“We’re doing really exciting work here at Ambition. We want to make sure we have committed, passionate people from all walks of life and professional backgrounds so that we can achieve our mission.”
Hilary Spencer, CEO
Why us?
We are a fast-growing charity supporting teachers and school leaders to keep getting better. Together, we’re shaping the future of education to give every child the best start in life.
Here’s why you should choose us:
Grow with us. We are the largest provider of professional development for teachers and school leaders in England. We are currently supporting more than 40,000 teachers and school leaders, reaching more than 3.5 million pupils. And we are growing, so join us to make a difference in schools and trusts across England.
Grow with us. We are the largest provider of professional development for teachers and school leaders in England. We are currently supporting more than 40,000 teachers and school leaders, reaching more than 3.5 million pupils. And we are growing, so join us to make a difference in schools and trusts across England.
Challenge inequality with evidence. Our mission is our sole purpose, and research and evidence are at the heart of what we do. Join an organisation that’s committed to tackling inequality through diverse perspectives and finding what works.
Work as one team. We help each other to do our best work and share our expertise with our colleagues. Join a truly welcoming, kind and collaborative workplace.
Keep getting better. We develop our staff, give each other feedback freely and fairly, and learn from our mistakes. Join us because you share our drive for excellence.
Our offer to you
We offer a range of benefits which have been designed in collaboration with our staff, who tell us what they most value. We believe in looking after our people, so here’s what we can offer you:
Sector-leading pension plan with an employer pension contribution of 11%
Generous holiday allowance (25 days) with an additional three days of leave for Winter Shutdown between Christmas and New Year’
We offer a hybrid working model which allows people to choose a working pattern that suits the needs of their team
Enhanced maternity pay after six months’ service and shared parental leave package
Professional development for
all staff
all staff
Access to free, confidential 24/7 wellbeing and support line
Staff affinity networks that help keep equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our work
Hardship fund offering a loan for staff facing significant financial difficulties. Life assurance to three-times staffs’ base salary. Eyecare vouchers and access to travel loans
Equality, diversity and inclusion
“Ambition Institute is deeply committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, both in the education workforce and in our own organisation. This year, we have continued to focus on developing the evidence base to understand what interventions will be helpful and applying those findings to our work. We are making progress, but we know we have more to do. This year, we will build on that work across the whole spectrum of disadvantage.”
- Hilary Spencer, CEO
We want to create a culture where everyone, from any background, can do their best work. Having a diverse team means we benefit from a wide range of perspectives and we are better connected to the communities we serve.
- Hilary Spencer, CEO
We want to create a culture where everyone, from any background, can do their best work. Having a diverse team means we benefit from a wide range of perspectives and we are better connected to the communities we serve.
Here are some of the things we are working on:
- We’re one of 13 organisations in the education sector to have signed a joint statement, demonstrating our commitment in furthering equality, diversity and inclusion, and holding ourselves to account.
- We’ve developed research to identify where there are ethnic disparities within the teacher career pipeline.
- We’ve shared those research findings and recommendations across the wider education sector to stimulate debate and action.
- We’ve analysed the ethnicity and diversity of participants across Ambition’s programmes, and those delivered by our partners.
- We’ve reviewed our programmes to ensure diverse and inclusive representation is incorporated throughout the design, delivery and marketing.
- We’ve analysed demographic and diversity data across our workforce to inform future recruitment.
- We’ve implemented a new staff recruitment platform across the organisation, designed to attract the widest possible candidate pool.
- We’ve increased the diversity of our board of trustees through the recruitment of new trustees.
- We've engaged with the government’s special educational needs and disability (SEND) consultation and are supporting work across the sector to improve the system for children and young people with SEND.
We’re also continuing to:
- Work with other partner organisations in the education sector to share best practice.
- Ensure we attract, retain and develop the widest talent pool of participants on our programmes by regularly reviewing and developing our content, curricula, facilitation and recruitment approach.
- Develop our Teacher Training offer which considers diversity and inclusion at the design stages of recruitment and application processes, and within its programme design.
- Continue our work to ensure we are genuinely inclusive for our staff through continued support for our affinity groups, and through our People Strategy.
Hear from our staff
“Since working at Ambition Institute, being a working parent has become infinitely easier. Less guilt, less panic and so much more support. The combination of agile working and a balanced culture means that parents in the workforce are seen as an asset, not an inconvenience.”Sarah Bagshaw-McCormick, Associate Dean, Continuous Improvement
“The big driver for me when I made the switch to teacher education was to have an impact beyond my own classroom, and being able to work for Ambition has given me that. I get to work with fantastic teachers and schools across the whole country and get stuck into how we can reflect on our own time as teachers, to improve outcomes for students through improved practice.”Amarbeer Singh Gill, Tutor, Programme Delivery