Education Associate

Are you an outstanding teacher, who wants to transform how schools and colleges build the essential skills of their students?

The Skills Builder Partnership is an award-winning social enterprise. Our mission is to ensure that one day, everyone builds the skills, experiences and aspirations to succeed – beyond just a set of qualifications. 

We do this through supporting schools with an award-winning curriculum and support to build their students’ essential skills, from 3- to 18-year-olds. We are leading the Skills Builder Partnership, which includes over 500 schools and colleges, 70 skills-building organisations and 130 top employers including hospitals, airports and leading international companies. 

We are looking for self-starters with a collaborative, entrepreneurial approach; comfortable working with students and presenting to school and college leaders, and with a passion for education. 

We want individuals who will be dedicated to building and maintaining a network of schools and partners and supporting them to embed our principles and framework into their institutions with outstanding impact. 

To build credibility, we are looking for evidence of high-quality teaching practice in a primary or secondary school in the UK in any subject specialism. We are also looking for someone with strong evidence of relationship building, including the ability to influence senior leaders.

From our three offices in London, Birmingham and Leeds, we currently work with over 130,000 students in schools across the country. We are in a period of strong growth, with backing from sector leading organisations including the CBI, the National Education Union and the Careers & Enterprise Company.

Our Education Associates typically take on more responsibility and strategic and innovation projects as they progress through the organisation. There are opportunities to develop a broad range of skills and experience in different sectors.    

If you want to be part of an inspiring team, and benefit from opportunities for rapid growth, development and challenge, we want to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities:

(1) Programme Delivery 

● Working with senior leaders in schools and colleges to build the Skills Builder approach into their institutions’ ethos and priorities 

● Training and supporting teachers to become confident in building the essential skills of their students

● Delivering some elements of our programmes directly, such as Challenge Days in school or trips to employers

● Driving consistency using established systems and processes 

(2) School and College Relationship Management 

● Building excellent relationships with a group of schools and colleges

● Setting clear partnership objectives and demonstrating the impact of programmes

● Working with schools to achieve the six principles for effective essential skills development

● Ensuring the continued engagement of schools through re-enrolment, and by engaging them with additional programme elements

(3) Curriculum Planning 

● Planning new curriculum content for our programmes

● Identifying and implementing improvements to existing curriculum content

(4) School and college engagement 

● Building networks of schools and colleges and employer partners to strengthen the Partnership’s profile, reach and impact in each of the regions.

Key Skills and Attributes:

● Passion for Learning and Education: An experienced and qualified teacher, you will be someone who loves learning and working with children and young people, with a passion for innovative education practice, and always trying to improve your own teaching. 

● Relationship Building: We are looking for experience of developing networks to build and maintain effective relationships, and an aptitude for being able to engage new schools with our programmes. This will help you to build the close partnerships we need to support our schools in delivering more enterprising learning.

● Problem-Solving: We need people who are confident at problem-solving, often on the spot and with senior leaders, to ensure that we can effectively provide consultancy-style support. Our partners vary considerably so the ability to be able to effectively analyse their needs and generate and evaluate solutions and approaches is vital for progression.

● Delivering at Pace: This role requires the management of a full and varied workload, and you need to be someone who gets stuff done – on time, and to exacting standards. You will be able to work independently whilst also being an effective team player.  

● Self-Motivation and Ownership: With resilience, you will thrive on responsibility, and taking ownership of your work. You will enjoy achieving and have a proven record of delivering on ambitious outcomes and educational targets and taking the lead on new innovations. 

● Potential for Leadership: As a highly ambitious social enterprise, we can only grow as fast as it can recruit and retain the most talented team. We need people who want to push themselves to grow and develop into leaders.

Terms & Conditions:

Salary: £28,000-£34,000 subject to review in 12 months 

Start Date: 6th January 2019 

Working hours: 40 hours per week, although due to working with schools across the country, occasional early starts and evening work will be needed 

Holidays: 25 days per year, plus bank holidays

Contract length: Permanent

Location: The role will be based out of either our London, Birmingham or Leeds offices and will involve travel, primarily across the respective region, as well as occasionally to other regions and offices. A driving licence and access to a car is therefore necessary for the Midlands and Yorkshire & the Humber.

Application Process:

Applications should be made via our online form - on completion of the online application please also send your CV by email to jobs@skillsbuilder.org. This round of applications ends at 9am on Friday 18th October 2019 with interviews taking place on Tuesday 22nd October 2019.  

Applicants are encouraged to explore our work at www.skillsbuilder.org before applying. 

The Skills Builder Partnership is an equal opportunities employer, and actively encourages applications from all qualified individuals.