Employee Stories

A shared goal

My favourite part about working for Activate Learning is the people. We are a large organisation, spanning across three counties, which encourages lots of collaborative working and sharing of ideas from a diverse range of students and staff. I find it really inspiring that we’ve all come together with the same aims and goals to help our students get the best out of their education. We are continually learning and growing together.

My career is engaging, rewarding, and ever-evolving

As my role is largely extra-curricular based, it changes with contemporary topics and it’s really helpful to have a lot of different opinions so what we are doing for students is always topical, relevant and engaging.

Part of what I like so much about working here is that I have the freedom to organise and implement ideas and initiatives that have great benefit to impact our students. Whether that’s being engaged in our Learner Voice programme, being a member of our Student Union, or helping with events such as Mental Health Awareness Week; I know that these kinds of opportunities have been proven to really aid students’ learning and development. Outside of their studies, the kind of activities my team puts on help students develop their soft skills and make friends too, so that’s really rewarding.

We invest in, and value, everyone

Our Learning Philosophy runs through the heart of the organisation, and through everything that we do together and with our students. Working in a place that truly values the emotional needs of everyone, and understands the impact that feeling unchallenged or demotivated can have is refreshing. We continually strive to support every member of our community across Activate Learning, be they staff members, students, or other stakeholders.

Impactful work

There are lots of interesting roles available at Activate Learning and the work that you get to do makes an impact on the lives of hundreds of learning, which is amazing to think about. I hadn’t worked in FE before, but I am glad that I took a chance and gave it a go.

Supportive and inclusive environment

This is the best working environment I’ve ever experienced and find coming to work a pleasure. I have an incredibly supportive and inclusive team that makes work enjoyable. I also like the values and culture of the organisation.

Promising futures

I am excited to be belong to an organisation that is friendly, welcoming, and inclusive, this makes envisioning a future career here a lot easier. I am not sure what the future holds but I am fulfilled within my current role and look forward to whatever future opportunities I may choose to explore within Activate.

Working together

I am very fortunate to get to work with lots of staff from across the different sites, departments, faculties and beyond in the wider sector. Through these relationships, I have been able to develop my own practice as well as support colleagues on their development journey which has been hugely rewarding.

A rewarding job

I have found it such a rewarding job, initially it was getting to see my students grow in confidence and develop the skills they need for their next step and more recently with staff who are new to teaching.

It also provides a wealth of opportunities, if you're looking for a new challenge there's always something just around the corner. During my time here I have been fortunate to move between jobs in business support, teaching and management.

I have found the further education community to be very supportive, through participating in #UKFEchat and attending events I have been able to expand my personal learning network.

Our collaborative culture

What I love about working at Activate Learning is the people. I love the people that I work with, the students that we have here, and I love that everyone here really wants to support those students and make real differences in their lives. That’s what’s so lovely about working here. The environment is one of ‘putting the student first’. The staff here will really go above and beyond to help out our students.

What I enjoy about my role in particular is that no two days are the same. I get to work with lovely students and help them grow and progress and that’s really rewarding.

Other members of my team—and this organization as a whole—inspire me by consistently putting students at the centre of what they do. This really helps me to put things into perspective and see just how important a role we play in these young people’s lives. That motivates me every day to do a better job. I feel compelled to constantly try and change courses for the better and help the students in any way I can.

The chance to develop

Over the years, as a member of staff here, I have been supported to grow and develop. I’ve had the flexibility to find courses and development opportunities that were specific and enabled me to pursue relevant training. I have been challenged and supported by my line managers to learn from my mistakes, and continuous seek to improve in all areas of my work.

My career with Activate

I started here at Activate as a sessional lecturer, that then became a permanent position. As the college restructured, there was an opportunity to become a programme manager. After working with the team for a few years, a secondment opportunity came up to become the head of the department. After that, as we moved into the faculty structure, I became a director. This opportunity has enabled me to work across all the sites and work with all of our amazing staff.

What makes Activate Learning such a great place to work:

At Activate Learning, our learners are at the heart of everything we do, and I truly feel that in my role. I work alongside dedicated tutors across multiple sites who are passionate about their work, which I find incredibly inspiring. Seeing students' hard work come to life, supported by their tutors, is so rewarding. I especially look forward to our end-of-year shows, where we celebrate their achievements.

A highlight or memorable moment from your time at Activate Learning:

One of the most impactful aspects of my time here has been the commitment to staff development. Every manager I’ve worked with has actively supported my career growth, investing time and effort to help me realise and achieve my goals. I have been very well supported in my career, and the people I have worked with along the way are a huge part of that. I’ve been fortunate to work with incredibly talented and influential people who have shaped my professional journey.

Any development opportunities or career progression:

Since joining Activate Learning in 2020, I’ve had the opportunity to advance significantly in my career. I started as a Faculty Coordinator, overseeing the day-to-day maintenance of my faculty with regards to monitoring data, upholding our core values and being a central point of contact for the faculty to handle enquiries from a variety of stakeholders including students, parents, tutors and external contacts. Then, I progressed into ‘Learning for Leisure and Community Team Leader’. In this role, I oversaw the delivery of a wide variety of creative leisure courses to our adult learners across Berkshire and Surrey. This role helped me develop essential leadership skills, ultimately leading to my current position as Faculty Operations Manager.

