Senior Policy & Programme Manager (Skills and Technical Education)

18-month contract/1 year+ secondment opportunity

We are the national body for careers education in England, delivering support to schools and colleges  to deliver modern, 21st-century careers education.

The Careers & Enterprise Company is a great place to work. We operate within a fast-paced  and collaborative environment. We are brought together by one thing: our passion to ensure  young people get the best possible start in life and are supported to find their best next step.

Do you want to be part of a mission-driven team focused on transforming young people’s lives? If so,  we’d love to hear from you!

The Role

The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) is looking for a Senior Policy & Programme Manager  to play a leading role in raising the profile of our work on skills, and technical education and  training, as part of our mission to help all young people find their best next step. You will shape  our approach to amplifying apprenticeships and other technical education pathways as part of  our engagement with education and business and across government’s overall agenda  on Skills for Jobs and levelling up.

The Government’s Skills for Jobs white paper sets out a renewed agenda for growth around  local skills alignment including through subject learning to enable positive impacts on outcomes  for young people. By increasing awareness of apprenticeships and other technical and  vocational pathways, we aim to influence stronger take up of such pathways. To achieve this, we will  use our network, including our targeted investment in Careers Hubs, Career Leader  professional development, and broader relationships externally through our policy engagement  and partnerships.

The role necessities strong communication and influencing through collaboration and  proven understanding of the skills and technical and vocational education landscape. You will  be expected to work collaboratively across several CEC functions including: our education, network  and employer sector teams to ensure their insight and key external relationships drive the direction  of our approach, and that our assets and delivery are inclusive and responsive to these education and  training pathways; and communications – not least to engage young people through our youth  channels to be inspired and informed about all career pathways and routes. A strong understanding of  the roles undertaken by key partners and ability to identify opportunities for partnership activity is also  required, to ensure that our ambitions complement those of partners.

Externally, engagement is critical to enable CEC to play an influential role in contributing to  policy developments, including the implications for delivering on Government’s  commitments embedded in the Skills for Jobs white paper and the ongoing programmatic support  government funds through the National Apprenticeship Programme, and the promotion of T Levels.

Our organisation has a privileged opportunity to make a difference to the lives of millions of young  people, helping to inspire and prepare them for the fast-changing world of work, and we want you to  help us make it happen.

Applicants are asked to submit a supporting statement (on no more than 2 x A4 pages) outlining how  you fulfil the qualifications, experience, skills, and core competencies criteria provided in the Job  Description and an up-to-date CV.

To apply, please click the Apply button to send us your CV responding to two questions below. Applications with no supporting cover letter will not be considered.

• Why CEC and the role are of interest?
• How do you meet the candidate requirements? To be based on evidence

This vacancy may be closed early if sufficient applications have been submitted. Therefore, please do not delay in submitting your application.

Closing date: 9am on Wednesday 10^th November 2021

It is our policy to review all applications within two weeks from the closing date. If you do not hear from us within three weeks following the closing date, then your application has unfortunately not been successful on this occasion. We are unable to provide feedback to candidates who have not been shortlisted and attended an interview.