About Us

The King’s community is dedicated to the service of society. King’s Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world. Our ambitious Education Strategy sets out the actions that we must take to transform how we teach, how and where our students learn and how we support them during their time with us. 

We pride ourselves on being the trusted partner of choice in sourcing and developing talent for organisations around the world. King’s Careers & Employability seeks to enable and empower students, recent alumni, and researchers from all disciplines and walks of life, to gain the knowledge, skills and experiences they need to effectively navigate their lives and careers after university and achieve lifelong success. Our Work-based Learning unit brings together our Work-related Learning and Global Placements teams, supporting students and employers to undertake meaningful work experiences across a range of provision, developing innovative partnerships and opportunities for key student demographics.

We are part of the Students & Education Directorate, a collection of wide-ranging professional services in place to support King’s students and their education. As a directorate we manage the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King’s faculties to do so. 

About The Role

The Head of Work-based Learning will lead and manage our evolving Work-based Learning Unit, comprising our Work-related Learning and Global Placements teams. 

They will be a subject matter expert in the key operational service areas of work-based and experiential learning including industry placements, internships and broader work-related learning provision, ensuring that senior colleagues in the wider Directorate and across King’s are fully supported with effective processes and systems across a wide range of business and operational workstreams.

They will have operational responsibility for a defined portfolio of education and student professional services across King’s including:

• multi-faceted work-related learning programmes building confidence for undergraduate and postgraduate research students still exploring their career thinking.
• extra-curricular internships dedicated to under-represented groups in higher education and other bespoke programming enriching the King’s student and researcher experience.
• curricular internships modules, development and deployment of Shell module frameworks and assessment across faculty in both physical and digital form.
• growing industry placement delivery on behalf of faculty including oversight of the institutional framework for delivery which includes full lifecycle support to students and employer stakeholders, learning journeys and student safeguarding.
• Consultancy and advisory services to senior academics and researchers on work-related/based learning ambitions and idea development.

They will work within and across teams and functions, engaging with a wide range of colleagues internally and engaging with industry and other external connections and organisations. They will contribute and lead on activities which positively impact the student experience. This includes ensuring:

• Close working with their Associate Director, and across organisational boundaries, to identify and action opportunities to improve efficiency and consistency of Work-based learning delivery.
• Efficient resource utilisation and organisation of work resources within their Unit.
• Proactive engagement with service users and stakeholders both internally and externally to facilitate mutually effective working relationships.
• Their Unit embeds a culture of service, transparency and continuous improvement of programming delivery and advisory support to faculty and professional services colleagues across King’s.

The Head of Work-based Learning will have an understanding of the priorities, cultures and pressures of a research-led university and of academic processes and the structure of the academic year, managing (currently) up to eight staff and deputising for the Associate Director as necessary.

Alongside successful delivery of programming, the postholder will be required to liaise closely with faculty in the development of staff, some of whom have a matrix-management alignment with faculty, and with colleagues across King’s Careers & Employability.

This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking to lead a multi-faceted portfolio, and who wish to utilise their skills and expertise in work-based learning, placement management and academic engagement. This is an opportunity to grow your skills in leadership, academic pedagogy and programme development.

We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role.

This is a full-time post (35 Hours per week) requiring regular engagement on campus, and you will be offered an indefinite contract, but we welcome applications from candidates seeking a flexible working pattern within necessary service operating norms. Some evening and weekend working will be necessary on occasion.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Relevant work experience and/or education: We think a wide range of different work and educational experiences could support you to be successful in this role. Relevant work experience might include work in higher education careers management, human resources or graduate recruitment, organisational learning & development or student support services. Relevant educational experiences might include a higher education degree or professional qualifications.
2. Ability to engage in collaborative working across King’s professional services, Faculties, and academic and student communities, with a meaningful and visible commitment to Diversity & Inclusion policies and practices.
3. Experience of working in a federated environment where facilitation and networking skills are core to resolving complex cross departmental problems.
4. Strong experience of writing policies and procedural documents, reports for committee and ability to translate complex information into easily understood language and frameworks for given audiences.
5. Ability to conduct budgetary / resource / financial management decisions relating to Unit delivery and engage with key suppliers and technology solutions to evaluate return on investment and spend.
6. Ability to interpret trends and patterns in data to inform strategic decisions, evaluate programme and team delivery for senior leadership.
7. Expert knowledge of work-based/related learning activity and related policies and processes related to employer engagement, student duty of care, health & safety and risk compliance.
8. Expert knowledge in managing, leading and developing a multi-faceted team including matrix-management of certain line reports with faculty.
9. Expert knowledge of sensitivities of personal data and compliance with General Data Protection legislation and key internal data compliance undertakings within higher education.
10. Ability to build and engage with internal and external networks that support successful delivery of the role and Unit (e.g. professional and membership bodies, internal strategic groups, task & finish groups etc.) ensuring responsibility for coordinated professional development.

Desirable criteria

1. Adept at maintaining progress on multiple agendas and projects simultaneously
2. An understanding and working knowledge of governance in the higher education sector, and the regulatory and legal arrangements for UK university governance
3. A professional qualification in higher education learning and teaching, careers management or assessment.
4. An understanding of employer and labour market trends in both the UK and key international markets for King’s students.

Full details of the role and the skills and experience required can be found in the attached job description which is provided on the next page.

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Interviews and assessment are due to be held on Monday 5 August (first round), with those successful in passing the first round invited for final interview on Tuesday 13 August.

This role does not meet the requirements of the Home Office and therefore we are not able to offer sponsorship for candidates who require the right to work in the UK.