An Apprentice hopeful fired in the first episode is being paid more than £3,600 to give a motivational speech to teachers at Scotland’s flagship education conference.
Jaz Ampaw-Farr was sacked by Lord Sugar in the 2013 series but, since then, the former teacher has developed a successful career as a motivational speaker.
Ms Ampaw-Farr is among the keynote speakers at the Scottish Learning Festival in September, organised by Education Scotland, the Scottish Government agency tasked with improving the education system.
Education Minister John Swinney and Education Scotland chief executive Gayle Gorman will also give speeches at the event.
Education Scotland has confirmed Ms Ampaw-Farr will be paid £3,600 for the speech, with an additional expenses budget of up to £550.
Ms Ampaw-Farr, a one-time stand-up comedian and self-described “resilience ninja”, was born into poverty and suffered physical and sexual abuse.
She believes her life was turned around by teachers and believes schools should be encouraged to give all children the opportunity to surpass what is expected of them because of their backgrounds.
She has questioned a growing emphasis on social-based data to set targets for children and schools, saying: “The irony is that teachers know who needs support and who doesn’t.
“Their decisions aren’t based on data relating to average learners belonging to a particular race, sex or class but on investing time building relationships, establishing expectations and setting challenges.
“Based on data, I believed I would never succeed; I would always get stuck and fail. Based on data, I believed, I was worthless. I was lucky to have a handful of teachers who disagreed.”
In her pitch to become Lord Sugar’s apprentice, she claimed that she was the “Brad Pitt of the teacher training industry…a top dog, looking for new pastures”.
However, Lord Sugar did not agree and fired her after just one task, citing her “bad organisation”.
Yesterday, the Scottish Liberal Democrat’s children and young people spokeswoman and former head teacher Carole Ford questioned Education Scotland’s decision to bring in the motivational speaker.
She said: “Scottish teachers do not lack motivation. What they need is the government to focus on ensuring they have the support and resources they need to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.”
Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liz Smith also criticised the decision to pay Ms Ampaw-Farr more than £3,000 to speak at the conference.
The former teacher, who is now an MSP, said: “I suspect parents might question the cost of this invitation however inspirational the speaker may be.
“Scottish Government agencies have to be very mindful of how they spend taxpayers’ money, especially when many schools are struggling for basic resources.”
Education Scotland defended the decision, saying their were not paying above the going rate for guest speakers: “Attracting top-quality speakers such as Ms Ampaw-Farr to the SLF gives a major professional learning boost to attendees, and we strongly believe that taking the opportunity to provide Scotland’s educators with access to Ms Ampaw-Farr’s expertise and knowledge is well worth the financial outlay.”
The Post asked to speak to Ms Ampaw-Farr before the event but the request was declined. Claire Rackham, Inspirational Speakers Manager at inspirationalspeakers.co.uk said: “Jaz would be happy to be interviewed post event in regards to her keynote speech.”
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