Pros
When I first went to work at Estio training it was a good company. There were issues as with any employer but I worked with some excellent people and was able to add massive value to core purpose of delivering digital industry apprenticeships. I know in my time there that I changed lives and was able to put my knowledge, skills and experience to good use.
Cons
Estio hired in a non industry COO who began implementing ideas that amounted to a move away from specialist staff who mainly operated face to face to under qualified generalists working remotely. Various excuses from carbon footprint to ‘the way the industry is going’ were put forward as the rationale for this cost cutting exercise. The main drivers were a lack of new starts and a competent delivery team completing people on time in some regions but not in others. The covid-19 pandemic led to Estio accelerating into a remote model and furloughing a sizeable portion of the delivery staff (even tho learner numbers were broadly identical) what followed were two redundancy restructure exercises that sees the company with a very small number of dual role training mentors that are the only point of contact for far too many learners. Estio continued to claim millions of pounds of government funding yet has cut its own wage bill dramatically to continue to return investment to palatine private equity. As a member of delivery staff you would clearly find your role impossible dealing with all aspects of a standards based apprenticeship for 60+ learners at varying stages. Employer relations, technical training, complaints, epa prep, quality control, coaching and mentoring have all been rolled together into a job role that’s only able to offer failure at every turn.