'Beardy upstart' plans technology school after quitting as David Cameron's adviser

One of David Cameron’s former technology advisers is planning to open a free school for disadvantaged children to train up the next generation of internet pioneers.

Benjamin Southworth, 32, was picked by No 10 to build links with the start-up business community around Old Street’s “Silicon Roundabout” — but stood down as deputy chief executive of the Tech City initiative in June.

Mr Southworth, who described his time working for the Government as “National Service”, said he now wants to address the skills shortage he says is apparent in the UK.

He aims to produce “digitally savvy, business savvy wannabe entrepreneurs” who will be equally prepared for university or the jobs market, having developed industry contacts and gained “a footing in the reality” of working as a tech start-up. Mr Southworth, who described himself as a “beardy, sweary, non-suit-wearing upstart”, said he had been through “sanity-checking processes”, including speaking with the Greater London Authority and Hackney council, before deciding to pursue his plans.

The school would take about 30  16 to 19-year-olds and is provisionally called the Ada Lovelace Academy, after poet Lord Byron’s daughter who is credited with being the world’s first-ever computer programmer and was friends with technology pioneer Charles Babbage who worked on developing the world’s first computer.

Mr Southworth said the facility, which he hopes to open in Hackney within 18 months, would be based on the Harkness model of education practised at the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, where students and teachers exchange ideas and information around a table.

It would focus on design, business and programming, and involve a lot of debate and conversation, as well as practical projects. “There is a lot of potential for exciting ideas. It is a great framework to experiment with education, to do what I want within reason, as long as parents and students are happy,” he said.

Details of how success and failure rates could be assessed were still “being discussed”, as was the board of governors.

Mr Southworth said no one should feel excluded from applying: “There will be interviews, application processes, but I want it to be as open as possible — you can’t discriminate.”

He is meeting the New Schools Network next month before submitting his formal application next May.

A Department for Education spokesman said free schools were “challenging the status quo and providing innovative opportunities for local children.”