Status: charity

Head office: Reading, Berkshire

Services offered: Education in developing countries, English as a foreign language, careers services, teacher training, partner in Lambeth education action zone, manages National Literacy and Numeracy Centre for DFEE, general education services

Established: 1965

Managing director: Neil McIntosh (pictured above), former national director of Shelter

Annual turnover: Pounds 38 million

Staff: 900 worldwide

Mission: Commitment to education to enable individuals, institutions and communities to make better informed choices and broaden their opportunities

Education Personnel Management

Status: Limited company

Location: Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

Services offered: Personnel, consultancy, advice, training on all aspects of human resources and management

Established: 1993

Directors: Maureen Cooper, former Cambridgeshire education officer and secondary teacher.

Bev Curtis (pictured above), former Cambridgeshire assistant director education and NUT regional official

Annual turnover: Pounds 1 million

Staff: 20

Mission: Helping schools to manage better to improve thequality of teaching and learning

Nord Anglia Education

Status: publicly listed company

Headquarters: Cheadle, Cheshire

Services: Teaching English as a second language in several countries, local authority careers services, consultancy, owns and operates independent schools in United Kingdom and abroad, runs day care nurseries, accountancy tuition and publishing, business and vocational degrees

Established:1972

Chairman: Kevin J McNeany(pictured above)

Annual turnover: Pounds 40 million

Staff: 1,500

Mission: Offering an educational service “from cradle to career’’

TimePlan Education Group

Status: commercial

Head office: London

Services offered: Supply teaching, teacher recruitment, consultancy

Established:1989

Managing director: Tish Seabourne, former political researcher and local authority adviser.

Director of education: Chris King (pictured above), former senior teacher.

Chairman: Ian Penman, computer software background

Annual turnover: Pounds 18 million

Staff: 78 worldwide

Ethos: To provide quality of education and be the safe pair of hands in the classroom

Edison UK

Status: Parent company, Edison Project in the United States, commercial. Edison UK to be set up if bids to run UK schools are successful

Head office: New York

Services offered: Management services to state schools. Edison Project runs 51 state schools in US. UK consultants are James Tooley, professor of education policy at Newcastle University, and education consultant Andrew Turner

Established: 1991

Founder and president: Chris Whittle, media entrepreneur, owned US television station. Chief executive: Benno Schmidt (pictured above) Ethos: To offer systematic help to teachers to deliver the best available curriculum

The Capita Group

(Capita Education Services)

Status: FTSE 250 company

Head office: London

Services offered: Software and support services, management information systems, financial management, personnel, payroll, pensions, administrative support, educational consultancy andtraining

Established: Formed within CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance Administration) in 1984

Chairman and chief executive: Rodney Aldridge (pictured above), former local government officer

Annual turnover: Pounds 170 million

Staff: 5,000 (UK) including 200 education specialists