Lead Skills Coach

The full-time starting salary is normally £38,050.00 per annum, with progression available in post to £44,131.00 per annum. 

Full-time, permanent position.

Grade: F

BCU is seeking a Lead Skills Coach to oversee a team of Skills Coaches aligned to specific disciplines, ensuring the effective delivery of high quality coaching, pastoral, support, and compliance monitoring for apprentices. You will be joining our Directorate of Student and Academic Services (SAAS) team, which leads on the development and provision of outstanding student facing services. The Directorate is responsible for ensuring that students have an excellent experience and provides services across the student and academic lifecycle from enrolment to graduation, covering everything from wellbeing services to ensuring new courses are set up correctly. The Directorate is at the centre of a transformation programme as we seek to make services which underpin our student experience more efficient and effective. 

The Lead Skills Coach will manage teams of Skills Coaches aligned to specific disciplines, ensuring the delivery of high-quality coaching, pastoral support, and compliance monitoring for apprentices. They will oversee the scheduling and delivery of progress reviews, maintain strong engagement with employers and apprentices, and ensure apprenticeship programmes meet regulatory, quality, and service level expectations. The Lead Skills Coach will work closely with academic staff, Academic Leads for Partnerships and Apprenticeships, apprenticeship account managers, and other stakeholders to promote the successful achievement of apprenticeships and continuous improvement of the apprenticeship learning experience.

Your responsibilities will include: 

• Managing and supporting teams of Skills Coaches to deliver effective progress, reviews, coaching, and pastoral support to apprentices.
• Ensuring that Skills Coaches maintain compliance with apprenticeship standards, funding rules, and audit requirements through regular monitoring and quality assurance. 
• Supporting the preparation of apprentices for Gateway and successful completion of End Point Assessment (EPA) by ensuring Skills Coaches provide tailored action planning and development support. 
• Developing and maintaining positive working relationships with employers, supporting them in fulfilling heir apprenticeship agreement obligations and keeping them informed of apprenticeship progress. 
• Collaborating closely with academic teams, apprenticeship account managers, and the apprenticeship partnership unit to ensure seamless integration of academic delivery and work-based learning. 
• Analysing and reporting on team performance data, including  compliance, retention, and success rates, using findings to inform continuous improvement initiatives. 

The Leads Skills Coach will have: 

• Experience managing or supervising a team in an education or apprenticeship delivery environment.
• Strong knowledge of apprenticeship frameworks, standards, and funding rules.
• Experience of business risk management and internal audit processes.
• Proven ability to engage effectively with employers and apprentices to support learning and achievement.
• Experience conducting and overseeing progress reviews and learner coaching.
• Excellent organisational and leadership skills with the ability to prioritise and manage workloads.
• Ability to analyse data and produce reports to monitor team and learner performance.
• Good understanding of safeguarding, prevent, and additional learning support needs.

Birmingham City University is deeply committed to equality, diversity, and inclusivity at all levels in the organisation, and to addressing underrepresentation in our workforce to ensure we are truly representative of the community we serve. We welcome applications from applicants from all backgrounds and communities for this role, and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic applicants. 

Please click the below link to download the Job Description:

Download Job Description

The appointed candidate will normally be employed through our subsidiary company BCU Support Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Birmingham City University. Appointees with prior LGPS membership who wish to enter the LGPS scheme will be able to do so and will be employed by Birmingham City University directly.