Beyond the Classroom: Arif Mohid’s Mission to Empower Through Education

An Oldham teacher and entrepreneur spoke about going from a “mediocre” student in school to gaining a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and educating thousands of children along the way.

Arif Mohid, was raised in the Glodwick estate of Oldham. His family owned a shop in the heart of the bustling Bangladeshi-Pakistani community. He was brought up above the shop where his family used to live.

His story stands as a beacon of perseverance, hope and the transformative power of education.

He says: “I wasn’t in top sets while I was at school; I was kind of average although I was a hardworking student. I was predicted to get very low grades, but I turned things around. From being predicted D’s and C’s I managed to get some of the best results in the school. I was in the top five. I gained six A’s and four B’s which was very good at that time.

“I had planned to do a vocational course in engineering but after getting my exceptional results I was persuaded to do A-levels with the aim of eventually studying engineering at degree level.”

The first year at college was difficult because he struggled with Maths as it wasn’t his strong point. His academic achievements are all the more impressive as he suffers with dyscalculia – a difficulty in understanding numbers which can lead to a diverse range of difficulties with Mathematics.

“I had to work super hard and also had to help my dad at our shop after college. I would practice maths on the back of any spare leaflets I found between serving customers. I eventually managed to pass all my A-levels with grade A’s across the board including in the challenging subjects of Maths, Chemistry and Electronics,” he adds. “I defied the expectations of my teachers and peers”

It was a huge achievement getting an A in A-level Maths. He went on to study Aerospace Engineering at the University of Manchester. He gained a Master’s Level degree four years later.

“After completing the Master’s I decided to do a PGCE in Maths as I found that I enjoyed teaching because I taught Karate at the time. I knew I was good at teaching as I had a knack for it.”

Arif has two black belts in Karate after starting the martial art when he was 14. He ended up travelling to classes in Rochdale every Saturday morning; he did that throughout his teenage years while he was studying. Eventually, he qualified as an instructor in his late-teens.

“While I was doing the PGCE, my tuition business was born. Initially I would present lessons at the back of the shop in a makeshift classroom,” Arif says.

“In Glodwick, many youngsters had low aspirations but they were bright and had a lot of potential. I recognised this and taught a few kids for free in my makeshift ‘classroom’ and it just grew from there organically. Slowly, parents started to notice that my students were doing something productive rather than hanging out on street corners.

“These experiences made me realise that I could make a difference, so I got a job at Radclyffe school where I taught Maths for 12 years.

“Aim High tuition grew from these humble beginnings. I used all my savings and my mum helped as well to invest in the setting up of Aim High Tuition. We eventually moved to a bigger premises and later opened branches in Rochdale and Hyde. When Covid arrived I invested heavily in learning online marketing skills as it was a time to adapt quickly to be able to help more students across the entire UK at a time when children were missing out on their education.

“Now, 85% of our students are not even from Oldham. We have children from across the country including London and Scotland.

He says: “I had to push myself because I wasn’t as lucky as the students in the top sets. I had to work extra hard, I struggled with time as well as I had to help at our shop after classes. Being the only son I had a lot of responsibilities so I had to be efficient; I’d study while working at the shop. I remember having to wake up at 5am each day to study and make up time.”

He enjoys seeing his students progress to a higher level and helping them to “fulfil their potential.”

“Through Aim High we are currently helping over 300 students. But in total over the years we have taught thousands.”

He is working on a project called ‘Aim 1 Million.’ The idea is to help one million people, including children and older people, across the world. It will be a movement to educate 1 million people whether in a poor country or anywhere in the world.

“Aim High was born as I wanted to give back to the community, and I wanted children to fulfil their potential. I wanted to be the medium to channel their abilities and achieve great things as many of them have done since,” says Arif.

For him, giving back to the community means the community can “grow” and be “stronger and empowered.” The future generation have to be leaders in positions of power rather than being stuck in average jobs. Muslims, he believes, have to be at the forefront of not only medicine, law and accounting but also the media so they can have a global reach.

He asks: “Our elders came to the UK and set up systems whether it was businesses or close-knit communities. Since then, what have we contributed? What big changes have we made?”

He believes education and imparting knowledge is a “form of charity” as it empowers people to go on and do amazing things.

“The ethos of Islam is to develop yourself and become better, become leaders and be successful. Over the years, unfortunately, we have become backbenchers. In the past, Muslims were at the forefront of technology, education, poetry, literature and more.  If we were at the forefront now we wouldn’t have the issues we have now,” he adds.

He advises that young people shouldn’t worry about making mistakes. If they fail, they should learn from it. A lot of people think everything should be perfect the first time round. Take the “first step,” he adds, then “refine” afterwards.

“You will never get to the perfect stage on your first go. Be prepared to fail as that will help you to ultimately grow and succeed,” he says. “We need more role models that young people can look up to. We need successful people who are in a good financial situation because this is what many youngsters ultimately aspire to. We need role models in every field.”