Non Executive Directorships

Further Education Adviser

Location: London + nationwide travel

Date Posted: 10/11/2020

Closing Date: 02/12/2020

£600/day up to 200 days/year

Vacancy Description

The role

FE Advisers work across the following areas to support the FE Commissioner:

Diagnostic assessments: supporting colleges that are at risk from a quality and/or financial perspective (but have not reached a trigger for formal intervention) by looking at their approach to managing the risks they face.
Intervention assessments: assessing the capacity of the existing governance and leadership of a college to deliver rapid and sustainable improvements where serious weaknesses have been identified. These may be followed up with stocktake visits to review the progress of the college against the recommendations made in the intervention report.
FE Commissioner local provision reviews: examining the options for achieving long term sustainable provision in a local area where the issues in a local area cannot be solved by looking at individual institutions in isolation.
FE Commissioner led Structure and Prospects Appraisals: a structured way of assessing options to change a college’s structure and/or provision in a clear, objective and evidence based way.

Key responsibilities

As an FE Adviser, you will work as part of a team with the FE Commissioner, Deputy FE Commissioners and other Advisers. FE Advisers are generally either finance or curriculum and quality specialists and we are looking for candidates from both backgrounds to help grow our team.

In this exciting and demanding role you will support colleges through carrying out Diagnostic Assessments, designed to help them to improve the quality of education for learners, strengthen financial resilience, improve the quality of leadership and reduce the risk of interventions.

Where necessary, you will undertake formal interventions when serious weaknesses and risk of failure have been identified, including assessing the capacity of the existing governance and leadership to deliver rapid, sustainable improvement, and making recommendations to secure improvement. Your work will help to determine the best way further education can be delivered in any given area. You will take account of the needs of learners, employers, national and local FE policies, and value for money as part of the Government’s approach to support FE colleges and other FE institutions. You will show resilience and the capacity to maintain a positive approach in challenging circumstances.

You will work as an integrated part of the Department for Education (DfE)’s overall approach to intervention, within the context of the ESFA case management approach. As such you will work closely with teams within ESFA, as well as the wider DfE and Ofsted.

Person Specification

Successful candidates will be required to demonstrate:

The ability to lead and influence complex change within a further education context, including to develop and implement quality and improvement and finance strategies, delivering at pace
Outstanding analytical, written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to write clear, concise reports
The ability to influence, persuade and engage stakeholders at the highest levels, in addition to excellent management and interpersonal skills
The ability to work effectively with ministers, civil servants, college leaders and other stakeholders.
Only applicable for those applying to be a finance specialist FE Adviser – A chartered accountancy qualification and extensive senior level experience of managing college finances successfully

How to Apply

Please submit the following documents by email to: FE.Commissioner@education.gov.uk

A CV.
Candidate application form. You will need to demonstrate clearly how you meet each of the essential criteria (max 300 words per criteria – if this is exceeded only the first 300 words will be considered).
Diversity form.

Please include the vacancy title in the subject box and submit each application document as a separate attachment

Apply here

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Other Positions Available:

Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board – Vice Chair (Welsh Desirable)

Location: Abercynon, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, with travel

Date Posted: 18/01/2021

Closing Date: 08/02/2021