As the new CEO of Get Further, you will have a unique chance to lead a nationally recognised education charity transforming opportunities for disadvantaged young people through post-16 English and maths.
Get Further is an award-winning education charity that supports students from disadvantaged backgrounds in further education to secure gateway English and maths qualifications that unlock opportunities.
Partnering with post-16 education and training providers across England, we deliver high-impact tuition, professional development and innovative programmes that help learners succeed.
As we continue to grow our reach and influence, we seek to appoint an exceptional, visionary and strategic CEO to lead the Charity to our next stage. We want someone who will be bold, optimistic, ambitious and tenacious in addressing inequity in post-16 provision, particularly in the delivery and impact of gateway qualifications.
The successful candidate will bring strategic experience, strong leadership and an in-depth knowledge of the post-16 sector coupled with a commitment to educational equity. You will possess an ability to build relationships, influence decision-makers and inspire teams to deliver meaningful impact.
This is a unique opportunity for an ambitious and values-driven leader to join a dynamic charity that is transforming outcomes for learners nationwide.
Who we are
At Get Further, ambition and opportunity go hand in hand. Our charity works at the forefront of post-16 education, strengthening pathways into employment, apprenticeships and further study for learners across England.
By combining deep sector expertise with a practical, partnership-led approach, we support FE colleges and independent training providers to address some of the most persistent challenges in English and maths education.
We do this because one in three students leaves school without a standard pass (grade 4 or above) in GCSE English and maths – this represents over 200,000 16-year-olds every year. This figure rises to over one in two for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The scale of the challenge at age 16 extends into adulthood. An estimated 9 million working-age adults in England have low literacy and numeracy skills.
This moment in their lives affects so much of what happens next. Lacking these gateway qualifications locks people out of many opportunities for education and employment and is associated with adverse outcomes for earnings potential, health, and well-being.
Get Further has had a major impact on the achievement of young people in the FE Sector. For example, our pass rate for GCSE maths is 55% higher than the national average, and our pass rate for GCSE English is 73% higher than the national average.
For students from disadvantaged backgrounds, we can demonstrate that our GCSE maths pass rates are more than twice as high as the national average and our English pass rates are nearly three times as high as the national average. These achievements help to give students the ability to progress and fulfil their ambitions. We have a brilliant team of tutors, managers and senior managers who are all behind our mission and who are focused on continuing to improve these results.
We are recognised for our evidence-informed mindset, collaborative culture and commitment to driving systemic change, ensuring more learners can realise their potential and build brighter futures.
At Get Further, we understand that we won’t achieve our strategic goals and objectives without robust finances, a high-performing team that embodies our values, and effective, efficient systems and processes. In our current financial year, we forecast a small surplus on turnover of £3.7m. The charity has just over four months’ operating costs in reserves.
Get Further’s income is derived from a range of sources, including traded income from colleges, sixth forms and training providers, philanthropic funding, and national and local government grants. An immediate priority for the new CEO will be to ensure the charity continues to achieve its income-generation targets (both sales and fundraising) while continuing to plan for long-term financial sustainability.
As we embark on the next phase of our charity’s journey, we will be guided by our core values. These values are at the heart of our organisation’s personality.
- Bold: We are bold and unafraid to go against the grain.
- Optimistic: We are optimistic through setbacks, retaining a sense of possibility in the face of challenges.
- Ambitious: We are ambitious for students who are yet to achieve gateway English and maths qualifications.
- Tenacious: We are tenacious in our drive to achieve impact for the students we support.
About the role
Reporting to the Board of Trustees, the successful candidate will succeed our Founder, Sarah Waite, as our new Chief Executive Officer.
In this role, you will lead Get Further through an exciting new chapter, building on the charity’s strong track record of improving outcomes for disadvantaged learners across the post-16 education sector.
You will provide both strategic and operational leadership, ensuring the organisation continues to deliver high-quality, evidence-informed programmes while strengthening our influence across the education, funding and policy landscape.
You will drive organisational sustainability, grow and diversify our income streams, nurture key partnerships, and lead a high-performing, values-driven team.
As the public face of the charity, you will play a pivotal role in championing the importance of post-16 English and maths education, shaping sector practice and policy, and ultimately helping more young people and adult learners gain the qualifications, confidence and opportunities needed to thrive.
Who we are looking for
Get Further is seeking an inspiring and values-driven leader who combines strategic thinking with a strong commitment to improving educational outcomes.
The successful candidate will demonstrate a track record of delivering impact through effective leadership, partnership working and organisational development, along with a genuine passion for creating opportunities for learners.
