Regional Manager North West England

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Candidate brief

December 2013

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BACKGROUND

Career Academies UK has been building bridges between the classroom and the boardroom since 2002. Our Career Academy model is revolutionising partnerships between employers and teachers, transforming lives along the way. We recognise the potential in students from all backgrounds, and help them to take their first steps into the world of work. A registered charity, our organisation is funded by a combination of membership fees from schools and colleges, charitable donations from corporate supporters and grants from local government and charitable foundations.

Career Academies UK currently works with over 140 schools and further education colleges. Many schools and colleges now run more than one Career Academy, each on a different theme, meeting the needs of students on different courses with differing career aspirations.

To date, the Career Academy movement in the UK has produced over 4,500 graduates. Another 3,500 students are currently on the programmes. Almost 85% of Career Academy students progress to either university (often the first in their family) or into employment with further training. We now run two programmes:

1.Our long standing Career Academy programme. Students follow a rigorous two-year enrichment programme alongside a curriculum equivalent to three A levels, enabling students to progress to higher education or the world of work.This may include vocational qualifications such as BTEC or Higher National Diplomas. An additional ‘employability’ component also forms part of the student’s programme of study.

Themes currently include Finance, IT, Marketing & Communications, Media, Applied Science and Engineering.

2.Our new Career Ready programme. This was launched as a pilot in September 2013 to offer a distilled version of our core programme to students in Year 12. Career Ready is a one-year structuredprogramme built around five core employability masterclasses, coupled with e-mentoring and evaluation on a digital platform.

Job Description

Regional Manager North West England

Responsible to: The Lead Manager Northern England

Purpose of job

To grow, develop and deliver all aspects of the day-to-day account management of:

Schools and colleges running a Career Academy within the region

Employer supporters

Corporate supporters, stakeholders and partners.

Region is defined as: Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and North Wales.

Main tasks

Regional management

Recruit new affiliate schools and colleges to the network from the dedicated region in accordance with the strategic growth plan for priority target areas. Manage their induction, training, activities prior to launch and implementation of the Career Academy model.

Account manage on a day-to-day basis all affiliated schools and colleges who are running a Career Academy. This will require support visits, managing events for students and corporate supporters, conducting Quality Assurance visits.
Provide regular communication and reporting to the Lead Manager Northern England and to London.
Work in close co-operation with the Regional Managers for Yorkshire and Humber and North East England to provide a co-ordinated approach to the wider Northern Region, which could include joint regional events and on occasions covering for each other.
Promote the contribution of Career Academies and awareness of Career Academies UK to potential supporters, and assist in engaging their commitment to give both practical and financial support.

Account manage relationships with regional and local corporate supporters and regional or local operations of national corporate supporters. This will include annual account management meetings as well as regular 'keep in touch' communication.

Attend Local Advisory Boards at a city or affiliated school or college level.

Recruit and manage mentor volunteers against targets.

Ensure that all regional management information is submitted to the national database in a timely and accurate way.

Support the schools and colleges in delivery of the six week paid internship process.

National and strategic management

Contribute to the corporate work of Career Academies UK.

With the Executive Director and Lead Manager Northern England, monitor the state of Career Academies UK in the North West and seek ways to promote its achievements and improve the service given by the central staff team.

With the National STEM development Manager help maximise our opportunities with STEM sector employers and STEM themed Career Academies and their students within the North West Region. Given the nature of industrial sectors within the region this will be a particularly important part of the role.
With the Executive Director , all Lead Regional Managers and the other Regional Managers, develop the role of the regional teams. This will require attendance at regular meetings of all the Regional Managers and training days.

Profile raising

In conjunction with other senior staff and the marketing function, work to raise the profile of Career Academies UK in the North Westand its key stakeholders in the regional and local media, business and education communities.

Undertake public speaking and media engagements as required to promote the work of Career Academies UK in the North West.

Events

Assist affiliated schools and colleges in the dedicated region to plan, manage and run events to promote their Career Academy to potential corporate supporters, students, parents / carers and the local community, and be prepared to present at such events.

Attendance at national Career Academy events such school and college training events, Capital Experience and Graduation.

Arrange and manage regional events including mentor marketing briefings, inductions and ice-breakers, regional network meetings, Internship briefings and other student events including CV and interview techniques courses.

Plan and run a programme of high quality events for students, teachers and corporate supporters at regional and national levels in conjunction with the events management team (to include generating the funds to enable the events to take place).

General

Promote a commitment to high standards of service, and to equality of opportunity through leadership, policy development and good practice.

Skills and attributes required:

Target driven, but able to balance financial and non-financial objectives.

Entrepreneurial with the ability to follow through and achieve results.
Forward planner with excellent time management skills.

Able to deliver targets and objectives, often alone and without additional resource, but also to rise above the detail and take a strategic perspective.

Able to communicate effectively in a wide variety of situations, including formal speaking engagements to large audiences.
Able to reach, network with and communicate to a wide range of stakeholders and potential stakeholders including main board members of major multi national organisations, senior figures in national and local government, Principals of schools and colleges and students.

Able to operate corporately as part of the Career Academies UK team.

Consultative and supportive management style.
Skilled negotiator, internally and externally.
Ability to use databases, Word, excel, Powerpoint and other ‘Office’ packages.
Be prepared to spend 6 days per year (approx) in our central office, currently located at Canary Wharf, London or at other events around the UK.

Location

Regionally based, working from home in addition toattendance at our offices at Canary Wharf, London, E14 5LB

as required. This role requires very regular travel throughout the region and must have access to a reliable car, although train travel is encouraged whenever practicable.

Other

The ability and willingness to travel is essential as is a flexible approach to working hours as ‘out of hours’ meetings are common within the requirements of this role.

Please be aware that this post is subject to an enhanced DBScheck.

Experience

Either

Minimum three years in a senior education role. Experience could have been gained in schools, FE colleges or not-for-profit organisations, but the successful applicant must be able to gain credibility with senior managers in a variety of educational institutions

Minimum five years experience in a large not for profit organisation involved with young people

Minimum three years experience in a community development or Corporate Social Responsibility role in a large company.

And

Evidence of commercial awareness and proven experience of accountmanagement.

SALARY and BENEFITS

£29,000-£33,000pa, depending upon experience.

A working from home allowance of £200 is provided.

25 days holiday pa plus public holidays..

6% of salary contribution to a private pension subject to an employee contribution of 2.5%.

Business expenses including mileage allowance for car usage.

HOURS OF WORK

This is a full time role and there will be a requirement to work occasional evenings if events are planned and therefore candidates must be able to offer some flexibility on this. We in turn recognise this flexibility and the need to balance hours worked accordingly.

TIMETABLE

Closing date for applications17th January 2014

First stage interviews by end January 2014

Final interviews by mid February 2014

Candidate takes up post March/April 2014

TO APPLY

Please send your CV, and a covering letter by post or (preferably) email to:

Debbie Farrell

Career Academies UK

25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London E14 5LB

Email:

Phone: 020 7986 5494

If you require any further information or would like to discuss anything in more detail, please contact Martyn Drain, who would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Visit our website

Chairman: Dr Heather McGregor Registered Charity Number: 1092891

Executive Director: Anne Spackman Registered Company Number: 04428178