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.

Appalling HR- I mean, truly appalling. Wage depression Work-life balance Palpable low morale What can I say? If you value even a degree of balance in your life do not work for Ambition School Leadership. Prior to the merger I was on the Future Leaders side where there was a worrying culture of overworking but with an appreciation to dedicated staff. Since the merger, the workload has again increased substantially and the obsession with performance management targets is truly suffocating and counterproductive. It is also worth noting that the pay of roles advertised is substantially lower than when I started at the end of 2015, whereas expectations and the workload has increased. Internal promotion opportunities have also dried up considerably. A classic case of layers of management who have done enough boot-licking up to middle and senior management only to subsequently knock the ladder down behind them and having no shame in throwing those below them under the bus. Morale across the organisation is palpably low. The internal propaganda machine which shovels disingenuous talk of 'values', 'mission' and 'moral purpose' down our throats has worn thin, especially as since the merger it is painstakingly and cringeworthilly conceited and inauthentic. Comparison with North Korea or the Soviet Union always comes to mind, however outrageously hyperbolic, but this is a five year plan that needs abolishing. The HR department are grossly incompetent to the point of countless breaches of employment law, Careless confidentiality breaches of sensitive employer information littered on it's shared drive and around the office printer. I do believe, especially on the Future Leaders side there used to be heart to what we were trying to achieve. It's probably no coincidence that problems have been mounting as the focus has shifted relentlessly to chasing money. I hope these are teething problems with establishing a new organisation but to ambitious, morally-driven graduates and those early on in their career, I'd advise staying well away if you can help it, for now at least. With hindsight I would never have worked here, let alone on currently advertised salaries. You can do better.