Industry Director (East London Arts & Music)

Location: Tower Hamlets, UK

Salary: £52,674 - £61,038 (dependent upon relevant experience and current position)

Education Phase: 16 to 19

Working Pattern: Full-Time

Contract Type: Permanent

Application Deadline: Friday, 9th June 2023

About us

ELAM is a world-class 16-19 Academy which offers young people everything that they will need to lead successful lives within the music, games design and film and television industries.

For a long time it has been evident that many creative young people - particularly those from marginalised communities - miss their calling due to a lack of industry opportunities, low-level recognition of their talents and a failure to develop sector relevant skills. We do not believe that circumstance should ever be a barrier to any young person’s ability to realise their potential and we have made it our mission to show how talented young people can thrive and succeed in the creative industries. 

ELAM was founded as a result of a deep and genuine partnership between devoted and visionary educators and professional creative industry collaborators. We are supported by and collaborate with a range of other organisations and individuals - such as Universal Music, YouTube, Sports Interactive, Creative A​​ssembly, Sony Playstation, Microsoft, Space Ape Games and Chucklefish - who share our commitment to talented young people who might not otherwise get the chance to shine. Together, we are able to push pedagogical boundaries and create a truly world-class educational experience for our learners. 

ELAM is not your typical school. We combine incredibly high standards with compassion and care, we aim to be more industry than school. We are looking for innovative, outstanding and dedicated individuals to help us prepare our talented students to thrive in the world they face tomorrow. We can build a learning environment that is rigorous, personalised and always ‘plugged-in’ to the real world.

We genuinely believe that, for the right candidates, this is a rare chance for passionate and creative professionals to become part of the ELAM team as we continue to design, build and deliver our vision for increasingly representative creative industries. If you deeply believe in the potential of talented young people and the possibility of radically changing access routes to the creative industries, please do join us on this journey.

Please see Application Pack below for further details.

Job Description

ELAM was a school born out of industry need and partnership. Success sees our young people - from all backgrounds and particularly from underrepresented backgrounds - entering the creative workforce and thriving. This will only happen if they receive the most plugged-in, industry relevant training on offer anywhere in the UK so that our vision, for all children growing up in the UK seeing themselves reflected in UK culture, is one step closer to being realised.  

The Industry Director is a new role that will draw on aspects of previous roles that had industry as their focus. We are looking for a professional to grow and lead our Industry team, our thinking, our partnerships and our relevance so that we can deliver our vision for our Trainees and Alumni for years to come. They will do this through their exceptional abilities in partnership building, industry influencing, organisational development and team leadership. Over time they will lead a team that - subject to funding - will be recruited to lead different aspects of our provision. 

The Industry Director will be someone who is confident and credible in different environments; as a leader at ELAM, with creative industry professionals and leaders as well as with young people. They will be a strong communicator, able to both synthesise and compellingly present the vision of ELAM to increase our reach and influence within the creative industries. They will be partnership-orientated - seeing the opportunities for developing long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with partners across the film, tv, music and games industries. As we recruit our industry team they will also be the teams’ lead and focussed on their performance and development.

A significant outcome of the industry partnerships developed will be the direct input and development of our curriculum by industry. These partnerships will primarily support our creative strands (Film, Games and Music) by connecting them with industry partners. These partners are crucial as they ensure that our curriculum and the projects we offer are the most relevant and ‘plugged in’ to the creative industries. We work with our industry partners throughout the whole lifecycle of each 8 week project - we agree the brief and have our partners involved throughout so they - and the Trainees - engage in a real-world collaboration. Through this collaboration we can continually hone the projects, ensuring we are focussed on the right skills and behaviours to give our Trainees the best chance of future success. 

In addition to the project-based curriculum, the Industry Director will oversee the coordination of ELAM’s work experience and mentoring programmes. They and their team will act as the direct liaison between ELAM and our industry partners and ensure that they drive transformative professional development of ELAM’s Trainees.

As partnerships develop this will also involve working closely with colleagues in our fundraising team to co-develop opportunities with partners for fundraising, stewarding existing partners and exploring new partnerships to support and improve trainees’ readiness for industry progression. 

ELAM’s industry ethos and values will influence the work of all of our staff as they construct powerful and relevant learning experiences that are industry relevant. This role will play an important part in creating this ethos and continuing the momentum built up with our partners who are increasingly seeing the value-proposition of our Trainees and Alumni in their organisations. 

We have a structure for an industry team that we believe can deliver on our vision. Putting this team together will rely on securing external funding and we have a dedicated fundraiser as part of the Screen Academy Foundation (SAF) to support this. 

Please see Application Pack below for further details.

Benefits

• Great opportunities for CPD and professional growth 
• Termly wellbeing days
• Seasonal ticket loan scheme
• Staff Cycle to work Scheme 
• Yearly appraisal and pay review
• Highly supportive staff team 
• Local Government pension scheme (LGPS)
• Central location and excellent transport links
• Friendly and diverse student and staff community
• Outstanding facilities and resources to support teaching and learning

Essential Criteria

To safeguard our trainees, the post for which you are applying is exempt from Section 4(2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Scheme certificate will be obtained before an offer of employment is confirmed.