CEO Stories: Five things we learned from Education Awards founder Jas Rohel
Jas Rohel, founder of the Education Awards and co-CEO of the Titan Partnership, was the latest guest on CEO Stories – a podcast from Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce which delves into the minds of the region’s best and brightest business leaders.
The podcast, hosted by GBCC chief executive Henrietta Brealey, is available in full on all major listening platforms such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
In this episode, entrepreneur and radio presenter Jas talks to Henrietta about how she is banging the drum for the education sector in her dual role as Education Awards founder and co-CEO of charitable organisation the Titan Partnership.
She reveals how how a spell teaching at Solihull College & University Centre led to her becoming a ‘disruptor’ who was determined to drive change in the education world.
Jas, who spent her early career working in the media, also discusses her passion for telling and sharing other people’s stories in her role as a presenter for On Your Radio Solihull, where she hosts shows about education, business and hospitality.
Here are five things we learned from Jas' chat Henrietta...
1) She unexpectedly 'fell' into education
Education was the last sector Jas expected to find herself working in.
But the Kings Heath-born businesswoman “fell into” teaching and education after returning from London where she had been pursuing her dream career in media.
She said: “All I ever wanted to do was to work in media. So, if anybody said to me that you'd ever be in education later in life, or in teaching, I would have told them what to do with two words – because I’ve got the patience of a peanut!
“It was a revelation in the sense that when I fell into teaching, when I came back to Birmingham, I actually really enjoyed it.”
2) Starting The Oscars of education
Jas went on to launch the "Oscars of education", the Education Awards, after her research informed her that the sector wasn't getting the recognition it deserved.
She tells Henrietta: “I always had this itch - the journo itch - that I should be doing more.
“At that time there were a lot of awards. I started researching and found that nobody is doing the Education Awards.
“I was thinking ‘how can I put all these amazing people in for an award?’.
“I never thought by doing that research that I'd actually end up setting up the Education Awards but that's how it was born.
“You had specific awards such as the Higher Education Awards and The Times education supplements but never the Education Awards for everyone who works in or provides services to education. I call it the Oscars of education.”
3) The realisation that 'I'm in business!'
Jas discusses her first time stepping out as an entrepreneur when she attended a Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce awards dinner.
She said: “I remember the first evening, I stepped out of my home and I went: ‘Today, I'm going out as Jas from the Education Awards’ - and that's all I'm going to say the whole night.
“It was one of your events - the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce awards.
“I remember going in and thinking: ‘Jas – Education Awards’ and I had to keep saying it to myself.”
The awards evening led to a chance encounter with Birmingham City University’s Professor Julian Beer who agreed to become Jas’ first headline sponsor.
She admits: “I remember thinking ‘I'm in business! This is amazing!’.
But at the same time, my heart was just going ‘bang’ and I thought: ‘Oh my God, now I'm actually going to have to do some work!’ And that's kind of how it all evolved.
4) The job sharing dynamic
Jas works alongside job share partner Katherine Marston as co-CEO of education charity the Titan Partnership.
And she discussed the interesting dynamic of being a co-CEO.
She says: “We all have things that we're really good at doing but there's also things that we're not so good at doing.
“For me, I'm very good at sort of looking at the marketing side of things and looking at ‘what's the narrative here?’
“Catherine's from education - she's headteacher and she brings that set of knowledge, that huge understanding of the education sector from a headteacher's point of view, because we do work with schools.
“It works really well. We don't all want to be the same. That's just boring.”
5) The voice of On Your Radio Solihull
Jas has a third string to her bow – a presenter for On Your Radio Solihull, where she hosts shows about business, hospitality and education.
She set up the station to “give a voice to Silhillians”.
Jas explains: “To be able to give a voice to the local community was really important.
“And for me, it's all about stories. I love hearing stories and for me, it was really important to find out who are Silhillians and what really makes them tick.
“I think it's really important for Solihull to have its own station.”