Candidates will need to demonstrate significant senior leadership experience, preferably gained in a post-16 education context or a charity with a similar mission and values.
This experience must be coupled with a strong track record of developing and delivering organisational strategy and driving sustainable growth. You will be skilled at building influential relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including funders, partners, policymakers and sector leaders, and will have experience of leading high-performing teams while fostering an inclusive, values-led culture.
The successful candidate will demonstrate strong commercial, financial and operational acumen, with the ability to balance strategic ambition with effective delivery. You will also possess excellent communication and advocacy skills, with the credibility to represent the organisation externally and inspire confidence among diverse audiences.
Your leadership style must be collaborative and empowering, underpinned by emotional intelligence, sound judgement and resilience.
Above all, you will have a demonstrable commitment to educational equity, a passion for helping learners from all backgrounds achieve their full potential, and a CEO who will model our organisational values while providing the leadership to sustain our organisation’s success.
To view the role description and person specification, please go to the ‘How to Apply’ tab above, fill in your details and download the candidate pack.
For further information or to arrange a confidential discussion, please contact our advising consultant at Peridot Partners:
Dan Baxter | dan@peridotpartners.co.uk | 07939 994524
Get Further is a registered charity in England and Wales (No. 1190809).
Welcome from Michele Sutton CBE, Chair of Trustees
Dear Candidate,
Thank you for considering the CEO role at Get Further.
Founder Sarah Waite established Get Further in 2018. Sarah’s knowledge of the maths curriculum and her experience with Teach First and the Social Mobility Commission drew her attention to the massive gap in attainment in maths and English GCSEs for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who left school without these qualifications and then progressed to colleges of further education (FE) to continue their education.
With the attainment gap between students from low-income backgrounds and their peers widening, and around a million young people currently Not in Education, Employment and Training (NEET), the FE sector has a vital role in breaking this cycle of inequality. Despite this, funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds nose-dives at 16, limiting the interventions available to them.
I passionately believe that both young people and adult learners need a strong offer of extra support – beyond what they received at school – to gain the qualifications they need to progress in education and work. Get Further exists to ensure that students in FE receive this support, helping them to secure gateway English and maths qualifications that unlock opportunities. Since 2018, Get Further has run a highly impactful tuition programme ensuring students gain GCSE English and maths at rates substantially above the national average. Please read the following pages of the candidate pack to see the headline statistics that demonstrate our impact.
In the last few years, the charity has expanded its support to adult learners from low-income backgrounds and to young people who are NEET, helping them gain Functional Skills qualifications so they can progress onto education courses, apprenticeships, or employment. It also secured Department for Education funding to deliver a national programme of Continuous Professional Development for FE English and maths teachers, culminating in Get Further’s first-ever conference in August 2026. Across all of its programmes, Get Further has now partnered with nearly half of the FE colleges in England and reached even more practitioners and young people through resources and events.
Our current strategy, launched in autumn 2024, has a laser-like focus on programme quality and impact, with the strategic goal of setting a new national standard for excellence in post-16 English and maths.
Sarah, our founder, has now taken up an influential role in government, and we are now seeking an exceptional new CEO to take this work forward. This will be a challenging and exciting time, as we enter the next phase of our development and growth.
If you have the skills and expertise to lead our brilliant team to build on the charity’s impact to date, I would be delighted to receive your application. I am hugely excited about the charity’s future and about making this crucial appointment. Thank you for considering this role.
Michele Sutton CBE
Chair of Trustees
Get Further
Looking forward for Get Further
To achieve our mission, Get Further forms strong partnerships with post-16 education providers, supporting students and staff through research-informed English and maths interventions. We offer three programmes:
GCSE Resit Tuition Programme
This programme supports students retaking GCSE English or maths in further education, helping them build the confidence and knowledge they need to pass these gateway qualifications and unlock opportunities for further study or work. Through this programme, students receive 1-to-1 or small-group tutoring from trained, subject-specialist tutors to complement their classroom study.
Functional Skills Tuition Programme
Our Functional Skills Tuition programme targets learners who have previously struggled to engage with English and maths education, including those who are (or are at risk of becoming) NEET. This comprehensive programme provides in-depth support that helps learners develop essential skills, confidence and positive learning habits that enable them to move forward into further education, employment or training.
Resit Resources and Training (currently funded by the Department for Education)
We deliver a range of evidence-based training and resources that support FE English and maths teachers to deliver adaptive, ambitious lessons for GCSE and Functional Skills learners. Rooted in the science of learning, these programmes equip teachers with practical strategies to improve student outcomes and help departments embed consistent, high-quality practise across their teams.
