DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION Employee Reviews
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Insights into DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION
What people like
- Inclusive work environment
- Feeling of personal appreciation
Areas for improvement
- Overall satisfaction
- Ability to meet personal goals
- Trust in colleagues
Not for the ambitious
Senior Analyst (Current Employee) - Sheffield, South Yorkshire - 21 March 2022
Indeed featured review
The most useful review selected by IndeedIt is an okay place to work if you just want to clock in and then clock off. You can get away with doing very little. Progression is a bit dated. You have to write "competency" based essays and basically recite them word for word at interview. There is no real assessment of whether you are hard working, or even right for the role. The work itself is a bit annoying. Spreadsheets appear to be the go to, rather then coding. If you are asked to contribute to a presentation, you end up having to work with 9 other people to do it (for some reason...). There are also people who genuinely think they are heroes for what they do. Nonsense of course. Finally, people are obsessed with tracking every minute they work, whether it is productive or not. Some will look shocked if they are not in the Honours list if they worked for an extra 5 minutes that week.
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Great company and very flexible
Executive Assistant (Former Employee) - Nottingham - 27 March 2022
Great company to work for with brilliant bonus schemes, friendly environment and the staff were all welcoming, easy interview process and friendly hours
Pros
Good work and home life balance
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Productive and friendly environment
Office Administrator/Personal Assistant (Former Employee) - Westminster - 23 March 2022
The DfE has: Excellent benefits Flexibility Great management Possibilities for advancement Opportunities to learn new skills The employee needs to have great time management skills. Personal experience - Excellent overall!
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Treated fairly, opportunities to progress, lots of interesting areas.
Senior Funding Officer (Current Employee) - Darlington, Durham - 8 January 2022
Good place to work. Respected by management and colleagues. Lots of opportunities to progress and not too stressful. Good work/life balance and can work from home most of the time. Lots of team working and not micro-managed.
Pros
Good atmosphere. Opportunities to progress. Work/life balance.
Cons
Inconsistencies in grading structure.
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Too few people doing an excessive amount of work.
Payroll Co-ordinator (Former Employee) - Coventry - 25 November 2021
Very poor management of the Dept I worked in. Job expectations were extremely high, but you received very little training on the many complex issues you were expected to resolve. The most stressful job I ever had, because we were massively understaffed, received little training and had to meet ridiculous targets on a daily basis. The senior managers didn't want to know & did nothing to help the situation. I've worked in deadline driven jobs most of my life, but nothing on this scale. Other Dept's could be different, so perhaps the HR Dept was the only one where this is the situation.
Pros
Excellent pension scheme & Terms & Conditions
Cons
Stressful, no work life balance, very poor senior management, long hours, unrealistic job expectations, understaffed, poor salary for the work & knowledge you had, an admin job that was more like working in a target driven sales role, would not recommend working for them at all.
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Great and friendly place to work
Executive Officer (Former Employee) - London - 4 March 2021
Started working as outdoor Messenger/Reception then went into Administration in Schools branch. Moved on to on to work in the Press Office for over 10 years. had a great experience and journey. Happy days!
Pros
Good salary and benefits
Cons
Difficult work colleagues
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very unprofessional
Service Desk Adviser (Former Employee) - Manchester, Greater Manchester - 6 January 2021
slow customer service delivery poor and old systems inconsiderate towards illness/sick poor communication at the management level lack of teamwork workers scattered across cities
Pros
secure workplace
Cons
less face to face interaction with collegues
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Poor
Manager (Former Employee) - whitehall - 25 June 2020
Poor workplace: 90% of people do 10% of the work and 10% of the people do 90% of the work: the place is empty on Friday's as everyone (except you) is 'working from home' (i.e. not working).
Pros
Looks good on a CV is subsequent years
Cons
Everything else
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Great company to work for
Sous Chef (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 14 June 2020
Caring people good team work great management good time keeping work safety is a must loads of staff training health and safety fire training hygiene course and fire training
Pros
Working hours help with child care
Cons
Monday to Friday only
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fun workplace
Divisional Administrator (Former Employee) - Manchester, Greater Manchester - 16 April 2020
Enjoyed the role and i was treated very well. I just struggle with the tempo and being at a desk all day. Good for flexible working and furthering your development
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Jobs at DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION
Slave labour
Educational Adviser (Current Employee) - Manchester - 6 February 2020
They will work you until they have no need for you, then lie to you saying they’ll support you but they won’t. They lie about expenses, make it out like it’s a benefit if you join the events team but in fact I’m over £250 out of pocket waiting for them to reimburse me what I’m owed. The process takes 6 weeks apparently, yet it’s been since February LAST year and I’m still outstanding money. They’re just bad, don’t do it
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Pq team
Correspondence Officer/ parliamentary questions co ordinator (Former Employee) - London - 11 December 2019
A very friendly and fast paced team always helping one another to get the work done a great environment to work in no day is the same, some very influential topics covered.
