A UK business specialising in educational placements and overseas study experiences for international clients has been offering up its accommodation portfolio for key workers – as Covid-19 means business as usual has evaporated.
Anglo Educational Services is ensuring NHS staff can stay away from home if needed in central London and use laundry and cooking facilities in a comfortable central location.
“We’re now up to [hosting] over 30 people, ranging from nurses and doctors to firemen who are volunteering as ambulance drivers,” CEO of AES, Steve Lowy, told The PIE News.
He explained that word had spread through the key worker community about AES’s offer: “I think a lot of people got placed in hotels, which is fine, for a couple of weeks. But if that isolating from their family for two months… they can now cook, they can wash their clothes.”
The company is also working with other international education partners to deliver care packages of food and wine to those workers staying with them.
A MASSIVE “THANK YOU” to @Billg1 , @lfboyd & Samir Zaveri for all your generous gifts that we are today placing into the apartments of the “Keyworker Superheroes” we have staying with us across London. It really is amazing how generous and caring both th…https://t.co/yjktGUaoqv
— Steve Lowy (@SteveLowy) April 17, 2020
“To be able to give physically something to someone to say thank you, I think is is pretty powerful,” related Lowy. Those also supporting include AIFS and BMI.
The businessman is also letting homeless people use a hotel property in Brighton while his team are also busy developing online internships as an alternative to internship products that they usually offer.
“I’ve tried to keep my staff active,” he said. “We have almost 50 companies already signed up [to take virtual placements], working with seven of our university partners.”
Lowy revealed that AES also managed a luxury location called The Residence which was also nearly full at present, some with businesspeople who had been caught out by travel bans and unable to return to their home countries.
Some international students who had felt uncomfortable remaining in student housing during the lockdown period had also moved into this high-end accommodation, “taking our studios or one-beds”.
AES moved into larger London premises earlier this year, as reported on The PIE.
