Our Team
Three people run the school. Their qualifications, and what each of them is responsible for, are below.
Ali
Ali Fraz Khan
Principal and Head of Centre
FHEA · PgCert HE · MCT · AZ-204 · AZ-400 · AZ-104
Ali is a Senior Lecturer in Computing with over eight years' experience in UK Higher Education. A Fellow of Advance HE and Microsoft Certified Trainer, he leads the school's academic delivery, quality assurance, safeguarding and compliance. He is also the school's Data Protection Officer and Prevent Lead.
He teaches from live industry practice: Azure, DevOps and AI engineering. Each programme is mapped back to the occupational standard it is written against, so what is taught is what the qualification is assessed on.
Khadija
Khadija Khan
Internal Quality Assurer and Internal Verifier
Internal Quality Assurer · Access Arrangements Coordinator
Khadija carries out internal quality assurance across the school's NCFE qualifications. She conducts sampling of every assessor each term, takes part in standardisation meetings, and supports direct claim status across all programmes.
She is the primary contact for NCFE's External Quality Assurer during EQA visits, and reviews all recognition of prior learning and reasonable adjustment applications.
Sheherbano
Sheherbano Khan
Registrar and Examinations Officer
Learner Support Lead · Marketing Lead · Work Placement Coordinator
Sheherbano manages all aspects of learner registration, NCFE Portal administration and certification claims. She is the first point of contact for learners on all administrative, support and technical matters, and oversees the school's examination logistics.
She monitors learner engagement through weekly VLE analytics, coordinates all IAG sessions, and manages the school's marketing communications and work placement programme.
How these roles check each other
We are a small centre, which means the separation between marking, quality assurance and the final word has to be written down rather than assumed. It is, and it is checked from outside the school.
- The person who marks your work is not the person who quality assures it. A separate internal quality assurer samples assessment decisions against the criteria and the specification, covering every assessor and every unit at least once a term. Every sample is logged and fed back in writing.
- An appeal is never reviewed by whoever made the decision. Somebody not involved in it reviews the appeal and gives you a written decision within ten working days.
- No decision of ours is the last word. If you are still dissatisfied once our internal stages are finished, NCFE considers the appeal themselves.
- NCFE quality assures this centre from outside it. Their external quality assurer is given learner portfolios, assessor decisions and our own internal quality assurance records. That check sits outside the school altogether, and it is the one that keeps our approval.
The full detail is in how assessment works and in DAIS-POL-001 Appeals.
Meet our AI team
Our admissions process is assisted by AI team members who help us respond quickly and consistently. They assess and recommend; a human admissions manager reviews their work and makes every final decision. You can always ask to speak to a person.
Ada AI
AI Admissions Reviewer
AI persona, named after Ada Lovelace
Ada is our AI Admissions Reviewer. She carries out the first assessment of every application against DAIS's published entry criteria, checking age and course-level eligibility, that the required documents are present, and that the application is complete and consistent. Ada produces a clear, evidence-based recommendation, but she never decides on her own: her assessment goes to our human admissions manager, who makes the final call.
Alan AI
AI Admissions Auditor
AI persona, named after Alan Turing
Alan is our AI Admissions Auditor. Working independently of Ada, he re-assesses each application from scratch and then compares his conclusion with hers: an adversarial second opinion designed to catch missed documents, borderline eligibility or inconsistencies. Like Ada, Alan only assesses and recommends; the human manager retains the final decision and is the only one who issues an offer.
Grace AI
AI Student Guide
AI persona, named after Grace Hopper
Grace is the friendly AI assistant behind "Talk to our AI" on our website. She answers questions about our NCFE qualifications, entry requirements, fees and how to apply, any time of day, and points you to a human colleague whenever you need one.
About these portraits: the images of Ada, Alan and Grace are computer-generated. They are not photographs, and they do not show real people.
UK GDPR, Article 22: No automated system makes a final admissions decision. Our AI members assist our human admissions team; a human admissions manager makes every offer. If you would like a human to review any AI assessment, please contact us. Our position on automated decision-making is set out at section 6.11 of our Data Protection Policy.
Work with us
We are a growing team. If you are an experienced data scientist, AI engineer or computing educator interested in associate tutoring or assessment roles, we would love to hear from you.