Pros
I worked for RMT for three and a half years where I had the opportunity to learn in a variety of roles and take on new responsibilities. The organisation has a motivating mission, to teach every child to read, and I felt there was a supportive and empowering culture - unsurprising given the SLT and the trainers are some of the best teachers/leaders in the education sector. During the pandemic the company showed it can adapt very quickly to changing circumstances and radical uncertainty. The company was instrumental in supporting thousands of children with their reading through successive lockdowns. The experience and expertise within RMT enables the company to make excellent use of the best and most recent evidence and research from academia, and the network of trainers throughout the country means training and resources can be tested rapidly in a range of contexts ensuring that the products are of an outstanding quality, fully assured. SLT had trust in employees and were keen to take ideas and input from staff. The organisation hires compassionate and supportive people. I was regularly encouraged to leave on time and enjoy my evening. RMT was, quite literally, an inspiring place to work - a few ex-colleagues were inspired to re-train as teachers or pursue master's degrees in Education. Particularly great place to work if you want to feel you're having impact in improving educational outcomes. Good opportunities to engage in key challenges facing the education sector and learn about the policy landscape, as well has how to translate that into practical actions to address those challenges.
Cons
While there are opportunities to learn and progress within the back office/administrative/support team, it is not possible to progress from a support role to a consultant role directly. In fairness, this is because being a consultant at RMT required substantial experience and expertise as a teacher and school leader.