Educational charity Teach First has become the seventh investment of the Breakthrough Social Investment Fund. The charity recruits hundreds of top graduates each year to teach in challenged urban schools in London, the North West, the Midlands and Yorkshire.

Breakthrough is investing £230k over two years in Teach First to support development and growth in its core business functions. The management team will also receive additional support from advisers at the private equity firm Permira and the social enterprise CAN – the founders of the fund - as it seeks to recruit 850 graduates per year by 2013 and enhance support to its Ambassadors (alumni) in addressing educational disadvantage.

Since 2002, Teach First has attracted more than 1,000 of the UK’s best graduates to teach in some of the UK’s most challenged secondary schools by brokering a groundbreaking partnership between education and business. Late last year, the charity announced plans increase recruitment of graduates and expand into new regions and schools.

“Teach First has enjoyed fantastic success to date: not only are we having an evidenced impact on the quality of teaching, attainment and aspirations in our most challenged schools, we are creating a community of young people who have the understanding, skills and motivation to go on to address educational disadvantage throughout their lives.

“The relationship with Breakthrough will allow Teach First to manage our expansion and ensure our impact is sustained. Such managerial support and funding is invaluable to social enterprises like Teach First who want to unlock their potential and achieve significant scale.”

Teach First seeks to address educational disadvantage by transforming exceptional graduates into effective, inspirational teachers and leaders in all fields. In 2008, Ofsted reported that Teach First teachers were “amongst the most exceptional trainees produced by any teacher training route”, having a “markedly beneficial impact on the schools involved”.

Following a two-year teaching placement, around half of Teach First participants choose to pursue teaching as a long-term career. All Teach First Ambassadors (alumni) are supported to address educational disadvantage through school governor positions, coaching and mentoring, social entrepreneurship and policy making.

“Teach First has done some great work to date and the demand for their teaching graduates from challenged secondary schools shows no sign of abating. To meet demand for their services and their ambitious growth plan, they now need to strengthen their operational platform. At Permira we have many years of experience in helping businesses scale up their operations and we are delighted to have the chance to help Teach First meet this exciting challenge through Breakthrough.”

Launched in 2005, Breakthrough is now in its second fund with Permira and second funder, SVG Capital plc. It provides grant funding with high-level engagement in the business, measured outputs and long-term support. The other six organisations in the Breakthrough portfolio are Green-Works, Law for All, TimeBank, Training for Life, FareShare and Speaking Up.

Evaluation of the first Breakthrough fund (2005 – 2007) found that on average the financial turnover of the portfolio organisations grew by 20% annually and their social impact by 40% per annum, subsequent to joining the programme. Breakthrough II (£1.5m) began in 2007 and runs until 2010.

For more information or to interview staff from Teach First and/or Breakthrough, please call Kate Markey at CAN on 077381 95503 or 020 7922 7761.

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

Teach First (Reg Charity No. 1098294) targets high calibre graduates who would not normally consider a career in teaching and places them to teach in challenged secondary schools¹ for the course of a two year placement.

In addition to achieving Qualified Teacher Status, all Teach First teachers receive leadership training, including summer internships and coaching, from over 50 different corporate, media, policy, non-profit, and educational partners including Imperial College Business School.

Teach First is supported by all the main political parties, head teacher and teacher unions, graduate organisations and over eighty leading employers. In 2008, it was ranked 9th in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers.

Breakthrough Fund II began in 2007 and runs for three years. There are an estimated 55,000 social enterprises in the UK contributing £8m to the economy and employing in excess of 500,000 people. The Government defines the business model as “a social enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business and in the community rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners”.

The other portfolio organisations on Breakthrough are:

Green-Works – www.green-works.org.uk
Law for All – www.lawforall.org.uk
Training for Life – www.trainingforlife.org
TimeBank – www.timebank.org.uk
FareShare 1st – www.fareshare.org.uk
Speaking Up – www.speakingup.org

Founded in 1998, CAN is now recognised as one of the UK's leading organisations for the development, promotion and support of social entrepreneurs and social enterprises. Permira is a leading European-based private equity firm. It acts as adviser to the 19 Permira Funds, totalling approximately Euro 22 billion, that have been raised since 1985. These funds have invested in over 180 transactions in over 15 different countries, in companies across a variety of sectors and geographies, at all stages of the business lifecycle.

¹Those schools with more than 30% of the pupil body eligible for free school meals or with less than 30% of pupils achieving 5 GCSEs at grade A*-C, including English and Maths.