Course Development Lead

We currently have an exciting opening for a Course Development Lead based at our Wilmslow office, Cheshire. This will suit an experienced leader who can demonstrate their understanding of excellent, measurable and high-quality professional training and support. They will also understand business development and the critical importance of responding to changing directions and new trends.   

The successful candidate will be a confident, dynamic individual with a strong passion for professional development and who can, with the direction and support of the business directors, lead and make things happen. This is an exceptionally interesting and varied role working with education specialists. To excel in this role you will need to be a strategic thinker who operates in anticipation of business needs and possesses good leadership skills and experience in implementing innovation and change. You must have the ability to think on your feet and should possess strong planning and communication skills.

Main Responsibilities Include:

Continually developing and creating new training in response to changing directions and new trends and filling a critical role in the growth of the business, you will:

• Research, develop and be creative in expanding our range of curriculum and improvement based courses and student conferences  

• Develop existing presenter teams; source new presenters and build up relationships with essential education leads  

• Actively respond to changing directions and new trends, using initiative, market knowledge and analysis, and translate these into new training courses and support programmes 

• Assess and analyse courses, conferences and presenters as part of a continuous process of improving our offer to schools, whilst ensuring the high standards of our training is maintained 

• Understand our customers’ needs and create bespoke in-school training courses and conferences to meet those requirements, across a broad range of schools and institutions 

• Analyse client enquiries to inform current provision and create new training provision

• Be a role model for continuous improvement in the company and manage the critical relationships between our Course Development team and our Events, Marketing, and Finance teams, in order to ensure the smooth and effective running of the business. 

• Ensure that quality is maintained at all times and that the Course Development team and wider teams are dealing with problems as they arise via queries, complaints, course manager reports, or course leader reports. Troubleshoot and preempt any potential problems.

• Work with the sales & marketing team to decide, based on content and analysis, which courses/national conferences/student conferences or other campaigns to promote each week and to agree any relevant mini-marketing campaigns and contribute copy to the sales and marketing team for the purposes of promoting the content of courses and the company’s thought leadership to schools

To apply for this role, you must have:

• Degree or equivalent professional qualifications

• Significant and current knowledge of secondary education, combined with leadership experience.  

• A good level of commercial understanding and a passion for professional business development; excited at the prospect of creating high quality provision

Essential Skills and Competencies

• Significant and current knowledge of secondary education, combined with leadership experience  

• Proven creative skills with an eye for seeing, and developing opportunities and for innovating 

• Strong leadership skills and the ability to build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders 

• Excellent research, analytical, and evaluation skills

• Excellent written/verbal communication skills, including copywriting skills, with an eye for detail and accuracy 

• Strong prioritization/time management skills and ability to work independently and efficiently to a high standard 

• A proven  ‘finisher’, who can get things done to see a job through from start to finish 

• Nimble, agile attitude - embraces change & can cope well with ambiguity 

• High Emotional intelligence (EI)/ Emotional quotient inventory (EQ-i), empathy & self-awareness

• Ambitious & challenging, but within a ‘winning team’ ethos & spirit of respect for colleagues

Desirable but not essential

• Experience of social media marketing

• Demonstrable entrepreneurial skills

Benefits and Terms

• The role is full-time, permanent and  based in our Wilmslow office in Cheshire 

• Salary – starting salary negotiable, from £40,000 

• 30 days holiday per annum  

• Contributory pension scheme (optional)