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Good place to work
Team Leader and Policy Adviser (Former Employee) - Sheffield, South Yorkshire - 11 November 2019
Really interesting and varied work. Opportunity to make a real difference. Plenty of scope for personal and career development. Travel across the country and meeting people in all parts of the education sector.
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Fast Paced, Productive workplace culture
Executive Officer (Former Employee) - Manchester City Centre, Greater Manchester - 22 October 2019
As part of my role, although based in Manchester, I traveled between London and Nottingham Weekly. This enabled me to appreciate the value of working within a larger, integral team.
I worked closely with colleagues at all levels within the Department which I thoroughly enjoyed; this enabled me to develop good working relationships with my colleagues.
I managed communication between schools and the DfE and was responsible for the processing of Government loans and Grants.
Throughout my time spent at the DfE I feel I was given the opportunity to develop my existing skills as well as to learn new skills.
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fantastic and fun workplace
Financial Analyst (Former Employee) - London - 22 October 2019
I was always busy and the projects in the program are big but i was productive and happy working there.
As a financial analyst the hardest part was to complain with the dead line at the end of the month as sometimes the report are late and we had little time to complete the actuals but i enjoyed very much to have worked there.
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Enjoyed the time I worked there
Executive Assistant (Former Employee) - Darlington, Durham - 23 August 2019
Friendly staff and a good working environment, regular contact with managers meant I was always well informed about the work of the team. Offices are relatively new so the set-up is good and spacious.
Pros
Cafe on site
Cons
No dedicated parking.
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A fun and interesting place to work
Project Manager (Former Employee) - Coventry, West Midlands - 21 August 2019
The work undertaken at the Department for Education was varied and interesting. I was always challenged and CPD was always promoted and encouraged. It was fun and the culture was such that flexible working was the norm which allowed for an excellent work life balance.
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Friendly workplace
Expert Panel Member TLevels (Current Employee) - Victoria, Greater London - 17 June 2019
This role is a public government appointment.
I sit on a panel to advice on shaping the new Tlevels Curriculum helping young make alternative career choices. My expenses get paid.
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Good work life balance
Project Manager (Former Employee) - Coventry, West Midlands - 21 March 2019
Good experience overall. Very agile environment but heavy dependency on contractors. Good people, facilities, and close to train station. Can be challenging politically.
Pros
Flexible
Cons
political environment, constant change
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Not a great environment to work in
Policy Adviser (Former Employee) - London - 5 March 2019
There was not very much opportunity in my role for any support nor advancement. There was not much access to my manager and my manager had no involvement in my work and so it was hard to gain support on the specifics of my role.
They do not have enough support in place for work place bullying and general health and well being and put very little effort into diversity and inclusion
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Team working friendly ethos
Brook Street DfE Temporary Worker (Former Employee) - Darlington, Durham - 27 February 2019
Friendly staff and Public Sector ethos on Census work (2018).
The new Darlington Offices are a collaboration with Darlington Council in the town centre (useful at lunch-times).
The office operates a clean desk policy (strictly enforced).
The staff entrance has an unusual security foyer style entrance that was frustrating for temporary workers that have to sign in to enter and need security staff to open the external door for them.
Pros
Team working
Cons
My work was only temporary in nature
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Ask a question about working or interviewing at DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION. Our community is ready to answer.Ask a QuestionOverall rating
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Ratings by category
3.7 out of 5 stars for Work/Life Balance
3.4 out of 5 stars for Salary/Benefits
3.3 out of 5 stars for Job security/advancement
3.4 out of 5 stars for Management
3.4 out of 5 stars for Culture
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Questions about DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION
- What is the most stressful part about working at DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION?2 people answered
- What tips or advice would you give to someone interviewing at DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION?2 people answered
- How do you feel about the future of DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION?2 people answered
- What is the organisational culture at DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION?2 people answered
- What questions did they ask during your interview at DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION?2 people answered
- How often do pay and performance reviews occur at DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION?One person answered
- Can you work remotely at DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION?One person answered
- Does DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION allow for flexible working hours? Or are the hours set?One person answered
- What advice would you give the CEO of DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION about how to improve it?One person answered
- Does the DFE have clock in machines?One person answered
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