National Citizen Service Trust Employee Reviews

What is the best part of working at the company?meeting new people, and making new friendsWhat is the most stressful part about working at the company?having to work in teams with complete strangers, it's nice to meet new people but working in teams with them is a totally different story, after 2 days or so you do adjust so it's okay in the endWhat is the work environment and culture like at the company?really really positive, everyone was shy at first but the leaders helped a lot for us to all come over itWhat is a typical day like for you at the company?partaking in activities and working in groups to come up with ideas for charities we could donate to and help

Was this review helpful?

Needs Major Improvement

NCS Facilator (Current Employee) - Leek - 7 September 2023

The whole system for joining and being enrolled is quite long. There's a considerable delay in pay once you are on it too (end of summer). The independent sessions that are led by facilitators can feel childlike. Instead, NCS should engage in activities whereby the young people feel like they are getting the value out of the money. As a child 10-11, I went to Kingswood a centre that provides group residential adventures and outdoor activities. I feel I got 10x better quality than what the 15-17-year-olds received from this year's experience at NCS. The trips are now for a duration of 5 days. With members of staff saying that young people 2-3 years before would get more quality on the trip for half the price. As a Facilitator you are spending the most time with the young people than management but communication, trust and respect can be distorted. It can be really draining and also makes the job feel like you’re being underpaid. A good student job for over the summer but you must be interested in working with teenagers and be able to get on with them WITHOUT being their friend.

Pros

Surporting Young People, Out in nature

Cons

Long Hours, Low wages, Exhausting, Involves moving to different locations frequently

Was this review helpful?

Insights into National Citizen Service Trust

Based on 52 survey responses

What people like

Ability to meet personal goals
Energising work tasks
Inclusive work environment

Little support

Team Mentor (Former Employee) - United Kingdom - 23 April 2023

Very little support, poor leadership and organisation. No breaks.experience depends very much on what area you end up working in. Pay was quite good..

Was this review helpful?

Intense but rewarding

Team Leader (Former Employee) - Crewe 2022 - 21 April 2023

Weeks at an aOutdoor activity centre with now real service but super rewarding and an amazing experience, perfect for future teachers, You have to be passionate and want to work with kids or you will hate it

Pros

Freefood/accom

Cons

Long hours

Was this review helpful?

working with NCS

Student (Former Employee) - Nottingham - 4 April 2023

A typical day of work at NCS consisted of taking schools on educational visits and trips.I learned to build my confidence and how to engage with people in groups.

Pros

building confidence

Cons

long hours

Was this review helpful?

Rate your recent company

Share your experience to help others

Fun and rewarding job

Team Leader (Former Employee) - Merseyside - 18 January 2023

Working with young people all summer may seem daunting to some but working on the NCS programme is an incredibly rewarding experience. No two days are the same and it not only gives opportunities to the young people on the programme but also to the staff. I had incredible amounts of fun whilst working on the NCS programme, had the pleasure of working with some lovely young people who I saw an immense progression in during my time working with them and met some amazing individuals in the staff. The management were not always ideal and a lot of decision making was left up to the more junior staff. Full training in First Aid and Safeguarding is given before starting programme and you are fully supported in this respect during programme also.

Pros

Meet inspiring young people, new experiences, great training programme

Cons

Long hours, unfair pay in some situations

Was this review helpful?

Assistant team leader

Assistant Team Leader (Former Employee) - Shrewsbury - 20 December 2022

working to help young adults to bond as a team and gain skills that will benefit them in life is very rewarding, i got to work with a great group of staff. althouh its tiring i enjoyed every second of it.

Pros

great staff

Cons

long days

Was this review helpful?

Not returning

Team leader (Current Employee) - Nationwide, UK. - 14 November 2022

It’s a shame that this is so badly organised. The young people were great and deserved a better choice of activities and better financing of some locations. 2 footballs in a field in their spare time is laughable! Other locations were better. Not great! The wages are bad for the hours they want you to do. I could go on and on about what needs changing.

Was this review helpful?

Amazing

Volunteer (Former Employee) - London - 1 November 2022

the best personal development and life skills building exercise. I learnt so much about myself and the others around me. I went out of my comfort zone many times and loves every second of it. a great group of people and a great experience. a great thing to put on your cv.

Pros

meeting new people, learning new skills

Cons

summer school

Was this review helpful?

