I have held various positions in teaching and across management in F E for over 15 years and have weathered many a change due to funding issues, change of management etc. but nothing had prepared me for the debacle that I encountered when my college was taken over by Activate learning. If you have read the many reviews relating to Activate you are well aware of how poorly rated this organisation is , it is key to note that the majority of these comments come from staff that fall below the pay scale of director. I have just weathered the worst two years of my academic career , the stress that teaching staff have to endure due to the truly incomprehensible management structure that Activate operate is rife across the organisation. When I left I was one amongst many extremely competent and highly professional staff members who left that same week and all had the same reasons for leaving. Activate learning is failing its teaching and support staff. The ratio of Directors (and please note ,I use this term in a truly sarcastic manner) to teachers is ridiculous, as their posting seems to be based upon their ability to sit on their hands and add nothing to the role , whilst praising each other for what seems to be nothing more than having a good chat, In fact just acting as part of an expensive messaging system , just passing on information from one to another, gathered from the many teams meetings that they seem to deem necessary as part of the job. This results in teaching staff receiving and having to respond to emails and reports all relating to the same issue from as many as 6 different sources. I would strongly advise those looking for employment teaching, to please refrain from joining any campus currently managed by Activate learning . There maybe light at the end of the tunnel as a new CEO has been appointed who can hopefully make the required changes to a thoroughly broken business model and if he manages this, then maybe it might well become an organisation that good teaching staff would be pleased to work for , but for the moment avoid at all cost.
