How we Started

Liberty Training was established in 2013 as a training provider delivering employability and life skills for young people seeking employment, education or training.

The courses we offered grew from 6 weeks to 30 weeks to meet the demand of our learners who didn't want to leave! We added more qualifications including maths and English functional skills, and of course- more activities.

In 2017, all our hard work paid off when we became a Specialist Post-16 Institution (SPI), and a registered Section 41 provider.

We can now offer up to a 2 year programme for learners with an Education, Health and Care Plan. For more info, see our Extra Support page and our Courses page.

More about our founders

Our founders, Michelle Smith and Jojo Rassekh, decided to start Liberty Training due to the high demand for alternative training courses for young people in East Kent. They believed that their combined knowledge, skills and experience would help them to develop and facilitate fun, informative training courses for young people.

Michelle and Jojo aimed to set up a training company that would meet the individual needs of each learner, and embrace each learner's unique personality, while helping them to achieve qualifications and progress into employment.

The founders knew that they had accumulated a large amount of training, qualifications and experience throughout their careers, and had a burning desire to help individuals achieve the most out of their lives.

So, after months of planning this incredible new business venture, they both quit their jobs on the same day, and Liberty Training was born!

Michelle Smith

Michelle started Liberty Training with over 10 years' experience in working with children and young people, in schools, care settings and for CXK/Connexions.

Passionate about helping others, Michelle has dedicated her career to making a difference in people's lives. She organised and ran courses for NEET young people (not in employment, education or training), and worked with them on a one to one basis, helping them to progress into employment, education or training, and she has experience in management roles.

Jojo Rassekh

Jojo started Liberty Training with 6 years' experience working with children and young people in care environments. Jojo also worked for 10 years as a fire-fighter and in security work.

Jojo's career choices are born out of wanting to help other people. He has managed an outreach support service for children in care which gave him skills needed to set up and run Liberty Training.