Throughout my journey, I’ve benefitted from strong mentorship and a variety of CPD opportunities, including a Level 3 Coaching qualification and acceptance into the Management Development Programme. Now, as Faculty Operations Manager, I lead a team of Faculty Coordinators across Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Surrey while working within the Leadership Team to oversee the Createch Faculty. I'm proud to be part of an organisation that nurtures both student and staff success.

Being part of a supportive team

I work with an amazing team who support me to achieve our goals.  I also love that no 2 days are the same and that there is always something new to learn.

Personal and professional development

The availability of the Learning and Development programme ensures I can keep my skills and knowledge up-to-date and develop personally and professionally.

Being part of the student experience

Being part of the development of education into the future and giving our students the experience they need to be the workforce of the future – whatever that may be!

A welcoming community

It’s the people that make Activate Learning such an enjoyable place to work. Everyone is so welcoming, friendly and supportive. I get to work with colleagues across our faculties and group services and what I love is that no matter which role they are in or what skillsets we have, it’s clear we are all united by our passion for our learners to have the best experience and achieve their full potential.

Opportunities to develop

Over the four years I have worked here, I’ve had the opportunity to change careers, gain experience and develop within the Human Resources team. I’ve completed a Mental Health First Aiders course, as well as the CIPD Level 3 in Human Resource Practice through Activate Learning.

I’ve also taken advantage of the huge range of courses on offer with our Learning and Development team.

Constant company growth

We are one of the fastest growing education groups in the UK, and we are always adapting to better support our local communities or lead on new initiatives. This growth and development offers all of us an opportunity to get involved in new and exciting projects and learn different skills.

Featured in Association of Colleges "My Favourite Lecturer" and Winner of Tech Women 100, 2021.

Leading the way

Through training and coaching, our focus is to equip students with the skills for future industry requirements and emerging technologies.

I am passionate about our Learning Philosophy, which wonderfully captures our thinking processes. We embed this in our day-to-day teaching. It also highlights how important it is to have an emotional intelligence in our day-to-day life and how important it is to focus on the fundamental purpose of education.

Collaboration and trust

At Activate Learning, we have a very collaborative culture. We share lot of good practices and we are constantly self-evaluating, which encourages everyone to be positive and creative.

The most enjoyable thing about my role is the flexibility I have to develop and refine the curriculum and get in it in line with industry's and students’ future needs. Personally, for me, having the trust and support of our students is absolutely crucial and building that relationship over time is really enjoyable.

Passionate about my role

I’ve always been passionate about teaching, and I was a teacher at Activate Learning for quite a number of years before moving into my current role as Curriculum Lead for CreaTech. I think the reason for choosing this profession is that it is very creative; you develop in your skills every day, you’re always kept on your toes with the latest technology and helping the future generation is something which is very enjoyable.

A shared vision

Activate learning is a group of colleges that have come together as a family. We’re shaping the future of education here. We have small and large colleges that all come under the shared vision of Activate Learning. This helps the colleges to progress; we can secure more resources by joining together and we can also share good practice effectively across such a huge area.

I’m a real people person and I love helping our students, that’s what I enjoy most about this role. Whether it’s helping them with their lives inside the college or outside, it’s really satisfying to see them with a smile on their face. I’m really content in this role when I see learners progress and lead happy lives.

A supportive and collaborative team

We have a great team here, full of good people; lovely people that actually want to help and make sure that students achieve success in their studies and complete. That’s a great inspiration to see people really going out of their way and giving that extra little bit of effort to really support people who might be having issues at home or in the classroom.

I’m a qualified chef and I’ve been cooking for over 20 years, but I wanted to move into a management role. This catering manager role came up and I was really drawn to the job and the business, so I applied!

Teamwork

The thing I enjoy most about the role is the organization; everybody is on the same page and things run smoothly. I think I’ve made a great career move as this is such a hard-working team, with so many different personalities, but we are all so supportive of one another. Not everyone is the same and that’s great when it comes to contributing to the business; everyone has a different opinion, a different strength and we’re able to balance out each other’s weaknesses in that way.

Because of that, we all have a shared respect for one another, so that really helps with teamwork; everybody is confident to have their say, yet also receive constructive criticism. It’s great when we have students working with us and we can show them that this is how you need to work in a professional environment: treating everyone with respect.

Supporting learners

I am now working together with our Life Skills faculty to support our LLDD (Learners with Learning Difficulties or Disabilities) cohort. We have a student that comes to our Recharge café daily to get experience of working in a busy café environment. We support the students, giving them training in different aspects of the business and an understanding of how a business works and working as part of a team.

Looking forward

I’m also very excited to be part of the bakery that will be starting on the 25^th of April 2022. This is part of the PIP café that will be a new part of the Life Skills business. It will teach the LLDD students how to bake and sell the products to paying customers.

I feel a real sense of achievement and happiness when I see that the support that I am giving is going to make a difference in someone’s life.