Dukes Education’s commitment to quality

The Founder and Chairman of Dukes Education talks to The Portugal News about how his own background and life experiences have shaped his passion for the transformative power of education.

“Blessed with dyslexia and ADHD, I found the UK’s state school system was not necessarily suited to my needs,” he explains. During this period, he felt frustrated as if “written off by teachers” later becoming something of a “naughty young boy.” His behaviour led the school to ask him to leave and his father then made a “huge financial sacrifice” to enrol him in a small independent school.

At his new school, Aatif Hassan “found passionate teachers, a bespoke learning environment” and an education that nurtured him “in a holistic manner.” He was able to channel his energies into rugby and army cadets, “I wasn’t good enough to become a professional rugby player, but it did enable me to later go on to become a commissioned British Army Officer.” In the army, he learned “the importance of personal discipline, a hard work ethic and a great deal about leadership.” But when Aatif Hassan was 35 years old, a series of tragic personal events occurred at the same time that he was the sole survivor of a very serious car accident. In the wake of these circumstances, Aatif realised that he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing something meaningful: “empowering and inspiring the lives of young people.”

Dukes Education was founded 10 years ago and now serves more than 20.000 students in eight different countries, including Portugal. Creating partnerships “with high-quality schools with leadership and staff teams who believe in the power of education to transform children’s lives”, keeps Aatif’s vision absolutely central. “These partnerships are supported by a significant investment in staff learning and development. We offer more than 400 training programmes that inspire and create great teachers,” he explains.

Visiting the three Dukes Education schools in Portugal, located in Lisbon and Porto, allows Aatif to “see at first hand the care and individual attention our teachers provide, the fantastic facilities, and the wonderful school communities that welcome families from so many countries.”

Talking about the plans for Dukes in Portugal, Aatif explains how Dukes continues to invest in the schools, for example, United Lisbon International School (ULIS) “has just opened a new teaching block of 24 classrooms and will have a new theatre, drama studio and sports hall open later this year.”

Asked how success is measured within Dukes, Aatif says, “success can be measured by the strength of our organisation and the outcomes for our students.” Currently, “Dukes is the fastest growing education group in Europe” and students’ results, “continue to improve. One Dukes school, Cardiff Sixth Form College, is now the top performing school for A-levels over 13 years and students from Dukes schools go on to study at the top universities worldwide.”

“I will never get tired of seeing the power of education to transform children’s lives and to lift them up to become happy and successful young people,” Aatif says. Among the many highlights of his work, “taking academic lessons, playing football and rugby and giving talks to the pupils are what keep me going. It’s the best job in the world!”

Dukes Plus from cradle to career

Dukes Education not only supports students through school but goes beyond the classroom, supporting students’ journeys in parallel to their schooling through the two broad categories of its Dukes Plus organisation: education consultancy and experience providers.

Ricardo Tavares, Director of Dukes Plus is clear about its purpose, “we empower young people to create happy and successful lives.” Dukes Plus is described by Ricardo as “the only organisation which has the educational programmes, all under one roof, to cover these two vitally important life ingredients, for students from age 4 to 18.”

Through becoming a parent to two young children, the Dukes Plus director has become fascinated by the process of learning “how to unlock children’s true potential and provide opportunities for them to thrive in all aspects of life.” Ricardo explains how his varied career path has led him to this point. “After attending medical school at Oxford University, I worked as a doctor in the National Health Service in the UK – a background that highlighted to me the need for a holistic approach to health. The same holistic approach can be applied to education, especially during a child’s early, formative years.

“I spent a short period in investment banking and saw at first hand the importance of fundamental personal skills, such as stress management, the ability to prioritise, and emotional intelligence, and how these skills can be applied across different industries. Switching to an entrepreneurial career path, I launched an ed-tech start up, The Career Portal (TCP) that supports aspiring medics, and latterly lawyers, gain places in leading global universities. TCP joined the Dukes Education family in 2021 and forms part of Dukes Plus, which I now have the privilege of leading.”