Our Impact and Strategic Priorities
Between 2021 and 2025, Get Further…
- Supported over 5,000 students with innovative small-group tuition.
- Recruited and trained over 500 tutors to deliver impactful tuition sessions.
- Partnered with 52 FE providers to deliver tutoring across England.
We have a demonstrable track record of securing positive outcomes for students and our further education partners. For students who attended at least one term of tuition on our GCSE Resit Tuition Programmes:
- Our pass rate for GCSE maths is 55% higher than the national average.
- Our pass rate for GCSE English is 73% higher than the national average.
For students from disadvantaged backgrounds, we can demonstrate that our GCSE maths pass rates are more than twice as high as the national average and our English pass rates are nearly three times as high as the national average.
Against the backdrop of the pandemic, our charity scaled significantly to support young people to catch up on lost learning and get back on track in education. We are extremely proud of the scale that Get Further achieved during this period. However, our new strategy, launched in autumn 2024, deliberately shifted our emphasis from scale to impact, pushing us to find new ways to improve programme quality.
We are ambitious to play a lead role in the national skills agenda and set a new standard for excellence in post-16 English and maths education. Working with the charity’s Deputy CEO, COO, Senior Management Team and Board of Trustees, Get Further’s new CEO will play a fundamental role in implementing this strategy while also preparing a bold new strategy to ensure the charity continues to thrive beyond 2029.
Get Further has an Executive Leadership Team (ELT) comprising the CEO, Deputy CEO and COO. This team works with the Board of Trustees and the organisation’s Senior Management Team to set the organisation’s strategic direction, embody its culture and values, and collectively make decisions that affect the day-to-day running of the charity.
- The Deputy CEO oversees the Programmes delivery and Quality and Impact teams, focussing on sales and partnership development and the design and delivery of high quality, impactful programmes for young people and teachers in FE.
- The COO oversees finance, fundraising, HR, systems and processes, and central and tutor recruitment.
- In addition to ELT, the CEO also oversees the work of our External Relations Team, which comprises marketing and communications and advocacy.
Accessibility information
We have a fully accessible office space with a lift and accessible toilets. We support reasonable adjustments to ensure that all candidates can perform at their best. We will also cover the travel expenses for any candidate travelling to the London office for the interview.
We understand that different community members have different access needs, and we’ve made changes to how we do business to accommodate people from diverse communities and abilities.
Get Further strongly supports reasonable adjustments, including providing earphones for colleagues with ADHD to support their work in the office and helping people access support through Access to Work.
Other amenities include:
- Step-free access to the building, all key meeting rooms and bathrooms, and an accessible workstation
- Accessibility dogs are welcome
- A sign language interpreter can be accessed for the interview
- Working patterns and locations can be adjusted
Get Further also has an EDI committee and wellbeing committee to support our work across these areas.
To arrange a confidential discussion, please contact our advising consultant at Peridot Partners:
Dan Baxter | dan@peridotpartners.co.uk | 07939 994524
Thank you for your interest in this role. Please download the Role Description and Person Specification.
To formally apply, please submit a CV and supporting statement (ideally a maximum of 2 sides of A4 each) that clearly outline your suitability for the role against the criteria provided in the person specification, including your interest and motivation in applying for this position.
Please include your home address, contact email and mobile.
Please ensure that your application is emailed to response@peridotpartners.co.uk, inserting “Application: Get Further—Chief Executive Officer” into the subject field. You will receive an acknowledgement of receipt within 2-3 days. If you do not receive an acknowledgement, please contact our admin team.
For further information about the role or to arrange a confidential discussion, please contact our advising consultant at Peridot Partners:
Dan Baxter | dan@peridotpartners.co.uk | 07939 994524
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If you require any job information in an alternative format (e.g. large print), please contact the lead consultant. Please also let us know if you would like to submit your application in an alternative format.
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Timetable
Closing date: 9 a.m. Monday 12th October 2026
Candidates informed of outcome: Wednesday 21st October 2026
We are in the process of confirming interview dates. Once confirmed, we will update the site and contact those who have applied.
Equal Opportunities Monitoring
Peridot and Get Further are committed to promoting equality and diversity. To help us raise awareness and support a culture that is diverse and recognises and develops the potential of all, we need to appreciate the profile of candidates who apply for positions. We will send you an equality monitoring survey at the point of receiving your application and at the time of placement. This ensures that our processes remain inclusive and equitable throughout, and provides us with important data to help us showcase our impact.
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