teacher

teaching assistant

lecturer

school principal

proctor

Gloucestershire-College

My role is very varied and can be anything from dealing with strategic planning to ensure we are achieving our reach into our feeder schools in the county. We involve ourselves in developing schools engagemen activities, such as developing tasters and open evening events for schools to packing up my car to go to a careers event in the evening in the many schools throughout Gloucestershire. Some jobs are admin based such as recording all the events I am involved in and reporting on the applications we have achieved but it's always interesting to see how we well we are achieving against targets and the reach we have.

The management culture at GC is fantastic! we don't have a hierarchy, I can pop my head into my VP's office anytime and ask for him to support an event I am doing in schools - he is always very supportive of the work I do and often includes me in the many initiatives we run including all the new Apprenticeship opportunities we have coming up in Cyber Security. My line manager is also really supportive of the issues I face and always happy to make time to talk through any concerns I have and offer any advice to help me achieve the very best outcomes. Equally, I would be very comfortable talking to any member of the senior management team, including our principal who is always very open to new ideas. We have a principal update and forum whereby we can offer our ideas and ask questions. We are always kept up to date on the organisational aims and our role within them.

The mosts enjoyable part of my job is the working with my customers and their pupils. People who work in schools fall in to the group of people who really care about the futures of their pupils and it is a real privilege to be part of the process of helping them to ensure their pupils choose the very best option for them moving forward from GCSE's or A-levels.

The hardest part of my job is the board remit and not enough resources - with a wider team we could cover all the bases but FE although wonderful to work in does lack the resources needed to be able to cover all the bases.

Was a great job for the first month or so, then I noticed all the cracks. There seems to be a lack of strategy on just about everything. Therefore a lot of departments seem to be almost working against each other at times. 

Some departments are clearly over-staffed and some departments are clearly under-staffed. (No one seems to be checking this). 

There is a huge amount of tracking and performance management, which puts off a lot of teaching staff. There is also a large amount of student tracking and updating grades onto a system so students can see how they are doing on their course. (Some teachers find this annoying, but it does allow students to view their progress, and I.T training and support is available) 

Personally I think there is some good managers and some really bad managers. There was no guidance and I often found myself doing pointless tasks or building projects I didn't really see the point in. A lot of management seem to be in pointless meetings a lot of time. I don't know if this is the culture of big organisations of just the college, but I personally felt that some smaller departments don't actually need a manager. If you do get into a senior management position, its clearly a bit of a gravy train. 

A lot of the job description talks about building an honest and open culture and not blaming others. But this is just an escape tool for management. I found it very difficult to question things and I was often left selling projects that no one believed in. 

That said there is some really good managers of certain departments, and I also found some staff really do go the extra mile and it can be a fun place to work at times. Although teams are sometimes set questionable projects, teams and departments do come together, and occasionally I got some really good job satisfaction. I will miss my co-workers and the teaching staff.

I was due to take on a temporary role with the college and having got through the screening and interview process I was really looking forward to starting with them. It seemed a nice environment to work in and good potential progression onto a permanent role. Unfortunately they told me only 2 days before I was due to start (and had handed my notice in at my previous job) that they could no longer offer me the position due to the pre employment checks not quite meeting their requirements for a temporary role. The person who contacted me wasn't apologetic at all and I was incredibly disappointed with them after this. Having spoke on the phone with them several times prior to this they pushed for me to hand in my notice asap as the start date was brought forward so now I am without a job and left feeling very let down by the way they handled the situation. Such a shame for a big, seemingly great company on the outside, to treat potential employees like this.

Management with little knowledge of the trades and industry practices.  Unrealistic targets, unmotivated students and staff with little to no appreciation of the work you do.
Hardest part - battling against management .
Some good staff but most there for the ride seeing out time.  Lack of current industry practices and knowledge of up to date technologies.  Poor facilities letting students down, and the staff.  Disheartening and demotivating.
There is a toxic culture of blame from management for their own failings and lack of knowledge and experience of the wider trades industry and what industry/ employers want and expect.  Lack of discipline and motivation within the learners but not their fault.  Disconnected higher management - never see them around the college - don’t think they know what goes on.

Excellent Place to work, people are all very friendly and very Nice. Been working in the IT Department for quite a while now, Challenging yet Fun work as you get to interact with everyone and always on your feet doing things and solving problems and dealing with issues. Excellent exposure to many IT Systems, something that would not get at other companies, which enables you to learn new technologies and get more involved in systems and projects!

Excellent Holiday allowance provided during the year and excellent pension scheme, although Salary is lower here  than working elsewhere, the generous holiday allowances and the working environment makes up for this!

Best Job of my career!

Gloscol is a fantastic place to work as the atmosphere is generally pretty relaxed. Like in any workplace manager often have differing opinions to the staff but all in all the machine works well. 

Like most companies that state progression is a common thing, it's not for everyone. Like most companies they progress very few amount of people but will advertise like it happens in every department. 

If your not bothered about progression but just want to plod along with you job, take your payslip and go home then its brilliant. It has a great work life balance in my opinion, no holiday or time off ever turned down and as long as you work back hours it's all good. 

Mental health because of these things remains in a good place and I think that is very undervalued in a lot of workplaces these days!

What is the best part of working at the company?
Great atmosphere empathic boss, reasonable yearly pay rise. Great benefits including employee festival day. I’m appreciated and listened to as much as they can. It’s not perfect but I’m happy working there.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I’m not stressed as I’m not set in achievable targets. Most stressful thing is my commute but that’s my choice.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
In the apprenticeship dept, people are cheerful and respectful. 95%

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I work 8:30-5:00. I’m generally left to run my own courses and implement improvements with management approval. They take on board my experience and action most of my suggestions. No micro management but I have support when I need it.

I worked at the College on a temporary contract. I would summarise that some departments seemed good and others pretty bad. Mine was the latter. Line management was awful and seemingly performance managing from the get go. Cold and clinical treatment where you were very much a worker and not a person. Little interest in getting to know me...which is a fundamental pre-requisite to creating a work place where you feel appreciated and cared about. The work environment was an alien experience to me, I felt isolated and lonely. I would not recommend to anyone!!

I worked at Gloucestershire College as a temporary worker during my summer breaks from University.  My job involved talking to both current and potential students face to face about various courses on offer.  I was responsible for enroling students on to new courses and taking payment via both cash and card.  I was always made to feel very welcome at the college upon my return and it was a very friendly working environment.

Money focused and not learner centered at all however they would like you to believe they are. The pay is not comparable with other FE colleges around the country.  The management are bullying and use disciplinary action to stifle teachers and support staff from putting their points across.  There are no consequences for learners behaviour as the college are too concerned about losing learners and therefor their funding.
Most of the teaching staff and support staff however are lovely and a pleasure to work with.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Teacher 201 salaries reported	£40,353 per year
Teaching assistant 101 salaries reported	£24,872 per year
Lecturer 28 salaries reported	£35,177 per year
School principal 69 salaries reported	£71,922 per year
Proctor 59 salaries reported	£13.09 per hour

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