Do you run a small business in the UK and are you asking yourself if it is time to start to recruit…
The first part is to go through a series of questions answering them truthfully and this will then assist you in working out whether you…
Published Articles by Safaraz Ali
Pathway to Success
By any standards, Safaraz Ali’s
career CV makes for impressive reading. He is CEO of one £16 million turnover company, chair of another £5 million concern, an author, an awards host judge – and even helps run a football academy for inner-city youngsters.
His Tyseley-based Nationwide Care Services group has mushroomed into the second biggest care provider in Birmingham, delivering 25,000 hours of care a week to thousands of patients. Meanwhile, as managing director- CEO of the Pathway Group, he has been one of the driving forces behind the rise of a skills and training organisation providing career opportunities for new recruits
covering a variety of sectors – from HS2 to the world of beauty.
At 48, he would appear to be at the height of his powers. But it has been a long, hard road to success – with plenty of obstacles through the decades – for the Birmingham born son of a Kashmiri immigrant father, Khardit Ali, who first came to England in the mid-50s to make a better life for himself away from his farming roots in rural Pakistan…
By any standards, Safaraz Ali’s career CV makes for impressive reading. He is CEO of one £16 million turnover company, chair of another £5 million concern, an author, an awards host judge – and even helps run a football academy for inner-city youngsters.
His Tyseley-based Nationwide Care Services group has mushroomed into the second biggest care provider in Birmingham, delivering 25,000 hours of care a week to thousands of patients. Meanwhile, as managing director- CEO of the Pathway Group, he has been one of the driving forces behind the rise of a skills and training organisation providing career opportunities for new recruits covering a variety of sectors – from HS2 to the world of beauty.
At 48, he would appear to be at the height of his powers. But it has been a long, hard road to success – with plenty of obstacles through the decades – for the Birmingham born son of a Kashmiri immigrant father, Khardit Ali, who first came to England in the mid-50s to make a better life for himself away from his farming roots in rural Pakistan…
The DfE's blanket Strategy is cloth-eared.
The government’s strategy to increase BAME participation in further and higher education ignores important differences between ethnic groups, argues Safaraz Ali
It is critical for all of us in the post-16 education sector to take action to widen BAME participation in apprenticeships across England, but it is only by recognising missed opportunities that we can move forward. And while I’m very positive overall about the education secretary’s attempts to increase the proportion of BAME young people in apprenticeships, there’s much more to be done…
Licence to Skill
He’s the co-founder of a home care company turning over £16 million, CEO of a £5 million a year training business, and creator of The BAME Apprenticeship Awards. But Safaraz Ali admits that he failed his GCSEs. “I lost my way around the age of 14,” he says. “But a BTEC and a Higher National Diploma in business and finance got me back on track, so I’m a big believer in vocational qualifications.” He now employs apprentices across both of his companies.
Ali went on to co-found Nationwide Care Services in 2005. It’s now the second largest care provider in Birmingham, employing almost 1,000 people who deliver 25,000 hours of care a week across the Midlands. The size of the business means it’s eligible to pay the government’s Apprenticeship Levy – 0.5 per cent of the company’s total payroll, which amounts to £82,000 per annum.
This payment can then be used by employers to fund apprenticeships, providing real opportunities for staff to gain qualifications, and progress while they work. “It’s an environment that creates an element of mentoring in the workplace and gets people to think about lifelong learning and reflective practice,” Ali says of work-based training. “That raises emotional awareness and emotional intelligence. People understand their contribution and they are more involved in shaping their career progression.”
Scaling a Business: best way ahead and common pitfalls to avoid
When businesses scale, it is often said that they need to become less dependent upon individuals and learn to use technology, processes, and system. Having ‘A’ players is great but it’s not enough if the business is to move to the next level because people unlike systems cannot be cloned.
Everything that is done within the business needs to be documented, and not just basic things like the visons, missions, roles and responsibility It is also how you expect your team to do things. Focus on the processes where the hard work is done and less on where you rely on people like yourself and other senior leaders in your business…
The unwritten rules in an organisation and its effects
The unwritten rules in an organisation and its effects I am sure you would have noticed that many people and the media are currently up in arms about Elon Musk letting go of
Most Business Books don’t work unless you do
Most Business Books don’t work unless you do Most business books don’t work just as knowledge in general as it comes down to simply what you do with what you know! Most business