The students had been promised that Shaylor would pay their fees, but it never did.
The case was exposed by Louise Anderson, a quantity surveyor who worked for Shaylor for eight years until moving to Stepnell in March. She took to the LinkedIn social media platform to express her outrage: “Absolutely disgusted to find out Shaylor Group haven’t paid the last years university fees for their employees undertaking degree courses, lots have now found out they cannot graduate unless they pay several thousand pounds within the next week!”
She added: “One of these students happens to have been my trainee who has bust her gut to achieve a first class degree only to find out this news weeks before her graduation. Fuming is an understatement! This is young people’s careers they have impacted! Disgusting!”
Her post attracted hundreds of supportive comments, most sharing her outrage. But there was some positive news: Keir Edmonds, managing director of Claverdon-based contractor MCS Group, has offered to pay £10,000 towards the fees of Louise Anderson’s trainee – “such a kind offer and very gratefully received,” Ms Anderson said, “– means we have £4k to find and the fees are paid and the graduation is back on.”
Some of those posting online said that such a thing would never have been allowed to happen in old Fred’s day. Fred Shaylor, who set up the business in Walsall in 1970, died in 2013. Since then his children have sought to grow the business, with turnover up 75% in three years. Despite making good profits last year, the company ran out of cash and on Monday morning, 17th June 2019, Raj Mittal and Tony Barrell, partners at FRP Advisory LLP, were appointed joint administrators of Shaylor Group Limited.
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