Becoming a school governor through Amazon

Improve educational outcomes for children in your community

Amazon have partnered with Governors for Schools who are a leading education charity which works with state funded schools across England and Wales to address the shortage of school governance volunteers.

They appoint over 2,000 volunteers just like you every year, providing ongoing support to help them have the greatest impact in their roles. No specific skills or experience are required to apply to become a school governor, just the passion and drive to improve the prospects of children.

The school governance role is open to all Amazon employees and the application all other support provided is entirely free.

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“Being a school governor was transformative. It gave me board-level experience early on in my career, I learned how to manage risks and budgets, and how the highest-order decisions are made – and at the heart of it all was the knowledge that I was helping to improve the lives and outcomes of children. I continue to bring what I learned from my time as a school governor into my work, and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to contribute to their local community, and who has high aspirations for young people’s futures as well as for their own career.”

Eugenie Teasley, Head of Impact at Amazon.

About the role and the impact you can have

School governors are unpaid but incredibly important volunteers who have 3 main responsibilities:

Planning the strategic direction of the school
Overseeing financial performance of the school and ensuring money is well spent
Holding the headteacher or school leadership to account

A school governor’s relationship with the school’s leadership team involves challenging existing processes to drive school improvement. School governors usually attend around six meetings per year. Although becoming a school governor requires drive and commitment, you’ll enjoy many professional and personal rewards, including career development opportunities and the chance to support young people’s futures.

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Watch this short animated video about the impact you can have in a governance role.

Support before and after you become a school governor

As an Amazon employee, you’ll be given additional support in becoming a school governor through our partnership with Governors for Schools. All training is made available to you for free.

You will receive;

Access to the Governors for Schools premium eLearning resource “Become an Effective New Governor” shortly after you apply. This is usually a paid-for resource provided freely to you through the partnership between Amazon and Governors for Schools.
Access to Governors for Schools Skills Development Tracker to track your development as a school governor and reflect on your time spent in role.
Access to additional training events such as the termly Business Governor Network and longer form training series designed to ensure you are up to date with the education sector

All volunteers will receive a named point of contact who will work with you to find you the right opportunity at a school needing someone with your experience and perspective. They will be more than happy to talk through any questions you may have about the role and the process.

Support for school governors

Our training and resources are there to get you up to speed, so that you’re effective from your first day in the role. Your professional experience at Amazon will benefit a school – rest assured that you don’t have to know all the acronyms by your first meeting.

The majority of volunteers placed by Governors for Schools are first time school governors. Bringing an external perspective to discussions is an important aspect of ensuring robust decision making.

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Webinars

See webinars

eLearning

Complete our eLearning modules to gain an overview of what to expect as a school governor, along with key elements of the role, including finance and performance data.

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Any questions about the role? Check out our FAQ section for answers to many of the common questions.

FAQs

Apply today:

If you’re ready to start your governance journey, please don’t hesitate to apply online today. We’ll process your application as quickly as possible.

You can also reach out to [email protected] or [email protected] who are our dedicated partnership leads and will be pleased to answer any questions you may have about the role or the process.

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