are supported by outstanding tutoring from GSL, in a number of secondary schools.
More than a Recruitment Agency
Kamal Ahmed (founder and CEO) has always encouraged young people to take up teaching as a career, often working on the behalf of newly trained teachers to help them find employment – all in a voluntary capacity.
With the support of his local Head Teacher network, Kamal set up a formal recruitment service for the local community schools and teachers. It was this initiative in the East End of London that inspired the establishment of GSL Education but the motives behind KSS formed the foundation for our vision to “Make a positive impact in the world of education”.
Having been born out of experience gained through charitable initiatives aimed at providing solutions, GSL continues to strive to support schools and their staff in removing barriers and facilitating success in new and innovative ways.
We aim to make links for life, not just for profit and nurture each individual, so they feel confident in our support for them.
In short, we like to think that through our intentions and actions – GSL Education inspires loyalty.
Driving Quality Education in the UK...
GSL always takes an interest in the broader issues facing education and recommends initiatives aimed at overcoming challenges faced by schools in the UK and beyond.
We closely monitor developments within education and seek solutions to the challenges faced by schools and teachers. We offer training, intervention support packages, administration support, information and collaboration. We explore opportunities to develop extended partnerships, which will further benefit our community.
For example: to address the acute shortage of qualified teachers of Math’s and Science, in 2002, GSL pioneered a PGCSE programme for foreign graduates in partnership with the Institution of Education at the University of London. The joint venture with the Institute of Education of the University of London (IOE) was to recruit 22 high-calibre overseas graduates in Maths and the Sciences, and train them to work in English schools as fully qualified teachers, following completion of their PGCE at the IOE. The graduates were then employed by the partner schools. It was a three way partnership between GSL, the schools as employers and the IOE.
GSL also successfully ran an overseas exchange program for more than 80 teachers, on the request of a local education authority as a project assignment, aiming to promote diversity. Due to GSL's growing reputation we were considered the ideal partner for this project.
Education cannot support children in isolation and is dependent on successful collaboration with other agencies and departments. In 2004 we helped local authorities manage a staffing crisis in child protection Social Work departments and delivered projects to recruit, train and employ a large number of overseas qualified social workers. This project not only required talent identification overseas, but also brought greater diversity understanding to London.
…and beyond
In 2010 GSL set up a sixth form college ‘The Regent College’ in Dhaka, Bangladesh, for talented young people aspiring to study at top universities around the world.
This proved a valuable asset to the capital city of Bangladesh, resulting in fruitful and fascinating career journeys for many excellent students. Furthermore, this was a wonderful, mind-opening pursuit for the many esteemed teachers from England, who joined the project.
GSL continues to explore new ways to support schools, and find solutions to the challenges faced in education today.