Coding school founder is Entrepreneur of the Year

The man who founded Britain’s largest coding and computer science educator after losing his job in the City and wondering how he would provide for his young family has been named Entrepreneur of the Year.

Manny Athwal picked up the honour at Birmingham’s Signature Awards.

His company, School of Coding, based in Wolverhampton, was named as a finalist in the   Innovative Business of the Year category and Manny was also shortlisted in a second category, Young Business Person of the Year.

School of Coding was founded by Manny in 2017, and since then he and his wife Sandeep have taken the company from their bedroom to a multi-office organisation with plans to create more than 100 new jobs in the next three years and reach £50m turnover within the next five years.

He started the school after losing his long-term contract as a trader in the City and becoming so desperate that, at his lowest point, he had to hide in a train toilet to get home from his job delivering lorries. A chance encounter with a coding teacher changed his life.

“I am absolutely delighted to have been awarded Entrepreneur of the Year at the Signature Awards. It is a fantastic testament to what we, as a school,  have achieved in a relatively short space of time. 

“Although we are still a relatively young company, we have already made great strides in the education sector and through our work with the UK government and other major organisations such as Toyota, the European Council and JP Morgan and have secured contracts with DWP and others.

“We have exciting plans for our future and our key driver is our desire to expose as many people as possible to coding and cyber security which is becoming more and more important for future careers.”

School of Coding teaches over 5,000 students each month, working with major universities and over 150 schools and colleges across the UK.

Along with its state of the art E-Learning platform, the company also operates education centres where students go to learn coding and digital skills using innovative virtual reality and augmented reality tools as well as practical applications.

The Signature Awards celebrate the best in business, especially those operating in the business to business sector. The event will shine a spotlight on the work of those business professionals who have provided cutting edge thinking and have driven their organisations forward.