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THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
Recruitment Role Profile Form
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Job Title: SU Employability Development Manager
School/Department: Careers and Employability Service (Working out of the Students’ Union)
Salary: £27,578 - £35,938 per annum depending on skills & experience
Job Family and Level: Level 4
Contract Status: Permanent
Hours of Work: Full Time
The Purpose of the New Role:
The Students’ Union and the University Careers and Employability Service want to develop a more conscious path for students to develop career-relevant skills and experience through their time at University. Significant life and skills experience is gained through involvement with the Students’ Union through volunteering, club or society membership, involvement in sport and other activities, employment as student staff, committee membership, events and more. Many students are not conscious of the skills they are gaining or aware of the many opportunities available while studying. The new post of Employability Development Manager will aim to connect the dots.
Looking initially at all the SU employability options available to students and how these can be turned into CV-relevant experience at the point a student needs to be able to do that, the role will quickly develop to grow new ways of supporting students to express and/or gain skills and raise their consciousness about opportunities open to them, ensuring those new ways complement delivery and do not duplicate existing delivery. The role will also look at why some students don’t take up opportunities for involvement, belonging and skills-acquisition and how the benefits of those can be made more compelling so that we help students fulfil their potential and meet their aspirations.
The role will be line managed within the Careers and Employability Service and fully supported by both the SU and the Careers Service as part of a substantial expansion of University provision in this area. This will ensure students are supported in understanding themselves, their aspirations and their opportunities. The role must ensure complementarity of offer and avoid duplication between the SU and University provision.
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Main Responsibilities
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% time per year
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Work with the Students’ Union Employability and Training team to develop and manage the student experience pathway for the Students’ Union employability experience from year 1 to final year that finds students when and where they are in their SU activity/experience. This should be considered in the light of institutional moves to enhance employability both with regard to curricular and extra-curricular work and will involve working closely with colleagues in the Employability Office as well as academic school based teams. This will also involve creating case study examples of progression from extra-curricular activities into specific careers or employment roles
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20%
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Work with staff from the Students’ Union to design and implement innovative complementary employability projects and initiatives linked to student groups, activities and services to enhance skills and behaviours that meet identified employer requirements; this should include liking those activities to the institutional activities and those of the Careers and Employability Service – using the differing approaches to avoid duplication and develop best-practice.
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20%
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Understand and make students aware of the skills and experiences contributing to employability that can be gained from SU activity – this would include use of social media and e-communication and should be planned to be complementary to university activity in this area
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5%
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Undertake research into the availability, relevance and requirements of employability opportunities available to students and the skill, knowledge and attributes required by employers when students enter the post-graduation employment market; make recommendations for developing new or enhanced initiatives, tools and training interventions for within the SU activity that are complementary to University provision.
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10%
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Make use of existing Careers and Employability and Students’ Union resources and recognition events to develop complementary tools that enable students to celebrate and articulate their experiences and achievements and translate those into career-relevant skills and experience. This could be stand alone or related to the Nottingham Advantage Award, and should involve creating consistency across recognition events. This should also include developing effective routes to refer one to one, CV advice clinic etc style support to the University provision and support the development of that provision.
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10%
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Support student activity groups that have an employment, employability or career development focus to ensure that these students can create and deliver these opportunities to their members. Integrate these groups and opportunities into the broader employability provision across the University.
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15%
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Champion the links between University programmes and Union services or initiatives to create a connected route for between institutional activity and SU activity. Helping colleagues across the SU recognise how their work supports students’ employability experience, skills development, deployment of skills and develops their CV and through highlighting that support them in ensuring their services support that awareness in the students themselves. This could include supporting sabbatical officer career development learning programmes.
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5%
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Act as the lead link between the Students’ Union and the Careers and Employability team within the University. Ensuring effective links across Careers and Employability and the Student Union to avoid duplication and encourage development of University services to support the identified needs of the SU. Referring matters to relevant parties as appropriate.
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10%
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Liaison with the Careers Statistics team to analyse data relating to graduate destinations and to use this data to identify where our graduates need additional support in accessing graduate-level vacancies and consider SU activity in this light (avoiding any duplication centrally).
