Head Of Curriculum

About Unlocked

Unlocked Graduates exists to break cycles of reoffending, with particular focus on breaking the link between disadvantage and reoffending. Currently prison is not a place which successfully does this: the average prisoner has 16 previous convictions and 48 per cent of prisoners reoffend within a year of release. Unlocked Graduates exists to fix this problem. Our mission is to break cycles of re-offending by developing outstanding individuals to lead rehabilitation in prisons and throughout society.

About the role

This is a phenomenally interesting role as it offers the opportunity to radically reimagine what incredible training can look like for a singularly powerful role: the prison officer is the only professional who reaches every single prisoner including the most vulnerable and challenging. They set the culture on the landings and have the power to create a safe and secure environment that is focused on rehabilitation. For this reason, at the heart of Unlocked is a highly effective training provision developing the leaders our prison service needs. It is this area that you will be responsible for.

Evidence guides everything we do here at Unlocked. It’s the foundation upon which our award-winning leadership development training programme is based on. We’re looking for a Head of Curriculum with a deep passion for best practice pedagogy, curriculum and assessment to help us continue to develop our participants into transformative prison officers and extraordinary future leaders. You will use your deep understanding of pedagogical theory and an uncompromising enthusiasm for how people learn to oversee an entire two-year programme of study, from initial residential training all the way through to ongoing professional development. 

Our team has worked hard to craft an outstanding training programme for our participants. Our practice-based curriculum and pedagogy is built on the work of Doug Lemov, and the knowledge aspects of the curriculum are embedded in theories of explicit teaching rather than discovery learning for novice practitioners, as per the work of E.D. Hirsch. These theories will be therefore essential understanding for anyone taking on the role. 

Positioned as pioneers in the prison sector, we are proud to have built a strong reputation for developing quality training for a frontline public sector role.  Notably, elements of our training have been integrated into His Majety’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) training of all new staff, and various other countries and related sectors have reached out for us to share our training expertise too. As the Head of Curriculum, you will hold a pivotal role, uniquely positioned to directly influence and create proof points for change across the whole service. 

You do not need prior knowledge of prisons or prison officer training to successfully take on this role, but you do need to be excited by our mission to develop outstanding leaders to break cycles of reoffending in prison. You will be supported by current and former prison service staff and have access to all the information and resources you require to build your knowledge-base quickly. Our ideal candidate will be somebody who is excited by what it is possible to achieve in this sector; who wants to take our already industry-leading training and make it even better.

For further details and to apply, please click the apply button to be re-directed to our jobs portal. 

Closing date: 29th April 2024