Our history

From ambitious beginnings as the Centre for British Teachers in 1968 to today’s Education Development Trust, a major force in education improvement on a global scale – under the leadership of Patrick Brazier, we remain focussed on our mission to transform lives by improving education around the world.

Over 50 years in education

Founded in 1968, Education Development Trust celebrates over 50 years of transforming lives by improving education around the world this year. Over the half century, the organisation's name has changed along with our people and leadership but what has stayed the same? Our commitment to raising standards in education; our investment in education from revolutionising ELT in the 1970s and 1980s to our comprehensive programme of education research today; our charitable status and strong social purpose.

Our history in brief

Tony Abrahams founded the Centre for British Teachers in 1968 with the objective of helping British teachers working abroad. With activity centred in Germany, the organisation's vision was not only to recruit English teachers but also to offer them professional and welfare support within a structure that they would not otherwise have had.

Today, our range of services is far wider but we are still renowned for our English language teaching expertise; our centre of excellence is in Brunei where we work closely with the government to deliver a bilingual education in all government schools.

Expanding international operations

The appointment of Neil McIntosh in 1991 marked a new era for the organisation that had become a registered charity in 1976. Previously chief executive of Voluntary Service Overseas, Neil saw the potential for international operations and steered the organisation with a new mission: to contribute to education in developing countries. Throughout the 1990s, we developed our expertise as a manager of aid-backed reform programmes in developing countries. The result is that today, CfBT Education Trust is uniquely experienced in aspects of education reform and in the relationship between public and private sectors in education.

UK operations

The charity won its first contract in the UK in 1993, successfully bidding to manage school inspections on behalf of Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills). Today, our expertise in inspections is world renowned.

We continued to expand our UK operations delivering the Labour government's Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, teaching in young offender institutions and offering careers guidance services. In 1999 and still under Neil McIntosh's direction, CfBT acquired its first school which marked a new departure and today Education Development Trust owns a portfolio of fee-paying schools in the UK and South Africa. To reflect the organisation's diverse portfolio of global activity, the name, Centre for British Teachers, officially changed to CfBT Education Trust in 2006.

In November 2012, Steve Munby took over as chief executive. Steve, former chief executive of the National College for School Leadership, kept the teacher-learner relationship at the heart of everything that we do and lead the organisation forward to fulfil our mission of living in a world where everyone's life can be transformed through excellent education.

Patrick Brazier as Chief Executive

In August 2017, Patrick Brazier took over as Chief Executive; Patrick joined Education Development Trust in 2013 as International Director before becoming Education Services Director overseeing programmes in the UK and around the world. Before joining Education Development Trust, Patrick worked with the British Council for 23 years; he is expert in programme leadership and the management of multiple large-scale projects across wide and diverse geographies. Under his leadership, Education Development Trust will continue to work with governments and policymakers to help ensure that a quality education is available to all.

From CfBT to Education Development Trust

We changed our name from CfBT Education Trust to Education Development Trust in January 2016. CfBT was established in 1968; since then we have done an amazing amount of great work and we are proud that our international growth has continued from a strong starting point. Due to this growth and diversification of our expertise, the name CfBT is no longer representative of who we are or what we do. We are delighted to bring all the best of CfBT – our people, our experience, our ethos and our expertise – to our new company name, Education Development Trust.