Amber joined Smart Teachers parent company, The Edwin Group, because she wanted to make a difference in people's lives and support others to be their best in their chosen career. She has grown both personally and professionally whilst working across The Edwin Group's companies Smart Teachers, Vision for Education and ABC Teachers, and has gone from Safeguarding Officer to Operations Manager. With the right outlook, great support and opportunities to grow, here's how Amber made her goals a reality.

When Amber joined the Safeguarding Team in 2014, she had big ambitions, she said: “I wanted to work in a role that would benefit pupils, candidates and schools across the country and give people opportunities in education. And I wanted to work for a business that was on a mission to ensure children and young people had access to the best learning and education. I knew very early on, from my interview, that The Edwin Group would give me all of this and more.”

With a clear vision of what she wanted, Amber's drive and passion was supported by The Edwin Group. She shares: “The Edwin Group has helped me to set and reach targets in my career and support my growth as a person alongside this. I've been encouraged to be curious and engaged, and by welcoming change and embracing new challenges it's meant that during my time here my roles have included Safeguarding Officer, Safeguarding Team Leader, Acting Safeguarding Manager, NTP Project Lead and now Operations Manager. I've been both stretched and supported by my teams, managers and colleagues across the company.”

Whilst Amber has been working hard to progress, she never lost sight of her focus to make a difference. And she feels like she does this everyday: “I feel I make a difference to pupils' lives by ensuring that safeguarding is at the core of what we do – and that's through adhering to government, DBS and REC rules and regulations. I also use this knowledge to ensure that the opportunity to work is there for as many suitable candidates as possible, whilst ensuring we maintain high safeguarding standards to protect everyone involved, especially children and young people.”

Additionally, Amber worked on a project that brought catch-up tuition to thousands of students across the country. She shares her experience: “I'm incredibly proud of the work that we did on the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) project – we essentially created a part of the business that had never existed before. I believe that the legacy of that intervention, following the 2020/21 lockdowns, will positively impact the wellbeing and attainment of those students for years to come.”

It's not just the work and progression opportunities that Amber loves about working across Smart Teachers, Vision for Education and ABC Teachers, it's the people too. Amber said: “Workload's change, projects come and go, pandemics emerge and eventually they pass (hopefully!), but the type of people that we are surrounded by in the company is really specific to us. People are looked after, encouraged, given opportunities and supported to achieve, and that makes for a really positive working environment.

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