Tech entrepreneur
Duncan Wilson founded a multi-million-pound turnover technology company, sold it to one of the world’s most respected education organisations, and put a small coastal village on the map as the Silicon Valley of Wales. The former teacher has also won the “Oscars of the education sector”, after receiving a prestigious Bett award, while continuing to oversee the rapid growth of his company, Edukey Education.
“We started the company in the first month after I left the school where I was teaching,” Duncan recalled. “We were scratching about, started with about £50 and a couple of employees, and by the next year we’d seen a 600-700% growth. We’re six-and-a-half years along now and employ over 40 people, create education software for schools all around the world and, from that, we got acquired by the TES about a year ago.”
The Staffordshire University alumnus continues to run Edukey Education from Fishguard, a town of around 5,000 people in Pembrokeshire, south west Wales, where he founded the company. He employs several of his former pupils, alongside a couple of fellow graduates, and continues to create innovative software solutions to help make teachers’ jobs easier.
Science to software
Originally from Manchester, Duncan joined Staffordshire University in 1993, when it was still a Polytechnic. He took a Combined Sciences degree, after studying chemistry, biology and physics at school, but also chose the University for its proximity to the Peak District, where he could enjoy his passion for rock climbing.
Duncan attained a First Class Honours and decided to stay at the University, to attain an MPhil in Environmental Chemistry. After six years, he stepped away from higher education to pursue a career as a teacher, eventually taking a job in the town where he still works today, 20 years later.
“I did a bit of teaching at the University, during my PhD,” Duncan remembered. “I was doing a lot of lab research, which didn’t suit me so well, so I started looking into teaching as a career. I didn’t know what else to do at the time but teaching gave me an opportunity to move wherever I wanted.”
Sixteen years in the classroom gave Duncan the idea for what would later become his flagship product, ClassCharts. He took a risk leaving his job to work on his company full-time in 2012 but, following a year of development, Edukey has enjoyed continued success since.
Global success
ClassCharts allows teachers to digitally record the behaviour of their pupils and provides them with an ideal seating chart to minimise disruption in the classroom. Over 350,000 teachers now use the software for more than four-million pupils. Edukey has also developed Provision Map to help special educational needs coordinators stay organised, reduce workload and track provisions and interventions for their pupils.
This success led to the acquisition by TES and later the 2017 Bett award in the ICT Leadership and Management Solutions category.
Duncan said: “We never sought out for Edukey to be acquired. I did a presentation to the CIO of Pearson about four years ago and, when she left Pearson, she brought us to the attention of TES. TES are the most respected business in education, with around eight million members throughout the world, so the acquisition opens up huge opportunities for Edukey on a global scale.
“We’re also really pleased to win the Bett award. As far as the education and teaching goes, it’s THE award to win in the world. It’s like the Oscars of the education sector.”
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