Head of Faculty – Digital Apprenticeships

Nature of the role:  This is ideally a part-time position (0.6-0.8FTE)

Location and travel: the post holder will be required to work from our site in Whitechapel.

Start date:  1 February 2021.

Closing date for applications: 18 January 2021 at 11.00. Please note, we begin screening applications and interviewing candidates from the start of an advertising campaign and a successful candidate could progress to the offer stage before the above closing date. We therefore encourage you to apply as soon as possible if this looks like the role for you. 

Welcome to Ada!

We are looking for a digital leader who is inspired by Ada’s mission and who is keen to work with our community of apprentices to support them to learn the knowledge and skills to become the next generation of technical talent in some of the UK’s most prestigious organisations.

We are a specialist digital skills college with deep industry relationships. Our mission is to support young people with an interest in tech into fantastic roles in the sector, transforming their lives in the process. We have a significant focus on recruiting those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to promote positive social mobility, and young women, to address the gender disparity in the sector.

From a standing start in May 2017, we have grown rapidly to work with over 40 blue-chip companies such as Deloitte, Expedia and Sainsbury’s. We now have over 230 apprentices on roll across our three higher-level digital apprenticeship programmes: Software Developer, Data Analyst and IT Consultant. 33% of our apprentices are young women, 33% are BAME and 25% come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

You will lead a growing academic team to new levels of excellence, pushing the bar on how to educate and prepare the next generation of tech talent. Quality cannot be compromised so a sharp focus on scalable processes and professional coaching and development must be created and embedded by you and the team.

You will be focused on ensuring that we consistently deliver high-quality modules of learning that provide an outstanding educational experience for our students. Furthermore, they need to lead on the shaping of our future curriculum to meet the changing demands of the workplace and surpass our industry partners’ expectations. This can only be achieved by fostering a continuous evolving learning environment built on excellent communication, feedback and professional development within the team.

In the next three years, you will lead the team into larger state-of-the-art facilities, develop our teacher training capabilities, improve educational continuity from our digital Sixth Form, introduce new higher level and degree qualifications, ensure alignment with our Manchester apprenticeship pilot and oversee our application for degree-awarding powers.

The Role:

We are looking for someone who is passionate about leading, co-ordinating and continuously improving the teaching, learning and assessment of Ada’s apprenticeship programmes. Our apprentices need to learn the basics that will enable them to perform in their jobs and then begin to develop a broad skill set and ultimately start to specialise in areas in which they are passionate. To achieve at every stage of their journey, they need a teaching team that is equipped with the knowledge and pedagogical skills needed to effectively train them.

The appointed person will have experience of teaching and leading learning and share our determination to deliver outstanding apprenticeships. They will work with Ada’s Leadership Team to ensure that the college provides high quality, demand-led training and development opportunities to support apprentices to learn and develop effectively and meet the needs of our prestigious industry and academic partners.

You will oversee the 20% in-house academic learning and coordinate with the workplace lead to provide an integrated educational experience when the apprentices are at their employer. This is 80% of the time during their 2 or 3-year programme. We use a block release model so we teach modules for periods of one week and we typically see each cohort every 6 weeks. Students meet the apprenticeship standards through an integrated programme of knowledge, skills and behaviours which are evidenced both on and off the industry partners’ site.

We pride ourselves on meeting our learners where they are and we prioritise face-to-face learning as the majority of our learners are not yet independent. Three-quarters of our apprentices are under 20 years old and have only had educational experiences which are classroom based. We are therefore passionate about delivering high quality teaching in the classroom and engaging our industry partners to make that as insightful, practical and useful as possible. In addition, we are increasingly developing appropriate blended learning resources and are keen for you to take a lead on taking both forms of delivery to the next level. In addition, you will be expected to represent Ada in a variety of different industry and academic forums alongside the Dean and other members of the College’s Leadership and Governance team as appropriate. The candidate will be line managed by the Dean and co-founder of Ada.

Responsibilities include:

Planning

• Planning, organising and oversight of all aspects of delivery of the College’s degree apprenticeships academic programmes.
• Developing and delivering operational plans that are designed to maximise learner completions and secure the future viability, growth and development of provision.
• Leading on curriculum development in conjunction with key managers, developing a suite of apprentice frameworks that meet employer demand which are achievable and cost-effective to deliver.

Management

The appointed person will have line management responsibility for a number of direct reports in the apprenticeship academic team. Key to the role is building a team of lecturers, developing and motivating the team, along with individual and team capability to achieve ongoing success.

Specifically:

• Providing leadership, direction and motivation ensuring direct reports and all academic staff carry out their work in an efficient and effective manner. This includes supporting lecturers and other staff to continue to update their knowledge, understand the evolving practices and technology used by industry and improve the quality of their teaching and delivery of materials
• Setting challenging but realistic targets, plans and budgets and through guidance and support, help departmental staff achieve the required results.
• Coaching & mentoring to develop an effective and highly productive team that are focused on quality leading to good outcomes.
• Establishing, developing and maintaining professional working relationships with colleagues.

Operations

• Ensuring the effective resourcing of all modules through careful budget projections and management related to in-house and contractor lecturers
• Produce monthly and annual performance reporting for the College’s Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and lead on the annual self-assessment processes and related Ofsted/OFS Inspections for the area.
• Managing academic budgets to operate within approved margins, monitoring and approving all programme expenditures.
• Working with the Dean and Finance colleagues to manage the allocated budget and set this on an annual basis based on forward planning.

Regulatory

• Maintaining robust quality systems that support lecturers and other relevant staff to improve their teaching and assessment.
• Ensuring systems are compliant with the requirements of funding & awarding bodies which lead to good teaching and learning and improved outcomes.
• Maintaining health, safety & welfare (including safeguarding) of staff, visitors, learners and apprentices, linked to the department.
• Leading, in close liaison with the HR Department on recruitment, retention and performance management

Other Duties

• Analysing and highlighting new market opportunities, issues, trends, development needs and diversification strategies.
• Participating in relevant and appropriate training and development as required.
• Maintaining effective communication streams internally and externally.
• Any other duties commensurate with the level of responsibility of this post, for which the post holder has the necessary experience and/or training and as instructed by the College.

Please apply via the link below