London agency academy receives Ofsted accreditation

Dexters has become the first estate agent in the UK to gain an Ofsted accreditation for its academy.

The agency’s academy invests in coaching and developing all colleagues including school-leavers and graduates, to become qualified professional estate agents. 

A report by Ofsted praised the London agent’s academy, recognising that “leaders create a supportive culture and are ambitious to recruit, retain and develop future leaders of the business.”

It said “apprentices can confidently provide help and advice to clients through their thorough understanding of the estate agency profession.”

Dexters employs more than 2,000 colleagues, with almost half having achieved professional qualifications including RICS memberships. In addition, Dexters currently has more than 250 people working towards their professional apprenticeship qualification.

Ofsted reported trainees' positive attitude towards their studies, the supportive culture in which they thrived, and the speed with which they gained a knowledge of their profession.

Andy Shepherd, chief executive of Dexters, said: “Dexters was the UK’s first estate agency employment training provider, and now we have achieved another industry milestone, this time as the UK’s first estate agent to gain accreditation by Ofsted for our dedicated Dexters Training Academy. 

“Our strategy is to invest in our people and recruit, train, retain and develop future leaders of the business, and our training programme has now been officially and independently recognised by Ofsted. We have always agreed with the Government that estate agents should be suitably professionally trained and qualified to ensure they can give the very best expert advice to customers. 

“At Dexters our vision is to deliver this through investing in and nurturing the finest talents, as part of our ‘spend your career with us’ culture, about 90% of our management have risen from our own in-house training programme, I am hugely excited about working with the next generation of Dexters Academy graduates.”