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      NCFE

      Engaged employer

      NCFE Reviews

      3.1

      51% would recommend to a friend

      (133 total reviews)
      avatar

      David Gallagher

      54% approve of CEO

      50% positive business outlook

      NCFE has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 133 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The NCFE employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      133 reviews
      2.0
      25 Nov 2022

      Poor management running it into ground

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Working from home Some good benefits

      Cons

      In recent years I would not recommend NCFE to a friend. The exec team have been allowed to run rampant, making bad business decisions and putting pressure on teams to give them what they want on a minutes notice, regardless of their workload. The CEO is surrounded by yes men who do not hold him accountable for his behaviour - he is constantly late to webinars he hosts, and frequently doesn’t turn up for meetings or events, expecting someone to cover for him at the last moment. Perhaps the most shocking of all is the comments he writes on his linked in - we are the leading AO in health and our CEO is publicly sharing anti vax views online. His comments in one staff webinar “if you don’t like it leave” were effective - people are leaving in droves and a recruitment freeze has meant the rest of us have had to pick up the extra workload. When asked about pay rises, the CEO/exec constantly peddle the same lines: we’re a charity so need to reinvest our money. Why they don’t see staff retention as investment is quite interesting. They also emphasize the bad financial situation they’re in but continue to buy new business to merge with like kids in a sweet shop. NCFE used to be a genuinely nice place to work five years ago however as wages stall and workload and expectations rise, with so many people across the business leaving for our competitors, it seems new leadership is needed.

      avatar
      NCFE Response
      3y
      Thank you for taking time to leave your review and we’re glad to hear that our flexible working and benefits package are working for you. At NCFE, we pride ourselves on having strong values and behaviours. Our values are an important element of who we are as a business, and they guide our actions: https://www.ncfe.org.uk/careers/our-values-and-behaviours/ We’re sorry to learn of your perceptions of our Exec team and CEO and would ask that you escalate any valid concerns to our Trustees as per the whistleblowing policy Regarding your views of our recent acquisition of AIQ, this was a decision taken to expand our reach and impact; combining the strengths of both organisations to help even more learners and communities. We encourage all colleagues to talk to us if they have concerns about any area of the business, and we send out engagement and pulse surveys every quarter (with subsequent practical action planning) to ensure every colleague’s voice is heard. You’re also welcome to speak directly with our Executive team at any time on a 121 basis, through our monthly Connection Days or at the Q&A at all colleague events. We also believe it’s important for colleagues to have the opportunity to speak up in a safe and confidential manner and we have a whistleblowing policy in place to enable you to do this, including the opportunity to speak to any of our Trustees to escalate issues. This includes your perceptions of our CEO and Exec, as mentioned above, should you wish to escalate any valid concerns.
      2.0
      21 Aug 2023

      Unfulfilled Promises and a Time For New Leadership

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      I've worked for the company a good few years now and from joining its always been a company that was flexible around life and things like childcare, such as being able to do the school run in/around work and making the time back later on in the day. I joined under the old CEO and at the time the company for all it was fairly large had the feel of a small close-knit company. People seemed to really know each other. Covid didn't really do that any favours with working remote however this small company vibe seems to exist and people are keen to still know each other and other teams. The company (until recently please see cons) always had a good internal growth and promotion. There are people within the business who started in very junior roles and progressed and excelled into really senior roles. For me that was a massive selling point when telling friends to apply, not many companies have/had that. Currently I still see it as a pro but with the upcoming internal changes I don't know if that's something they can still offer.

      Cons

      Regrettably, there are areas of NCFE's current state that cast a shadow over upcoming jobs losses and reshaping of the company. Due to multiple failings by the exec team the business, people are now going to lose their jobs. Even looking at this it seems a bit of a shambles. Core roles to teams are being removed but newly created positions that are very low on the value add have survived. Follow that up with pay has drifted miles off course. NCFE ran an embarrassing exercise last year to slot everyone into sector related pay bands which should have led to opportunities to understand the next pay increment and how as an employee I should reach the next increment. By the time the first bit was announced it was out of date, and the second piece has failed to arrive.

