10 Purpose-Led Organisations We Love In The Education Sector
Education, schm-education! Why should we care about education so much, and which purpose-led and progressive organisations are making waves in this sector?
Whether your education brings back fond memories of fashion from another decade, or you’re still clocking up hours at the library, it can be easy to underestimate how much our education shapes us as individuals.
Education can mean the difference between learning critical thinking, discipline, creativity, time management, or not, and affect our sense of how the world works, our place in it, and our relationships with colleagues or those in authority.
It can also widen the gaps to opportunity for underrepresented groups, setting individuals behind before they’ve even entered the workforce. Or, it can have a positive effect, like promoting gender equality; a World Bank report found that an extra year of school for girls reduces teen pregnancy rates by 6% and gave women more control over how many children they have, and UNESCO found that a child born to a mother who can read is 50% more likely to survive past the age of five. Pretty impactful!
If you already work in education, you’re probably already passionate about how this crucial stage of life can shape futures. If you’re just dipping your toe into this world, you may be coming from other organisations working to reduce inequalities, and bring new perspectives. Whichever class you’re coming from (class, get it!), this cause could surely use your skills to keep pushing forward. Check out these inspiring organisations below, and do set up job alerts if they spark your interest.
Unifrog put a positive social impact at the forefront of their mission by levelling the playing field for young people on the hunt for the best opportunities for them. They do this by engaging students on their platform - providing them with the means to compare school leaver programmes, apprenticeships and higher education courses in the UK - while partnering with schools to provide better oversight of the progress of students' applications. It's been built by education professionals and it shows in their success: they are rapidly expanding their reach into Europe, Asia, Australiasia and the Middle East with a wealth of opportunities popping up on the team.
Leading the way for better teacher pay, better training and better learning, Equal Education is a social enterprise running 1:1 tutoring programmes to provide academic and pastoral support for vulnerable and disadvantaged students. There are some brilliant mission statements in The Escape 100, and Equal Educations' is a seriously good one. Understanding the crucial role that education plays in breaking down barriers of inequality, Equal Education is well deserving of their entry into the Escape 100 and we're so excited to bring them to your attention.
Perlego is a shining example of using entrepreneurship to solve real world problems by creating simple solutions to break down barriers of inequality. University fees and debt are already pricing many poorer households out of further education, but an even more pernicious cost is the soaring price of compulsary textbooks. Most students can't afford their them but Perlego gives unlimited access to all of the learning resources at a much fairer price. As well as a brilliant mission statement, Perlego are aiming to foster a unique company culture championing self-empowerment, personal development, direct communication and mutual support.
Student Hubs’ vision is to create a society in which every student engages with social and environmental challenges during their time at university, empowering them to become active citizens for life. They aim to reach students who otherwise wouldn’t engage and to empower them to use their voices and experience to create positive change now and after they graduate. We’re thrilled to have Student Hubs as part of the Escape 100 for the second year running!
There are so many huge issues facing us right now, but too often the market pulls the most talented and ambitious of us into areas where we aren't needed. Year is changing that. Year Here believes that fostering social entrepreneurship is the best way to get people off the sidelines and into the front line of creating a better world. Running a full-time, immersive and hands- on postgraduate course in London to cultivate entrepreneurial approaches to entrenched social problems, check out Year Here to see if you can get involved in fostering the solutions that will make the world a better place.
EdTech has become even more vital during the global pandemic and now>press>play is at the forefront of this exciting genre. Their exciting Audio Adventures catapult children to Mars, drop them deep in the Amazon or take them back to Ancient Egypt (among many other possibilities) with just a pair of wireless headphones. now>press>play is bringing the curriculum to life in more than 500 primary schools and is a frequent feature in the EdTech 50 list of most innovative EdTech companies in the UK. The enthusiasm with which their Audio Adventures are greeted in the classroom is matched only by the effusiveness of their employees in their Escape 100 application, who feel that working in this team "is an utter joy".
Concerned that children's voices were not being heard through traditional surveys, Mind of My Own built an accessible app that empowers children of all ages and abilities to give feedback and have their say in a way that truly suits them. Their service is proving invaluable in the current pandemic: safeguarding children at their most vulnerable and earning a spot on our top Escape 100 is all in a day's work for this small and mighty team.
Oak National Academy was formed in April 2020 as an urgent response to the Coronavirus outbreak. Its core purpose? Supporting schools and teachers in providing a top-notch education to all children while locked down and learning from home. Since then, they've delivered a staggering 130 million classes from their online classroom and continue to develop valuable learning resources - most recently for children affected by the war in Ukraine. Their employee satisfaction is as high as their impact is broad - a great organisation to keep an eye on if you'd like to make a difference in the education sector.
Big Change believes that every child, regardless of their background, should be set up to thrive in life, not just exams. And with a mission like that, need we give another reason for why you should apply for a role at Big Change? If you did need a nudge, the team cites great people and ethos, encouragement to learn and grow, and lots of laughing and trying new things as reasons why they love working there. So far they’ve supported over 66,000 teachers and adults, and 700,000 young people!
Gone are the days when you had to be physically present to gain some work experience. Virtual Internships is a fresh-faced EdTech company that delivers global work experience programmes across 18 career fields, helping young people chase down their dream career during the pandemic, no matter where they are in the world. The fully remote (of course) team was voted for by employees in the Escape 100 thanks to their creative and “vibrant” environment, benefits like paid volunteering, positive-minded team, and professional development. Simply put, “working is something I look forward to everyday”.
Looking for more purposeful organisations in the education sector? Just head to our Job Board and filter by 'Education' (or click here to go directly!). Happy searching!