OBV Profile: Ali Hadawi

Iraqi-born Ali Hadawi is the principal of Southend Adult Community College who has a simple yet powerful agenda, Ali believes that social cohesion is only attainable once the barriers to learning have been completely dismantled.

"These barriers start with the self. Each person has to acknowledge that the solution to their aspirations lies in them improving their skill level and most importantly working out, for themselves, how they can best learn". He explained.

"Society, Government and the local community, all have a profound impact on social cohesion in enabling all individuals to attain that level of understanding about themselves and the way they develop". He continued.

Ali also believes that learning does not have to take place in a "learning factory", be it school, college or university. He says, these factories are well placed to enable large numbers of the population to learn and progress but they are not the only means, nor are they equipped to be the only learning environment for the whole of society.

This underlying belief guides much of Ali's dynamics when running his College. He interacts at all levels with the Local Authority, individuals, schools, employers, the Learning and Skills Council, community and voluntary sector groups with one aim in mind, to offer a learning package that is fit for purpose.

Ali's success in transforming Southend Adult Community College has made the College a place of choice for many. He expanded many aspects of the College's curriculum and placed it in a strong position to deliver to its local community.

As the first and only Arab principal of a UK college, Ali Hadawi has been instrumental in rebuilding Iraq's depleted further education system, using his senior leadership expertise of working in British colleges.

Ali is also the vice-chairman of the Iraq Steering Group of UK further education organisations, 'Rawabit'. A project which is currently supporting a UK-wide initiative to develop further education in Iraq, in an effort to equip the country with the vocational skills it needs to rebuild its dented infrastructure.

"The programme essentially focuses on rethinking the models for leadership and management and the delivery of the vocational education sector in Iraq,' explains Ali. 'However, it's not about lecturing leaders and managers of that sector on how they should be doing their job."

Iraq's education system was once one of the most thriving in the Middle East. But after years of UN-imposed economic sanctions, two Gulf Wars and the more recent US invasion, many of Iraq's 27 million people have become impoverished. According to Ali, no two things could do more to improve the population's quality of life than an improvement in the economy and a reduction in the levels of violence and insecurity, which will only be brought about through the education and skills training of the Iraqi people.

Until the 1980s the education system in Iraq was well regarded, but it deteriorated as public funding was siphoned off for military use. An analysis by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recently found an urgent need to review the vocational curriculum.

"If you train workers who do not have the necessary skills to take jobs this will have an impact on the economy and the security situation in Iraq. At the moment if you're a young person who can't get a job and don't have the skills to re-engage and if someone offers you a handful of dollars to kill someone or set a bomb off then that will look like a viable offer. But if a person has a job and aspirations for the future then the prospect of him or her blowing themselves up or causing someone else's death would be less plausible."

Ali was one of eight children who grew up in the once prosperous city of Babylon. He came to Britain in 1984 as an international learner, to further his academic studies. After obtaining a degree in electronics and computer engineering from Birmingham University, he worked his way up the ladder taking countless positions in the education and IT industry sectors before his appointment as principal.

Between 1997 and 2002, he took a break from education to set up his own IT company, but returned to the field to take up the post of learning area manager at Greenwich Community College. He was later promoted to vice-principal of the college.

With further education in the UK being challenged to be more responsive to employer and individual need, Ali successfully transferred the entrepreneurial skills he developed in the private sector to his current role to future proof the College.

"I've brought business acumen to my role as a college principal, which has helped to transform the way the college runs. Bringing a business like attitude to running an adult community college has the benefit of making it more client focussed and ensuring better prospects for the future, in terms of what we can offer to our local community."

As for his own future - Ali may feel nostalgic when he thinks of his home country, but maintains that he can do more to boost Iraq's regeneration efforts while acting as an intermediary in the UK than back home.