Ambition Institute Reviews

I worked at Ambition, and its legacy organisations for over 7 years. In my final 2 years, they treated me dreadfully, and I can’t recommend enough that you do everything you can to avoid working there. There are several issues I want to draw attention too, many of which have been touched upon by other posters: 1. Toxic culture since the merger Since the merger of Ambition School Leadership and Institute of Teaching, there has been a dreadful culture. Of course, it is hard to unite opposing ideologies (even intentionally!), but instead, IfT began by being oppositional to Ambition School Leadership. In particular, IfT staff were encouraged to view Ambition School Leadership staff critically, which planted seeds amongst the IfT staff not to trust Ambition staff, and to view their work as sub-par. When I have worked with individuals in many instances, I built good relationships. However, the bad culture still exists between these teams- namely: the current design team and the programmes that fall under the 'teaching' programmes umbrella vs all other teams within the organisation. These teams work with the rest of the organisation in a conflictual manner, either micromanaging work, advising on areas outside of their expertise, or trying to take on responsibilities that doesn't sit within their functions. 2. No viable operating model, or organisational strategy The organisation has been running into a deficit each year (which you can see publically on companies house). In spite of this, there has been no clear strategy to address this. These issues lead to continual organisational restructures (3 in the last 2 years), where senior staff are protected and junior staff let go, in spite of where there is evidence to the contrary about who does the work. E.g. the School Partnerships team removed all junior-level postings this year, with no evidence on why this was a better model. 3. Incompetent CEO Hilary has shown absolutely no organisational leadership since joining the organisation and is clearly out of her depth. For a while, it was hoped that she was holding her cards to her chest while finding her feet, but unfortunately, she has not made decisive action on any area and continued to oversee an organisation with no model, and a terrible culture. Only with new leadership can Ambition improve. 4. Unethical & incompetent HR This year my job was coming to an end, as it was a maternity cover contract. The organisation decided to place me in a redeployment pool, which means any suitable role that came up, I would be considered first as a candidate. When a new hire was announced one day, I asked HR why I hadn’t been able to apply for the role, they told me the internal intranet post, was the first they had heard of the vacancy, and said it was ‘out of their hands’. I was then called by an exec director who explained it was just a ‘3 month’ posting, which is why it didn’t go through due process. This was in direct contradiction to the postholder, who said in a call with me that she was expected to be here until December (9 months at the time- going well beyond my contract end date). This postholder is still employed. When I complained formally about this, I was lied to repeatedly by HR and leadership. The complaint put me out of favor of the organisation, and when suitable posts did come up, the process was predetermined so that I was unsuccessful. When I emailed Hilary to discuss these issues she ignored me on several occasions. Whilst there is one particular good HR employee (Janine) and perhaps others in HR are trying to influence the organisation to do better, the fact that the organisational leadership is not listening to the advice of HR (or the law), nor providing enough resource for it (for instance they have not backfilled the role of HR director) shows how little they respect HR. Now when you read this, you may just think I am a ‘disgruntled’ employee, but it is not just me that feels this way. The results of the staff survey that came out this year compared us with other charities. Across most metrics we were in the bottom quartile, yet Ambition took no action to respond to the feedback.

You don't make a difference The teachers do. You'll spend your day ordering dominos pizza, printing name labels and having an existential crisis. Internal selections are a joke A competency framework which is designed to get the best person for the job is gospel. It means people with far more experience lose out to those who memorise the framework because they aren't jumping through hoops. Don't believe me? Look at the CVs of those in some AD positions and management positions and find enough experience to justify the taxpayer-paid salary. Oxbridge and lack of experience in the type of schools we work with Going to Oxford or Cambridge will guarantee you at least a management position. A huge proportion of senior staff went there. Going to Oxbridge shouldn't disqualify you from rising to the top of an organisation, but there is an air of elitism about the place. Very little internal social mobility. Lack of experience, particularly at management level Compare the job requirements here with similar positions Teach First. Where more senior positions are concerned, it's down to the competency framework meaning people who memorise it get promoted. Having so many people who haven't set foot in a classroom since they were a child working for an education charity is embarrassing. Some Area Directors have no experience in the fields which they are leading. Incompetent HR Procedures are broken left, right and centre. I've lost count of how many people have been put on the wrong tax code. We have a huge HR department for an organisation our size. Pay is trash for associates So you know this when you apply, but you're also told about how quickly you'll rise up internally. Recently a welcome pay rise was given, but the better paid you already were, the greater % increase you got. The average pay in the UK is £27,000 and there are people with masters degrees on £20,000 at Ambition with no internal progression. Management is oblivious Cake, [well meaning] wellbeing champions, discussion groups that produce nothing and working groups which have no impact are no match for low pay, lack of internal progression and no autonomy You cannot progress on the high quality of your work alone. No, I don't really want to be part of several working groups which will take hours out of my week where I (as a lowly associate) will be ignored just so I can secure a more position I'm qualified to get. I'm on £20,000 a year with low morale. One rule for management People are made ADs with no assessment centre and expenses (particularly train tickets) are frequently misspent. Ambition spends an obscene amount on travel, and some senior staff are reluctant to travel on off-peak times.