Lifetime Achievement Award for Twin Group founders

Twin Group founders Caroline and Jacqui Fox have won the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) Lifetime Achievement Award 2024.

As the Group starts its 30th anniversary celebrations, the ERSA award is timely recognition of the continued growth of a female-led international, employability, education and skills business which began operating from a house in south London.

The twin sisters have demonstrated exceptional leadership and unwavering dedication to transform the lives of an increasingly diverse group of people including asylum seekers, young people, parents-in-conflict, unemployed jobseekers, ex-offenders, people with significant disabilities and those in work or who need support to progress in work.

Initially an ESOL provider and then an employability provider with national and regional contracts, Twin Group is now also established in apprenticeships, adult education, National Citizens Service, student work placements and advanced learner loans while embracing innovation through delivery of Skills Bootcamps and Multiply contracts across several regions.

Creating opportunity for youth is a passionate focus for Caroline and Jacqui and their company is one of the largest independent contractors of youth mobility and internship programmes, taking British students to Twin’s international centres as well as welcoming young students from other countries to the company’s centres in London, Eastbourne, Canterbury and Norwich. Following an incredible recovery after the Covid pandemic closed international borders to students, half of Twin’s income is earned from abroad, having doubled in size and making the provider a proud exporter of British expertise in education. The organisation has diversified through careful strategic leadership to ensure it remains sustainable against an ever changing economic landscape.

In two Inspections, October 2023 and February 2024, Ofsted judged Twin’s education and skills provision and its wholly owned subsidiary, ETraining Ltd, to be ‘Good’ in all areas. A multiple-award winner, Twin partnered the University of Greenwich to win the PIEoneer Award 2023 for Employability International Impact.

Caroline and Jacqui Fox are committed builders of partnerships with central government (DfE, DWP and MoJ etc.) and local and devolved authorities. A range of measures, including data, provides evidence of very high customer satisfaction ratings as is a regular occurrence of repeat business, recent examples being work-oriented English for German apprentices from Siemens and BVG.

A strong believer in the value of equality, diversity and inclusion, Twin Group has successfully led bids to deliver Neurodiversity Strategy Coaching and Refugee Employability Support and a wide range of individualised person support to participants accessing and using their programmes.

Twin has an unusually diverse workforce and with senior management and other staff largely female, no gender pay gap exists. The Group encourages a culture of promoting talent from within. Opportunities are available for staff to gain new qualifications and upskill through apprenticeships. Chaired previously by Keith Faulkner and now by Pablo Hepworth Lloyd OBE, Twin’s Board promotes a culture of social entrepreneurship and innovation aligned with good governance.

Pablo Hepworth Lloyd said,

“My heartfelt congratulations to Caroline and Jacqui on receiving this prestigious ERSA Lifetime Achievement Award. This award celebrates not just what they’ve both accomplished over 30 years but also the countless lives they’ve touched along the way. Their vision, integrity and dedication have left a lasting mark. Caroline and Jacqui are an inspiration to us all and we’re so proud of them!”

Ongoing commitment to innovative approaches

Twin’s delivery of a pilot of the DWP’s ‘Reducing Parental Conflict’ programme in a largely rural area is a prime example of the Group’s readiness to innovate.

Taking a sensitive programme online carried a potential risk but in an area where buses may run as few as three times a week, it enabled a significant increase in group participation over time, especially from male parents. Findings from the pilot included:

• Online delivery does not necessarily mean “remote” – very sensitive issues of trust, confidentiality and support can be delivered, at times less stressfully for the participant, in this way.

• Challenges of distance, including risks of meeting cancellations, can be overcome. The productivity gains from frontline staff not having to travel were immense.

One participant said, “Such a wide range of skills I have learned on this course. I now have a better way of communicating with my ex and the biggest winners out of all this are my two boys”.