Head of Quality Assurance

About us

The British Academy of Jewellery is a future-facing, specialist jewellery and education institution with strong industry links and expert tuition. BAJ provides pioneering education and training for jewellers, entrepreneurs, and creatives of all abilities and backgrounds in London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield, and Leicester.

Position Overview

Role Title: Head of Quality Assurance

Reporting to: Vice Principal

Direct Reports: Quality Manager; Welfare and Support Officer; Pastoral and Designated Safeguarding Lead

Salary: £50,000 to £55,000 (subject to experience)

Location: Academy Wide

Main Purpose

Under the direction of the Vice Principal, you will have overall lead responsibility from a quality perspective for all aspects of Quality across the Academy along with oversight and accountability for the Academy’s Quality Assurance and Enhancement Strategy. 

You will be responsible to ensure the quality of Teaching, Learning and Assessment is outstanding across FE, HE and Work Based Learning and ensure the professional standards of Business Support are met through all service areas. You will lead and drive an innovative, creative, and rapid improvement and support plan where required and play a key role in the Academy’s “Journey to Outstanding”.

You will have an active oversight of the Academy’s quality assurance framework in relation to external bodies such as OFSTED, Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), Office for Students (OfS) and the awarding organisations we work with.

You will have an overarching role to monitor the quality of the student experience and respond to student complaints across both Further and Higher Education.

As a member of the Senior Management Team, you will be a source of support and resource to Curriculum and Business management to ensure that quality processes are consistently implemented to meet the Academy standards and provide targeted intervention for rapid improvement and provide quality updates to the executive team and the Board of Governors when required.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• To be an inspirational leader that enables managers, team leaders and staff to develop the capabilities required to drive innovative quality improvements in their own areas.
• To lead the work of the quality department by identifying risks and areas for development across the Academy by analysing and identifying the areas that require resource and mitigating the risks accordingly by providing early warning and risk profiles for curriculum and support areas and providing rapid intervention where necessary.
• To assure and enhance the Quality of Education and Training on offer to students and to deliver an excellent Student Experience across all areas of the Academy.
• To work with Student Council to fully engage students in the process of academic review and renewal.
• To act as OFSTED Nominee supporting all functions of inspection, under the direction of the Vice Principal
• Lead the organisation and implementation of quality processes, including lesson observations, and peer review, along with interventions across all areas of the education inspection framework (EIF), personal development (PD), Bachelor of Arts (BA), Higher National (HN), Apprenticeship, English, and Maths) and non-OFSTED related temporary learning agreement (TLA) (Commercial, HE, and Professional Qualifications) including the delegation of the Quality Leads. 
• Develop and strengthen Teaching, Learning and Assessment (TLA) excellence (including the Digital strategy) across all aspects of the Academy delivery provision (including sub-contractors) and provide rapid interventions for TLA that is below the expected standard leading to improved outcomes.
• Be accountable for rapid, creative, and innovative improvements in business support service areas.
• To ensure the preparation and production of quality related reports as appropriate to Academic Governance Committees, Academic Standards and Quality Committee, Board of Governors and to external validating partners using agreed KPIs, to prepare and populate the Self-Assessment Report (SAR) and Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) documents alongside the Self Evaluation Document (HE).
• Ensure robust datasets are available to support Curriculum and Business Support areas and to ensure the Executive Team and Board of Governors can rely on them to effectively evaluate the quality of the Academy’s Further and Higher Education Provision. 
• Use KPIs to determine interventions for the quality and standard of progress and targets – directed by the VP, Heads of Curriculum and Leaders, Course Managers, and relevant support areas (e.g. Academic Support (AS) – ensuring timely reports and datasets are available for Heads of Curriculum and Leaders in preparation for management meetings and Quality Reviews – including student behaviour and complaints.
• To lead the management of student complaints across both further and higher education, investigate and prepare information for Executive Colleagues to respond to complaints in a timely manner, preparing termly snapshots with key learning points and areas for improvement.

• Lead the analysis and reporting of student behaviour and disciplinary matters to SMT and appropriate governance committees as directed and supported by the VP, Heads of Curriculum and Quality Manager. 
• To take overall lead for the Academy’s internal and external quality measures and submissions to obtain a high rating in all external surveys and frameworks to improve the position for the Academy in FE based surveys, National Student Survey (NSS), Module Evaluation Questionnaires (MEQs) and the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) along with any themed surveys as directed by the VP. Lead on Student Voice – triangulation, interpretation, and reporting to areas to ensure improvements are made quickly and with impact.
• To have the lead responsibility for developing and successfully maintaining the relationships with Academic Partners assuring the validation, quality, and review of programmes across Academy.
• To co-ordinate and implement the Organisational Development Plan, to support staff development including overseeing the design and delivery of the professional development of all staff by conducting robust team Training Needs Analysis (TNA) for teams to ensure provision of CPD, OD and subject specialism updates, developing opportunities for industrial up skilling and development for teachers and support staff. 

