Business owner of more than a decade launches social enterprise to benefit schools and offer free lessons

Philip Spokes specialises in digital learning for non-profits and the education sector, and is the director and founder of Spokes Education.

Philip and his team recently branched out and launched a new social enterprise called Unfold Education, which currently provides free digital and interactive PSHE lessons for all schools.

As part of the scheme, they are also looking to link schools with businesses for enrichment opportunities – like a veterinary company sponsoring a lesson on pet care, with a view to running school workshops and visits.

A pilot is currently up and running across Northamptonshire and the team wants to spread the word about how these lessons can benefit schools and businesses.

Philip launched Spokes Education in 2013 and it was not until 2018 when he hired his first member of staff, which is when the business really took off.

The business creates custom e-learning courses and as they considered themselves a social business, they wanted to take this to the next level – which is when Unfold Education was born.

“We want to create a big social impact by providing free interactive lessons to schools,” said Philip. “Half our team are ex-teachers and the other half are creatives. We want the lessons to be interactive, engaging and fun.”

The aim is to get these lessons in as many schools as possible, with the hope of bringing corporate partners and sponsors on board as it has been self-funded up until this point.

They are working to build a larger education outreach programme so that schools can establish industry links as a result of accessing the free lessons, and the businesses get to fulfil their social value.

There are a number of sessions on physical wellbeing available, such as sun safety and dental health, and the team wants to provide free workshops to schools across Northamptonshire as part of the pilot.

“We want to create as big of a library of free and quality lessons as possible,” said Philip. “We want it to be an accessible toolkit in one place, and completely funded by corporate organisations who want to join the mission.”

For more information on Unfold Education, visit the social enterprise’s website here.