Not many people have heard of London Institute of Business and Technology (LIBT), although many will walk past its sign every day.

Its offices are in Douglas across the road from the Government ‘wedding cake’ building and opposite The Prospect pub.

The LIBT is a higher education organisation with its headquarters here in the Isle of Man.

It opened the HQ two years ago and offers online courses to adult learners in tech subjects, business management, and the security space, which the organisation strives to make as accessible and affordable as possible.

Besides UCM, it’s the only other higher education entity on the Isle of Man and the only private education provider.

I met up with CEO Sesiri Pathirane – well-dressed in a suit matching the colours of LIBT’s navy blue brand and a naturally friendly chap - to find out more.

‘We’ve been established on the Island for just over two years.

The company was founded in Thailand, and we worked very closely with UK universities, so we knew we’d eventually have to move to the UK,’ he told me when I asked about the company’s origin story.

‘We came across the Isle of Man and fell in love with the place.’

LIBT delivers diploma level courses - levels 4 and 5 at bachelor’s degree level and level 7 if it’s a master’s programme. When I asked Sesiri about the courses, he wanted to make clear what the priority of the organisation is.

‘We aim to have very affordable education to make it as accessible as possible’, he told me, ‘And we aim to find the best lecturers possible. We don’t really believe in having full time lecturers because if you really want to teach somebody what’s relevant in the industry, you should actually be practicing that. So, all the lecturers we’ve got are basically professionals that are practicing at the moment.’

With the company still in its early years, I asked Sesiri what he sees in LIBT’s future.

‘Moving forward, what we would like to see is an environment in the Isle of Man where we can regulate degree offerings. I think it’s incredibly important because the country predominantly is depending on a lot of e-gaming and gambling sectors, and the financial services. A lot of smaller nations like Malta and Gibraltar have taken this change in approach and been very successful at it.’

But Sesiri’s passion for making education more accessible goes beyond the confining waters of the Irish Sea.

‘Education is the fundamental issue to pretty much all the problems globally. If you can enable a quality education at an affordable fee globally – not just the West but for students in developing countries too – if we don’t, I don’t think we’ll be able to solve global problems.’

Besides making higher education as accessible as possible – not only financially but also in terms of locals not feeling like they have to leave the Island to access courses - the company also puts a strong emphasis on young people and helping them live up to their potential. Proving they’re not all talk, this message was made tangible as LIBT recently acted as the Headline Partner for (Media Isle of Man’s) Gef 30 Under 30 2024 – a campaign celebrating local young innovators and future leaders - and, on top of that, sponsored the Achievement category.

‘If we can get young graduates to go through a start-up experience when they’re beginning their careers, I think that changes them drastically because there are no hierarchies like you get in corporate settings and communication is less filtered and I think that really helps innovation and that really builds their character as well.’

Listening to Sesiri, I got the impression he was speaking from the heart and passionately believed in the power young people can have around the world if they’re able to access the educational tools they need.

‘One of the key messages I want to give to the local community is that we need to think global. If you’re an entrepreneur, or small / medium scale business / aspiring start up founder, the Isle of Mans shouldn’t be your sole market because the opportunities are very global. We need to figure out ways to build product on the Island because that creates the true wealth. We need to inspire young adults to take risks and build things and it’s completely okay to fail. Just because you’ve failed in a start-up doesn’t mean you’re a failure in life.’