• Ensure the effective planning, implementation, and monitoring of the Academy’s annual appraisal cycle, producing timely reporting and analysis of CPD and development needs to inform the overall Organisational Development Plan including the oversight and reporting of mandatory training programmes.
• To contribute to the Equality and Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) agenda relating to teaching and learning and college wide organisational development activity.
• To contribute to the induction and onboarding process of new staff, ensuring that new teaching staff have the correct support in place in conjunction with their curriculum manager and the relevant quality assurance processes happen in a timely manner; for business support staff working with their line manager to ensure that new staff understand their professional role and the standards expected by the Academy and embed into their roles quickly. 

• To manage the entire business planning activity for the Quality team and subsequent implementation, review, and evaluation, ensuring impact on the student experience.
• To lead the work of the Quality team, being accountable for all staff and resource matters including the completion of appraisals, staff performance issues, rewards, and recognition schemes. 
• To monitor and report quality indicators using external benchmarks, identifying issues, and supporting rapid and innovative intervention within the Curriculum team to positively impact on timely improvements in retention and achievement of students. 
• Chair designated Academy committees and Working Groups: for example, Chair of Research and Scholarly Activity Committee (RSAC), and to be a member of relevant Academy committees and produce and present papers as required to a high/professional standard.
• Represent the Academy at external quality-related events as required.

General Duties

• To implement and ensure consistent compliance with all Academy policies relating to health & safety, including safeguarding, and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults.
• To promote equality of opportunity, the value of diversity and respect for all and support the development of an inclusive curriculum through the rigorous challenging of discrimination in all its forms.
• Commitment to own continuous professional development to meet the requirements of the post.
• Positively contribute to a safe learning and work environment ensuring compliance with Health and Safety and Safeguarding Policy and procedure.

All staff have a contribution to make to the way of which we engage with prospective and existing students, which is implicit in our vision, missions and goals and which places learners at the centre of what we do. Therefore, all staff are expected to contribute to support colleagues who may have more day-to-day contact with learners. These include supporting key processes which enhance learners’ experience e.g. attendance at promotion activities and open events, supporting student admissions, enrolment, induction, provision of reception cover, invigilation, and graduation events. These activities are not exhaustive and may vary from time to time.

Any other duties commensurate with the post.

You should note that this job description is intended as a general guide to the duties attached to the post and is not an inflexible specification.  It may therefore be altered from time to time to reflect the changing needs of the Academy, always in consultation with the post holder. This job description may also be supplemented on a regular basis by individual objectives derived from Academy strategies.

The post involves commitment to working outside the normal Academy hours and a willingness to work flexibly is expected. There will be an occasional need to undertake business travel between other business sites within London and across the UK.

The post holder will be expected to work closely with Group central services and personnel.

There is an expectation that all employees will maintain the values of the Academy and will comply with the code of conduct as well as equality and diversity, health and safety and safeguarding policies.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Professional Development

Degree level or equivalent vocational qualification (Essential)

A postgraduate qualification (Desirable)

A recognised full teaching qualification. (Essential)

Level 2 (or equivalent) qualifications in English and Maths (Essential)

HEA membership (Desirable)

Evidence of recently undertaken professional development and subsequent practical application and impact. (Desitable)

Knowledge and Experience

Significant experience dealing with Ofsted/QAA (Desirable)

Knowledge of Ofsted and Quality frameworks, regulations, and Knowledge of recent Government policy on skills, FE, HE, and education (Essential)

Commitment to Equality and Diversity, Safeguarding, Health & Safety, Every Child Matters (Essential)

Able to demonstrate a knowledge of Prevent, safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults (Essential)

A sound knowledge teaching, learning and assessment and appropriate strategies (Essential)

Proven track record of managing others successfully (Essential)

Demonstrable record of development of effective relationships with awarding bodies and others (Desirable)

Significant experience of developing, implementing, and reviewing policies relating to academic quality and standards. (Desirable)

Experience of engaging students in academic review (Desirable)

Skills

Proven analytical and problem-solving skills; including the ability to research, evaluate and present complex management data. (Essential)

An understanding of the funding methodology which informs innovative curriculum planning. (Desirable)

Previous track record of improving teaching and learning (Essential)

Ability to lead teams and prioritise the work of others (Essential)

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills in dealing with colleagues, and all those people and organisations with whom the Academy works in partnership (Essential)

First class oral and written presentation skills (Essential)

Tenacity, flexibility, and the ability to work under pressure (Essential)

Personal and professional integrity (Essential)

Suitable to work with young and vulnerable adults (Essential)

Disclosure and Barring Service Clearance (DBS check)

Our Academy is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions

• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020).

A criminal record will only be taken into account where the conviction is relevant to the position being applied for, and will not necessarily block candidates from employment. Any decision will depend on the precise nature of the work and the circumstances and background to the offence.

Equal Opportunities

British Academy of Jewellery is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to diversity and inclusion. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential. The Academy has a diverse workforce that is representative at all job levels.