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Anger at BBC education expert
Mar 29 2006
By Patrice John, Birmingham Mail
A WOMAN praised in a fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary is the boss of a Birmingham-based education firm that allegedly owes thousands of pounds to staff.
Yolande Beckles was the subject of last night's BBC2 Don't Mess with Miss Beckles on BBC2 last night which saw the education guru trying to motivate under-achieving teenagers.
Ms Beckles was exposed in a Birmingham Mail investigation as running Global Graduates, a firm that closed leaving an alleged trail of more than £17,000 debt.
BBC WM presenter Adrian Goldberg ran the original investigation on Ms Beckles in 2002 when he was the Mail's Watchdog columnist.
Teacher Jo Allen, aged 32, of Erdington, worked for Ms Beckles while a part-time teacher at the University of the First Age, based at Millennium Point, Birmingham, and claims she was owed £825 by the firm.
"The people in the show were warming to her," said Ms Allen. "But there is another side to her. She has done the dirty on a lot of people, and has a bare-faced cheek to go on national television."
Global Graduates pioneered a five-year programme for the brightest 14 and 15-year-olds in state education.
It targeted secondary schools in Birmingham including Kingsbury School, in Erdington, Golden Hillock, in Great Barr, Holy Trinity, in Moseley, Perry Beeches, St Edmunds Campion and Stockland Green, encouraging them to pay up to £500 per pupil.
But the scheme ended amid allegations of debt in 2002. One Moseley copywriter was claiming £6,000.
Ms Beckles could not be contacted by the Mail for comment. When Goldberg approached her, she declined to speak about "past issues".
