Placement & Employability Coach

PURPOSE

Supporting the college’s Careers Leader and Work Experience Development Officers to administer, monitor, and implement the college’s careers and employability programmes and work placement strategy. Acting as the first point of contact for students regarding work placement queries and to maintain regular contact with students during placement activity to ensure successful completion of the placement. Providing placement support within curriculum. Ensuring that strong links are maintained between the, Careers Leader, Work Experience Development Team and Curriculum areas.

• Undertake college liaison activity with students for the purpose of encouraging appropriate work placement and self-placement opportunities, developing the necessary skills and confidence needed to succeed
• Work closely with the Careers Leader and Work Experience Development Officers to identify students who require a placement and work with them to implement a programme for students to seek work experience placements
• Support students in understanding the variety of careers and employability opportunities available to them and how the work placement benefits the student’s aspirations.
• Provide administrative support under the direction of the Work Experience Development Officers to ensure that work experience/ employer placements are vetted for health and safety in line with the Work Experience Policy
• Monitor administrative processes to ensure that appropriate staff, including the Placement and Employability Coach, are effectively recording placement activity using the appropriate systems, including the Connect database.
• Strive to achieve consistently outstanding provision.

DUTIES

• To act as first point of contact for any student queries regarding work experience and placements
• To work under the direction of the Careers Leader with guidance from the Work Experience Development Officers (WEDOs) to ensure a consistent, planned, high quality approach to work placement activity is achieved and maintained across the college
• Promote and foster a collaborative approach to work placement activity between Curriculum, Student Support Tutors, and the WEDOs
• Work alongside the WEDOs and Curriculum staff to ensure that all learners are provided with pre-placement, placement, and post-placement support as required to ensure that learners, employers and the college benefit from a high quality service
• Monitor activities related to work placements delivered through the tutorial programme and provide feedback to the WEDOs to ensure learner entitlement to pre-placement preparation is consistently achieved across the college
• To check the details of the proposed placements and feedback any discrepancies to students and tutors to ensure these are resolved prior to placement
• To carry out low level risk assessments with employers primarily by phone / email and refer medium / high level risk assessments to the WEDOs
• Work with tutors to ensure learning materials are utilised effectively within the tutorial programme and that appropriate systems, e.g. the Connect database / app, are fully utilised to capture work experience details
• Promote the use of Connect and other agreed systems with appropriate stakeholders to prepare for, log and reflect on work placement activity, guiding users through the process as required
• Work in an engaging way to encourage staff and learners to engage positively with the work experience process
• Support the Careers Leader in driving forward the number of learners attending the Destinations Lounge at each campus, implementing relevant interactive activities for students to enjoy
• Support the quality assurance process under the direction of the Careers Leader and WEDOs as required
• Ensure all communication with employers is followed up in a timely fashion and recorded according to the guidelines set out in the college’s work experience policy
• Support the WEDOs in ensuring the college continues to meet audit requirements including the accurate recording of all learners’ placement hours
• Support with undertaking a full range of promotional activities including careers fairs and other relevant activities
• Provide administrative support within the Work Experience and Careers functions
• To work flexibly to support the college’s work experience and careers strategies as required
• To adhere to all college policies and procedures including GDPR.

SALARY SCALE: £14,753.41 - £15,939.27 per annum

HOURS OF DUTY: 36 hours per week, Term Time Only (40 weeks worked)

FIXED TERM: 2x Roles, set to last until the end of the Academic Year 2018/19.

CLOSING DATE: 22nd October 2018, 9am