      avatar
      NCFE Response
      2y
      Thank you for taking the time to leave your review. We’re glad to see you’ve benefited from our flexible working and also recognise our fantastic colleague base, as well as the opportunities that have been available for growth, progression and development at NCFE. We understand that as NCFE goes through a period of proposed organisational changes to drive and enhance connectivity between teams and to ensure our future sustainability, this can cause uncertainty for colleagues. If you’d like to discuss any specifics on the proposed changes that are being implemented and are directly impacted, we’d advise you to feed your thoughts through your employee representative, as we do want to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. In terms of pay and reward, we’re sorry to hear of your disappointment with our pay bands. In August 2022 we introduced pay bands to create transparency for colleagues to progress through as part of their continuous professional development. We encourage all colleagues to take ownership for their personal development and our pay and reward policy outlines how you can progress through these bands. In reference to our leadership team, we understand how important this is to the success of the organisation and the wellbeing of our colleagues, and that’s why we benchmark our leadership capability annually and track on a quarterly basis through employee surveys. In 2023, our senior leadership team was rated as 85% favourable by colleagues, with 77% of our people saying they trust our Executive team to do what’s right for the organisation. Our Transformation programme, as you mention, is a long-term programme of change and in the last year, it’s delivered against some of its bigger milestones including a website integration, bringing together all qualifications, resources and specialist knowledge from the brands within NCFE into one central place, massively enhancing our customer experience. We’d encourage you to keep feeding back your thoughts, and we have a number of ways you can do this, including through our regular Hive surveys and their subsequent practical action planning. We also ask people to speak directly with our Executive team anytime on a 121 basis or through our monthly Connection Days and regular all-colleague events. We believe it’s important for colleagues to have the opportunity to speak up in a safe and confidential manner and therefore we remind you that we have a whistleblowing policy in place to enable you to do this, including the opportunity to speak to any of our Trustees to escalate issues.
      2.0
      1 Oct 2021

      Unbelievable for all the wrong reasons

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Remote/flexible working offered now as standard which can be seen as a benefit, although requests to work in the office don’t follow a consistent process - whatever they feel like on the day! Makes the relevant approvers feel important I suppose, but work/life balance and flexibility should be for all, not just for some! The company has expanded at a rate that it’s completely possible to sit with your feet up for days (if that’s your thing) as most people are unsure what you, or they, are meant to be doing. If senior management make any decisions about what should be done there’s a 99% chance it hasn’t been thought through at all and any work you have done will have been a waste of time as they will completely backtrack (most likely at the 11th hour). You’ll be able to use the absurd goings on as some great anecdotes for friends and family. Now lockdowns have lifted and we’re able to socialise more this will definitely come in handy! Honestly, even the most talented and creative writers couldn’t come up with this stuff. Some genuinely good people work here, however don’t mix them up with the sycophants who you will see incessantly posting and commenting on channels such as LinkedIn etc. Take your time and get to know people before you trust them as unfortunately the many incompetent decision makers in the business will need to put the blame somewhere, and it won’t be on themselves.

      Cons

      CEO David Gallagher– where to start?! Dave is not equipped for this role in the slightest, however if you like your corporate CEO plucked out of a Friday night sesh in Wetherspoons then you might disagree. His “lads, lads, lads” culture is inappropriate and actually concerning for an organisation that promotes diversity and inclusion (what does he really think?). It really is a case of the Emperor’s new clothes, and if you don’t want to take part, leave – that’s what he told all staff during a webinar in December 2020 – before logging off abruptly leaving his colleagues to continue without him – wow! After this, he took to LinkedIn to complain about colleagues leaving for similar organisations – strange actually, they were just following his instructions? Following a recent Glassdoor review, which included many facts about the company and the CEO, he took to LinkedIn again claiming to have been trolled – many of his connections (unaware of the situation) showed lots of support to him, believing he had truly been a victim of trolling – again, wow! He will no doubt take to social media to talk about how he has been trolled again by this post, but the truth is, leadership is tough and he hasn’t got the “thick skin” and “resilience” he insists his employees have.

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      Glassdoor has 139 NCFE reviews submitted anonymously by NCFE employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if NCFE is right for you.