Organised and fun experience

Team Leader (Former Employee) - Weymouth, Dorset - 23 September 2022

I’ve worked for 3 summers at NCS and due to having the same staff we have gotten closer and it made the job much easier. Unfortunately we didn’t get paid for the late evening hours in residential when patrolling the camp to make sure they’re all in their tents. It would be hard to get enough sleep with the time we mad to go to bed and wake up so it made it harder to do a good job. However, we could adjust the timetables to make it work best for the YP and this made it a much more relaxed place to work. none the less, amazing and rewarding summer experience. Would highly recommend working at least 1 summer!

Was this review helpful?

Jobs at National Citizen Service Trust

Overworked underpaid

Team Leader (Current Employee) - London, Greater London - 27 July 2022

I used to love working NCS. I took a couple years out for career reasons and came back this year to find it a different experience entirely. Residential trips mean working from 7am until about 11pm, with a 30/40 minute break being seen as enough, and yet we are only paid 12 hours a day. Serious staffing issues and a culture of "you're lucky to be here don't complain" if you raise concerns. Safeguarding issues not taken seriously and staff so overworked that they've had real burn out. I've worked 6 weeks and it's the worst working experience of my life. The young people are great and a lot of my colleagues are lovely, but handing out the program to random providers who don't know what they're doing is so problematic. Also cramming in 4 weeks of work into 2 means the young people have a rushed and stressful experience. I hate what NCS has become.

Pros

Food provided on residential

Cons

A lot of long hours you're not paid for

Was this review helpful?

volunteering

Volunteer (Former Employee) - Weston-super-Mare - 20 June 2022

not that well managed, not enough team leaders, felt very all over the place and honestly was tired of it all by week 2. markets itself to be a lot more than it actually is

Was this review helpful?

Fun

NCS (National Citizen Service) (Former Employee) - Rotherham, South Yorkshire - 14 June 2022

would recommend this to any young person leaving school. I met so many new people and got to go on various trips to the lake district. Furthermore, we fundraised for charity and it helped build me as a person

Pros

fun

Cons

long days

Was this review helpful?

Productive and fun

World Host Training in customer service (2018) (Former Employee) - Islington, Greater London - 13 June 2022

It was a good place to work after all You’re just looking after kids and you get to do the activities aswell as that if you have a good team you can meet really nice people

Was this review helpful?

Gg

NCS (Current Employee) - Ggg - 12 May 2022

It was a great experience for summer, really enjoyed it, met many new people and tried out lots of new things, you acn only do it whilst you’re still younger than 18

Was this review helpful?

Great team's

Sales Associate (Former Employee) - London - 28 October 2021

a typical day starts at 9 or 10 depending on a finish time of 5 or 6. That is for days in the office. Days outside can end later depending on the work priority in the evening and can start earlier as you have to enable yourself to travel. Be prepared to be flexible with work commitments.

Was this review helpful?

Fun company to work for.

Team Mentor and Team leader (Former Employee) - Mansfield, Nottinghamshire - 6 October 2021

Great company to work for overall.A good way to build up social skills and confidence skills in yourself.It is a rewarding job as you get to see your group progress from the start of the programme to finish.

Pros

Learning new skills

Cons

None

Was this review helpful?

A good summer job

Assistant Team Leader (Former Employee) - Swale - 24 September 2021

How good a experience you have probably depends a lot on who you work with during the 2-3 week placements. However, of course Ingeus only hires the best so this shouldn't really be a problem. I felt supported by my local team but there were some technical issues coming from the higher ups as well as being given certain content for the young people that it was practically impossible to make anyone feel enthusiastic about. Although, I respect with C19 measures it has been difficult running the program at all and they did excellent for what they were working with.

Pros

Brilliant work environment

Cons

The length of the working day inconsistent

Was this review helpful?

Wouldn’t recommend if shy or going alone

NCS Mentor (Former Employee) - Bedfordshire - 21 June 2021

I went alone and they all had clicks. Working for the bedford branch was a little better than rushden however with rushden the pay is a little different if you miss a day due to sickness you don’t get paid. With bedford you aren’t listened to if your a mentor it’s a lot less responsibility

Pros

Free accommodation

Cons

24 hour job

Was this review helpful?

Fun place to work

Team Leader (Former Employee) - Poole - 28 May 2021

Great experience working with young people, gave me so much confidence and skills I have carried into other jobs. The pay is good but you are required to do long hours and residential stays. Managment varies depending on company, I had a bad experience with one company but a great experience with another.

Pros

Great co-workers

Cons

Long hours

Was this review helpful?

Loved working with the young people

Support Worker (Current Employee) - Newcastle upon Tyne - 5 March 2021

Enjoyed the experience but the group leaders got paid more yet couldn't manage the group. No recognisuon for the support worker that did most of the work. Group leaders didn't give the support worker the respect they deserved. Working with the yiyng people The salary has lowers considerably