Leadership Development Officer
Office for Students - Bristol, South West
Full-time
Salary: £30,388.00 Annually
Application Deadline: Mar 3, 2024
The challenge
The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator of higher education in England. Our mission is to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.
We’re looking for skilled, committed people who care about students and their experiences at universities and colleges. As we deliver our ambitious strategy, focusing on quality and standards, and equality of opportunity, this is an exciting time to join the OfS. We are looking for aspiring regulators to join our Leadership Development Scheme in September 2024 and develop the skills required to make a difference for students.
The role
Our two-year Leadership Development Scheme is designed to provide you with a broad range of experiences in different roles at a regulator.
In your first year you will complete two six-month placements in different roles across the organisation. You will work on areas that are critical to our success – such as developing strategy, evaluating our regulatory interventions, supporting engagement with our stakeholders, preparing communications for our staff, or allocating funding to universities and colleges.
You will then spend your second year in our core regulation teams, dealing with individual universities or colleges, delivering casework and supporting regulatory policy development.
Throughout your placements, you will be working collaboratively to support colleagues at all levels. The role is dynamic and varied, and you are likely to be working on several different projects at any one time. We will encourage you to focus on developing your own skills and will assign a mentor to help you with this.
About you – person specification
This is an entry level role, so no prior experience is necessary. However, we are looking for people who have the following skills.
Seeing the big picture – Understand how your role fits with and supports organisational objectives. Recognise the wider context of the organisation’s work, enabling better decision-making.
Making effective decisions – Make well-reasoned, impartial decisions that stand up to scrutiny. Evaluate the impact and implications of decisions, ensuring that plans take these into account.
Communicating and influencing – Communicate, whether verbally or in writing, with clarity, conviction and enthusiasm. Respect the needs, responses and opinions of others, and anticipate concerns.
Collaborating and partnering – Work effectively as part of a team. Build inclusive, responsive relationships with colleagues across the organisation to deliver collective goals.
Changing and improving – Adapt and innovate in response to challenges. Act decisively in the face of ambiguity or uncertainty.
Developing self and others – Focus on professional development and learning. Seek to develop knowledge and skills by reflecting on, and learning from, success and failure.
A guidance document for applicants that provides more detail about these criteria is available on our website
Application process
Please submit your online application form by 23:59 on Sunday, 3 March.
We will assess candidates over three stages: application form, written task, and interview. We will aim to make offers of employment in late April. Newly appointed Leadership Development Officers will be expected to start at the OfS on Monday, 16 September 2024. Further details about the Leadership Development Scheme and the assessment process are available on our website.
If you have any questions about the scheme, we are running informal online drop-in sessions at 1200-1300 on Wednesday, 28 February and Friday, 1 March. To register for these sessions, or ask any questions about the scheme, please email LDSRecruitment@officeforstudents.org.uk.
We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and socio-economic background.
Working for us
The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience, and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.
Flexibility is important to the OfS, as we recognise that this can enable people to work more effectively. We have a flexible approach to hybrid working, and this role will require some office attendence. To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working applies to this role.