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5%
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Any other activity commensurate for the grade.
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Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications & Experience
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Essential
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Desirable
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Qualifications/ Education
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A good honours degree (or equivalent).
A Qualification in Careers Guidance (QCG) or equivalent.
Or NVQ4 in Advice/Guidance or equivalent.
Or NVQ 4 in Learning and Development, or equivalent.
Or Coaching qualification.
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Skills/Training
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Demonstrable experience of developing careers education/employability materials.
Thorough knowledge of the graduate labour market and the requirements of employers.
Excellent oral communication and presentation skills.
Ability to manage interactive group work sessions with students.
Ability to multi-task, delivering projects of variable sizes effectively.
Ability to identify new opportunities and creative solutions.
Ability to respond effectively to the changing needs of a range of internal and external clients.
Ability to work in a team environment, supporting colleagues and sharing expertise; delivering activity through sharing and nurturing colleagues
Substantial skills in use of social media to engage with student groups.
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Knowledge of e-learning/distance learning methodologies.
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Experience
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Experience of delivering advice to studentsin one-to-one situations.
Experience of working in Student Union and/or University Environments.
Experience of motivating groups of students to focus on employability and/or professional development.
Experience of working in a dynamic environment and through that the development of a ‘can do’ attitude.
Experience of successfully managing expectation.
Experience of working amongst different (often strongly held) agendas associated with the student movement and delivering appropriately and professionally.
Experience of delivering feedback and coaching/advice to students in 1:1 and group situations
Experience of developing and delivering training.
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Experience of working with HE students, preferably in an HE setting.
Experience of working with student societies and associations.
Experience of working with student sports teams and associated groups.
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Statutory/Legal/Personal
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A demonstrable belief in the value of Student Unions and of effective collaboration between Universities and SU’s.
Demonstrable entrepreneurial flair in delivering innovative responses to employability challenges amongst students and graduates.
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Knowledge of legislation relating to working with clients – Disability, Data Protection, Freedom of Information.
National IAG Board Code of Principles.
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Decision Making
i) taken independently by the role holder;
Design and development of new workshops on employability, including the creation of new materials and e-learning support.
Prioritising own workload.
Effective utilisation of a student volunteers..
ii) taken in collaboration with others;
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Development of programmes of support across different areas of the Union
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iii) referred to the appropriate line manager (please name) by the role holder.
Working with partner organisations outside the university.
Any activity likely to challenge either SU or University policy/stance either directly or indirectly.
Spend above agreed budgets.
Decisions which impact negatively upon the impartiality of the Careers and Employability Service.
Scope of the Role
This role is an important addition to the Careers and Employability staff as part of a substantial redevelopment. It needs to balance the needs of the Student Union and the needs of the University through the Careers and Employability Service. The agendas have substantial overlap but also the potential to duplicate. Thus the the post holder will need to be able to manage expectation across both organisations and ensure effectively delivery.
Additional Information
The Careers and Employability Service recognises three key drivers which underpin our expansion:
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Professionalism, innovation, value and impact in all areas of our work
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The impact of the Employability Partnership Agreements with academic schools and the work of the Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) team in delivering services to clients centrally and within faculties
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The work of the Commercial and Operations (COPS) team which adds functional and specialist expertise to our delivery of client services
In delivering the agenda the role will need to be flexible and able to work unsocial hours on a regular basis during the first term of the academic year, and occasionally for the remainder of the year. This would certainly include evenings and occasional weekends and (much less often) early mornings. The role will require travel around the UK from time to time.
This new role has been approved by Management Board in the recent planning round as part of investment seeing 20 new staff join the service. This investment will require a level of return. For that reason we are looking to people with a level of commitment and drive that is beyond the ordinary. If you want to set innovative standards that others can follow and constantly push the boundaries of excellence – in short, if you are beyond the ordinary – then we look forward to your application.
Informal enquiries may be addressed to Jan Perrett, Deputy Director, Careers and Employability Service, 0115 9513674, email: jan.perrett@nottingham.ac.uk. Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.
Please quote ref. LD/028324R-SU.