About us

At Purlos, our aim is to ensure that students in further education colleges are given the necessary support needed to continue to develop important skills that will allow them integrate and contribute to society. In other words, we are facilitators of the future generation of society builders.

We have identified a critical problem in the education system where colleges are struggling to convert student applications. This should never be the case in a society that is determined to progress. This is our main drive. Our mission is to assist 1 million college students with a high drop-out risk remain for the entirety of their educational programme. We want to achieve this by 2025.

Purlos seeks to play an integral role in helping colleges fill every seat and their ability to pre-empt any potential shortage in student enrolment. We will provide them with the support to plan ahead and prioritise the needs of their students. We have identified a lack of guidance in choosing the right courses and a lack of belonging as the top reasons why students drop out. In addition to these, we also found that disadvantaged students are the most hit, as they usually have family and mental needs that need to be catered to as soon as they are spotted.

Our drive to increase enrolment in FE colleges is a personal one

Founder, David Bartlett, experienced the same as a young undergraduate studying Business Management with Entrepreneurship. He was not entirely sure what he wanted to do, or whether he wanted to pursue a career that was in line with what he studied in the university. He couldn’t tell if he was having any impact on what he wanted to do and on the society. As a result, he lost many years trying to find the right path, and not just the one that was predetermined by the world. 

As a result of this experience, David made the decision to pursue a life that is focused on contribution to growth and ensuring that the younger ones do not go through what he went through. He discovered that the problem starts from formal education and also identified how it can set a person on the wrong trajectory. In 2019, he resigned from his job and embarked on this journey to provide a solution. Having acquired enough product skill to begin his investigation into the problem, he teamed up with co-founders Mo Salam and Divya Prashanth, and Purlos became a reality.   

Keeping colleges focused on the most important thing – their students.

As the world is structured today, whenever there is a global crisis, colleges are usually one of the most affected. Colleges are struck with uncertainty of whether they have the capacity to teach remotely and conduct exams. And this is something that we want to help with. If colleges were provided with the capacity to predict enrolment and dropouts, planning will be easier. This is where Purlos comes in. 

Our main concerns are as follows: 

• Do the colleges have infrastructure that can support enrolment, admissions and working from home as well?
• Will colleges be able to meet their admissions quota to be able to support them when there is a change in student’s behaviour or grades? 

We are offering an effective approach to building capacity

Our company is the only start-up that is focused on student retention in FE colleges. We have conducted a series of extensive research to understand this problem and provide solutions through numerous strategies.

We investigate the problems and provide actionable insights into why there is a high number of drop-outs. We are offering the FE colleges the following:

1. By maximising student capacity and ensuring that they are more robust to absorb shocks from last minute dropouts

2. Develop informed retention strategies for early intervention and to reduce churn

3. Build optimal student journeys for early engagement during the admission process

Going beyond technology

Our commitment to solving this problem goes beyond using technology for technology sake. We are more interested in using our tech stack in the most strategic way, including communication tools like Whatsapp and FB Messenger. Also, our AI chatbot has been humanised to create a better interaction.

We have a solid team of experts who are charged about creating solutions, especially in conversational design. This is part of our strategy to add the human element to the communication, which will enable us to create campaigns for colleges. This will help them design journeys that will nudge the students to the right path, while obtaining feedback which is the main ingredient needed to successfully retain them.

Our in-house data scientist helps us make sense of all the data points we gather in the process which gives colleges actionable insights and a window for early intervention.

With Purlos, the future is bright indeed 

Purlos is all about the future generation and ensuring that they get the best education. There is a lot of work to be done to improve enrolment and reduce dropouts in FE colleges. Purlos will make this possible. 

Purlos is determined to build a future where disadvantaged students are given a fighting chance to become successful in their academics and develop the skills needed to contribute to the society. We want to increase the percentage of enrolment by ensuring that colleges have the capacity to make staying and enjoying formal education possible, and to give more students the chance to pursue careers that will give their lives purpose. 

Currently, our main focus is on early engagement with students. This will enable us to understand their sentiments and the things that they are interested in. By understanding what the students really want, we will be able to design personalised admission processes. 

Purlos has a growing team of people based in London and we are ready to help. 

• 50% Income Tax relief – current year, or carry back 1 year
• CGT exemption after 3 years or more
• CGT Reinvestment relief – 50% relief (up to 14% CGT saving)
• Income Tax loss relief – up to 82.5% underwritten by tax
• Limits – £150k per company, £100k per individual per annum
• IHT Business Property relief