Realise your potential
"Development and career progression are important to everyone at AQA, with opportunities for further training available and actively encouraged."
Could you make the grade at AQA?
When people think of exam boards, most think of teachers and academics designing exams. But, in truth, they’re much like any other company and it’s more than just people writing tests for students.
As with any modern business, AQA serves an increasingly diverse community and has a multitude of roles that require a small army of employees to deliver. These range from accountants to facilities coordinators, communications specialists, digital and tech designers, HR teams, research teams, as well as all the people that design and create our assessments.
So, there are lots of opportunities within AQA that don’t have anything to do with the academic side of assessment.
ROB DOUGAN is a Recruitment Advisor in AQA’s Talent and Resourcing Team. Here he shares his story about how he came to work in the world of assessment…
“I’d never envisaged working for an exam board when I joined AQA on a temporary contract in 2016. I’d been working in the hospitality industry as a bar/nightclub manager and completing a self-financed CIPD qualification as I was seeking a career change to a HR or learning and development role.”.
“That was when I was approached by a recruiter from AQA who had seen my CV on a recruitment site. My only knowledge of the organisation at that time was that it was an exam board and they hired a lot of staff for temporary roles in the summer.”
“I was fortunate enough to undertake various temporary roles across AQA before I secured my current permanent position, which helped me understand the many functions required for the successful delivery of exams and see that the people who work here really care about what they do.”
“As a Recruitment Advisor, the main focus of my day-to-day work is the recruitment of new examiners required each year to mark AQA’s exams sat by GCSE and A-level students. AQA sets and marks the papers for over half of all GCSEs and A-levels so the task of recruiting examiners is hugely important and vital to the functionality of the organisation. I also support the recruitment of senior examiners that are involved in the creation and production of exam papers.”
“Recruitment is challenging and my particular role is testament to that. Recruiting new examiners each year at the volumes we require involves lots of effort, creativity and cross team communication. At times it is stressful, but this is fuelled by a desire to deliver and ensure that students are supported in their educational journey.”
“Collaboration across teams and departments is encouraged and a necessity for the work I do, and it’s really useful in helping to recognise how all functions form part of the whole.”
“Although I’ve been at AQA for over four years there are still areas of the business that I’m yet to fully engage with and understand and that’s a good thing. It’s interesting to learn about the work of other departments and always encouraging when they are interested and surprised by some of the work we do.”
“I feel fortunate to work for an organisation with the values AQA has. I’m also grateful to work within my particular team that is constantly looking for ways to improve, not only at a team level but also in ways that cascade throughout the whole organisation.”
“Development and career progression are important to everyone at AQA, with opportunities for further training available and actively encouraged. In the past year I’ve become a qualified work-based coach as part of AQA Coaching Academy Scheme, and colleagues within my team have or are undertaking AQA sponsored qualifications such as CIPD and other courses, including Empowering Women and Change Management.”
“There is plenty of opportunity for career development within the organisation, but if I chose to seek a new role outside of AQA I will have acquired skills to thrive my career in the future.”
AQA has a board of trustees that come from a range of professional and cultural backgrounds. They are responsible for our overall strategy, policy, educational initiatives and development, and for steering AQA to fulfil its educational and charitable objectives.
"Whilst BAME role models were scarce 15 years ago, I have always been taught to be the change we wish to see."
AMINA MODAN is an Assistant Principal at Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School and recently became one of the youngest ever members of AQA’s Board of Trustees. Despite her youth, Amina has already amassed a wealth of experience in education and assessment…
“As a British-Indian Muslim female from Blackburn, it was a pivotal moment when I graduated with a first-class honours degree from the University of Manchester in 2004. As the first female in my family to have graduated, I realised that class, ethnic and gender barriers could be broken with; hard work, talent, passion, candour, perseverance, prayer and lots of help from others.”
“I began my teaching career working as a Psychology Teacher in a Catholic College with the hope to procure two years of experience before pursuing a career in Educational Psychology. However, stirred by the satisfaction, gratitude and overwhelming prospect of shaping young minds, building potential and inspiring the future of tomorrow, I focused on developing a career in mainstream education, not allowing my ethnicity, gender or religion to stymie any progression.”
“While continuing to teach, it became apparent there were very few BAME role models for the students. This further fuelled my desire to progress, I completed Qualified Teacher Status, and attained a High Distinction Masters’ in Education. Yet I found the reality of securing a leadership position in a school with very few BAME teachers and leaders to be a struggle. Undeterred, and driven by my desire and passion to offer strategic direction in education, I acquired the role as a Director of Learning in the highest performing school in the country. I continued learning and building on experiences by completing National Professional Qualifications and working as a Senior Examiner for AQA.”
“With an intrinsic interest in the role of assessment and using data astutely to maximise progress and monitor learning, I was enthralled in becoming a Board of Trustee member for AQA. I was extremely humbled at the warmth and openness of the organisation when starting the role during a tumultuous year for assessments in a COVID pandemic. I was invited on a panel for International Women’s Day just a day after visiting Downing Street for an International Women’s Day event. Liaising with them on strategies for the Equality and Diversity board has been both rewarding and fulfilling, to see AQA striving to provide BAME parity for its employees.”
“Whilst BAME role models were scarce 15 years ago, I have always been taught to be the change we wish to see. I love my role as an Assistant Principal and Specialist Leader in Education, as it has provided opportunities to support National Professional Qualifications as well as the BAME Leadership Programme for Star Institute.”
“I’m excited to have been provided with a platform to offer strategic input at Board level for AQA, as well as recently being appointed as a member of the AQA Curriculum and Assessment Quality Committee. I look forward to continuing supporting in areas of Assessment as well as Equality and Diversity and Customer Relations.”
“My advice to anyone who wishes to take up a role in such a field is to:
- Ensure you find your anchor in your passion and strength, this will make you relentless to continue.
- Find areas you can make a difference and build others in, focus on the goal not the role.
As Ghandi once purported “live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as though you were to live forever” – knowledge is wealth, continuing learning.
- As the cliché goes, good things come to those who wait – don’t let any knock backs let you settle for less, believe in yourself, be patient, and know that you can do anything you wish to do.”
Recruitment and opportunities at AQA
We’ve done a lot of reflecting as a company about the diversity and make up of AQA and, while we’ve always strived to be an inclusive employer, we understand and recognise we can do more.
Recently we’ve been updating our policies and practices to ensure AQA appeals to a broad, diverse mix of people, that reflect both our customer base and the local communities from which we draw our talent, so we can grow through the organisation.
In normal a year we recruit around 1,000 temporary staff across our sites in Manchester and Guildford and offer a range of temporary positions for people to gain work experience with AQA. These are a great opportunity for people at different stages of their careers to either build upon their CV or experience something new.
Due to the cancellation of exams this year we have fewer temporary roles to offer, but we’re still recruiting for permanent vacancies. We’ve been actively recruiting throughout the pandemic and have a range of roles from entry level administrative roles through to more technical and management positions.
We welcome applications from all members of our communities and every year attract a really diverse group of people to our temporary and permanent roles.
If you want to find out more or are interested in joining AQA, you can find further information, set up job alerts, and keep up to date with latest vacancies at: https://www.aqa.org.uk/join-us
You can also find us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/aqa and on Twitter @AQAJobs