Award-winning apprenticeship company, Primary Goal, spotted a gap in schools for the need of a technician on site who was able to undertake basic IT tasks and partner with the teachers to use technology more effectively within the classroom. The idea and the company is the brainchild of Louise Campton and she has been driving her vision forward ever since. Thanks to the guidance and support from the University of Warwick Science Park and its Business Ready programme, Primary Goal is now in a position to expand further.
Pictured (left to right): Tim Hughes, Jane Talbot, Alex Toft, Louise Campton and Lauren Delday
The Company
Primary Goal was established by Louise back in 2015 with the aim of supporting teachers and children to grow their digital skills and integrate computer science within the wider curriculum.
Based at the University of Warwick Science Park’s Business Innovation Centre in Binley, the business model has already proved a huge success by creating over 20 new job roles for young people and establishing key partnerships in the technology and education market including Google and Microsoft Education.
The company is also working in partnership with the Duke of York iDEA scheme to place pre-trained Teacher’s Apprentices into every school across the country supporting teachers and learners to demonstrate their digital skills and implement computer science across the wider curriculum.
Louise’s background in careers education and guidance helped her to recognise an opportunity to develop this unique apprenticeship programme.
It enables young people with a passion for technology and an interest in teaching to gain paid work opportunities in a school environment and combine this with digital skills for the future.
The Challenge
The challenge for Louise came from her busy life – she is a single parent of two children, as well as being the director of Primary Goal.
She also needed significant investment to make sure that the company could push forward with its ambitious plans to not only be a service within Coventry and Warwickshire, but nationally and maybe globally in the future.
“I had all these ideas for the business and I have put everything into the company, but I needed help to focus,” said Louise. “I needed to sit down and take a look at what areas really needed my attention and what areas could be let go for someone else to do. Also, to make sure that this company and the ideas have a long-term future, I needed investment from someone who believed in me, my team and the goal that we have.”
The Solution
Primary Goal was given invaluable support from the University of Warwick Science Park’s Ignite programme when it first began.
But was soon paired up with the Business Ready scheme and one its team of mentors, including Alex Toft.
Alex helped Louise to focus on the areas of the business that really needed her attention, instead of trying to do everything.
“Louise has such an ambition to grow and a passion to help as many young people as she can,” said Alex. “But she needed to make sure that her focus was on the right things. Our aim was to make sure that her mind was on the areas that needed her the most and then have her let go of anything else to staff. That way she could invest her time more effectively and make sure that Primary Goal developed how it should do.”
The other area was the fact that to help the business grow, it needed investment to make sure that it could go to the next level.
Alex and Business Ready was there through the whole process of looking for an investor and explaining what would happen.
“Throughout the whole investment process, which can take some time, it was making sure that I was there for Louise to offer advice and support,” added Alex.
The Results
Primary Goal has secured a massive investment of £250,000, which came from Tim Hughes of Complete Networks.
“There is such huge potential with Primary Goal and I had to be part of it,” said Tim. “Louise has worked extremely hard to get the company going and it has paid off. There has been months of work behind the scenes to make sure that everything went ahead with the investment, but we can now progress and look to the future.”
