Faculty Engagement Manager- Careers Service

Salary: £33,966 to £36,024 with progression to £44,263 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 14 April 2024

The Role

The Student Success Unit is responsible for developing and supporting the delivery of an outstanding and distinctive student experience ensuring the most effective education experience possible. As part of Student Success, the Careers Service supports all students and recent graduates towards a positive graduate outcome through bridging the gap between university and employment/self-employment/further study by means of effective learning and development.

We are looking to engage with an experienced careers professional to join our fast paced and forward-thinking Careers Service as a Faculty Engagement Manager. You will play a crucial role in helping students from across the University to identify and progress into a variety of highly fulfilling career destinations, by building collaborative partnerships across teams and departments. You will lead a team of Careers and Employability Consultants, bringing together colleagues from the Careers Service and within the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering (SAgE), utilising your expertise to support colleagues in embedding careers and employability education in and alongside the curriculum.  This newly created position offers an exciting opportunity to further enhance our careers support to students both centrally within the Careers Service and within their Academic Schools.

The ideal candidate will have strong stakeholder management skills, a relevant HE/ Careers Education qualification or the aptitude/ motivation to work towards one.

Applications are particularly welcome from candidates with experience of working with related industries.

This is an exciting opportunity to make a genuine difference to our student futures. If this sounds like a role for you then we would love to hear from you. Informal enquiries are welcomed and should be addressed to chris.traynor@newcastle.ac.uk

Key Accountabilities

• In collaboration with colleagues and with support from senior managers in the service, be the Careers Service key liaison with your designated faculty to identify opportunities for collaboration in the development and delivery of discipline relevant employability and enterprise skill enhancement experiences for students
• Work with colleagues in your team and the Faculty, with support from the Senior Management Team, to embed employability, enterprise and skills in the curriculum in a scalable and sustainable way
• Working with other Faculty Engagement Managers, take a lead role in planning, organising and curating a programme of centrally delivered careers education advice and guidance support to students from across the institution this could include provision of 1-1 student appointments, centrally delivered careers events, workshops, curricular and extra curricular programmes
• Lead and support your Faculty Careers & Employability Team in managing their caseload in line with their role of providing a consultancy service to Academic Schools, advising stakeholders on the best ways to support and develop students’ employability and enterprise skills
• Support your team in prioritising demand and managing the expectations of students and stakeholders, in line with team member specialities, our central offer and faculty development opportunities
• Work in collaboration with your Faculty Careers & Employability Team, to develop ideas, initiate and manage change to support Service level objectives and ensuring that their work is joined up appropriately and the interfaces with other team functions effectively
• With support from colleagues across the Service and university, develop a Faculty Engagement strategy to ensure Newcastle University remains a highly targeted institution by students and employers. This will include aligning communications with key stakeholders for example, regular attendance at Faculty Education Committees and engagement with any industrial liaison office and professional liaison networks
• Represent the Careers Service at faculty level to ensure students, internal stakeholders and employers understand how the Careers Service can add value and ensure any potential duplication in provision is mitigated
• In line with our Careers & Employability Strategic Plan and faculty priorities, agree on an annual basis, the overall direction for the delivery of employability and enterprise provision in your faculty, guiding your team to utilise appropriate management information, ensuring that clear priorities are agreed in advance and colleagues are supported in the development, negotiation, and delivery and monitoring of annual plans for their areas of responsibility
• Work with the Senior Manager Careers and Employability to plan and manage team budgets, taking responsibility for budgets related to events and activities delivered by your team
• Work with colleagues within your team, and across the Careers Service to curate a core and enhanced offer for students at points of choice and transition and enhance existing internal networks of careers and employability colleagues
• Work closely with your team, the Careers & Employability Senior Manager and other Faculty Team Managers to share learning and surface good practice to contribute to cohesive approaches across the Careers Service in support of delivery of employability and enterprise provision
• Work with colleagues across Student Success using your expertise to lead on ensuring the design and delivery of our provision considers the needs and requirements of designated service user groups (e.g., students with additional needs, international students, Early Career Researchers, or Degree Apprentices)
• Support your team to plan, organise and support opportunities and events that bring together faculty stakeholders and progress the Career Service’s priorities, faculties and academic schools development of employability and enterprise
• Identify and develop relationships with key staff within the University, developing a network of colleagues who can champion employability and enterprise, and its associated benefit within your Faculty and beyond
• Work with senior team and team managers to analyse and use appropriate management information data and professional knowledge/experience to evaluate and report on team activity, develop and maintain the Service’s relationship with faculties, to inform and prioritise provision across our Service and Unit
• Undertake any other duties reasonably requested in the delivery of the Careers Service’s strategic objectives including occasional out of hours/evening work

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Highly developed knowledge and experience of careers work in a higher education setting and/or graduate recruitment and broader sector setting
• Proven ability to effectively manage own workload, including well developed planning and organisation skills
• Demonstrable ability to lead, manage and motivate a team
• Up to date knowledge of graduate labour market, employability and skills current thinking and agendas
• Well-developed data literacy skills, confident in analysing, interpreting, and presenting
• Proven project and change management skills
• Proven analytical and problem-solving capability

Attributes and Behaviour

• Ability to work credibly with senior university colleagues to align services and activities with Faculty and University strategies
• Ability to think strategically and innovatively
• Well-developed interpersonal skills, including influencing, negotiation and relationship building
• Collaborative approach to working with others, playing a positive role in teams to establish and grow relationships and ability to navigate scenarios where different skills, expertise and opinions are valued
• Proactive and outward looking approach to making positive new connections
• Genuine interest in people and their development
• Solutions-focused and adaptable attitude
• A willingness to embrace change, and to seek out and implement best practice to enhance your work
• Close attention to detail
• Proven record of drive, motivation, and achievement
• Willingness to embrace change and is forward-looking. Promotes the benefits of change to others and regularly comes up with new ideas. Has the willingness to adopt new ways of working and to make improvements

Qualifications

• Educated to at least degree level (or equivalent)  

Plus

• A professional qualification in careers guidance e.g. Qualification in Careers Guidance (QCG/DipCG) or the AGCAS Career Education, Information and Guidance in HE (CEIGHE) qualification

OR a relevant professional qualification in teaching and learning e.g. Teaching & Learning accreditation FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy)

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 26465