Just like Aatif Hassan, sport has played a large part in Ricardo’s life. “Whilst growing up, I was passionate about playing football and progressed to play elite level football in my teens and while I was at university. I remain incredibly proud and honoured to have been awarded an Oxford Blue for representing the university in football. Playing a team sport at a high level highlighted to me the importance of extracurricular activities and the key skills they can teach young people which have long-term benefits throughout professional life.

Dukes Plus Consultancy has different ways to support students with university application; Oxbridge Applications, established in 1999, is used by 20% of all Oxbridge applicants; A-List Education supports students’ applications to American universities; The Career Portal is used by around 70% of the top 100 UK Independent Schools. Dukes Tutoring is a service that unlocks academic potential by providing bespoke private tutoring to children over five years old.

Dukes Plus Experience Providers deliver “world-class immersive career experiences” for students through InvestIN; Summer Boarding Courses delivers cross-cultural courses for students from across the world and is the United Kingdom’s number one multi-campus summer school for children from 8 to 18, and Ultimate Activity Camps provides outstanding holiday childcare four to 14-year-olds giving them access to sports, arts, coding, cooking and even AI.

Dukes Plus and Dukes Schools work in close collaboration, providing world class careers support and experiences to students. Ricardo highlights the launch of Dukes Career School, “We took 1,000 Dukes Education students through an annual programme centred on upskilling them for the future of work that was similar to a graduate recruitment style assessment day, where every student was challenged and assessed across multiple competencies.” Dukes Plus also supports teachers with the help of an expert university counselling organisations and helps students to be prepared to attend the greatest universities worldwide.

Ricardo explains to The Portugal News what makes Dukes Plus unique, “What sets us apart is quality: an absolute commitment that everything we provide to students is of the highest possible quality. For example, our world class work experience provider, InvestIN is UCAS accredited, and we work with hundreds of leading schools globally. In addition, we have in-depth knowledge of the education industry through being part of Dukes Education, who own and operate schools internationally.”

The director of Dukes Plus believes that the world will be very different for future generations. Ricardo explains, “The future for young people is evolving at incredible speed. The World Economic Forum (WEF) states there will be 97 million new jobs by 2030 focused on the interface between humans, machines and algorithms. WEF have outlined the key skills set required for professional success, centred around digital literacy, critical soft skills such as emotional intelligence, the ability for cross cultural competence, and lifelong learning. In addition, we have the expectation of greater longevity and the concept of the 100-year life, whereby a far greater number of centenarians will be alive in 2100 compared with today (a x33 multiple in the UK alone). The outdated idea of a ‘job for life’ will be replaced by an individual’s ability to pivot professionally through a portfolio of careers. Having a firm academic grounding, alongside resilience, adaptability and self-management will be the bedrock of achieving this successfully.”

“Dukes Plus addresses these challenges by offering support and experiences over and above traditional classroom learning. From cradle to career, we cover key milestones in a cohesive way with world leading brands under one roof.”

Ricardo is passionate about “unlocking children’s potential and equipping them for success in a rapidly changing world.” His professional and personal experience showed him that “success and happiness require a multi-disciplinary approach” and he is passionate about being able to pass that knowledge to all the students and teachers he works with, while “helping them to embrace the unknown elements of the future with passion and excitement motivates me every day.”

Dukes Plus services are open to all students, not only those in Dukes Education schools. The individual brands “welcome several million users each year from 50+ countries.”

To learn more about Dukes Plus, visit the official website, www.dukeplus.com, and take a “free Career Pathway tool quiz and get a personalised report.” Or contact Dukes Plus directly at info@dukesplus.com or by calling on +44 20 3848 4700.

Deeply in love with music and with a guilty pleasure in criminal cases, Bruno G. Santos decided to study Journalism and Communication, hoping to combine both passions into writing. The journalist is also a passionate traveller who likes to write about other cultures and discover the various hidden gems from Portugal and the world. Press card: 8463. 

Bruno G. Santos