Design & Quality Manager

Job Title: Design and Quality Manager

Salary: £ 32,000 plus £3,000 London weighting where applicable

Closing Date: Monday 2nd December midday

Reporting to: Head of Programme Development and Quality

Contract: Full time, permanent

Job Location: London / Midlands / North

The role is based from home with travel to the London office for work meetings about twice a month.

Interview date: Tuesday 10th December / Wednesday 11th December

Start date: Monday 17th February (tbc)

About the organisation

We believe that every young person should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and make the most of their education. We’re passionate about reducing the educational barriers our students face, helping them to pursue a career in their chosen field and follow their dreams.

Our mission is to support students from under-resourced backgrounds to access top universities, through a unique combination of tuition and in-school mentoring. We work with them to make good applications, get the grades and transition to university.

The programme combats educational inequality and improves social mobility by raising students’ grades and supporting them to understand the pathway to a top university. Students who receive support from our programme are almost twice as likely to attend top universities as statistically similar students, according to UCAS.

Safeguarding Statement

The Access Project is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Our safeguarding system is underpinned by a range of policies and procedures which encourage and promote safe working practice across the organisation.

Why work at The Access Project

People who work at The Access Project are motivated by the desire to create a fairer society. We all play an active part in achieving the mission to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds access top universities. At The Access Project, we’re a friendly, collaborative, supportive and inclusive team, with passionate people working together in Delivery, Sales and Partnerships, Strategy, Finance and Operations to achieve our mission.

The vision of our people strategy is to enable and inspire all employees to achieve, grow, succeed and thrive. We regularly have opportunities for people to share their ideas in various working groups, generating strong teamwork across the organisation.

We value every individual who works at The Access Project and we have a wide range of benefits that make this a rewarding place to work. In our last staff engagement survey, 90% said they’re proud to tell people they work at The Access Project.

Our values

Empowerment

We support students and our people to develop the skills and knowledge to accomplish their goals.

Courage

We encourage our students and our people to be authentic, innovative and ambitious in order to reach their full potential and deliver our mission.

Impact

We evolve our programmes through an evidence-led approach, supporting our students to achieve their best outcomes.

Inclusion

We respect and value individuality and engage diverse voices to achieve our mission.

Ownership

We hold ourselves accountable in all our actions and efforts. We ask “What can I do to improve my results?”

About the role

This role is available at an important time for The Access Project as we expand our mission, deliver a new programme model, and move into new school contexts. This is an exciting opportunity for someone with the skills for programme design and improvement, a strong interest in research, and a deep passion for our mission to support students to place and succeed at selective universities.

The ideal candidate will be a strong leader who is comfortable working across teams to make change. You’ll be the lead and expert on The Access Project’s in-school university readiness work with responsibility for designing and quality assuring the provision, supporting the learning and development of our front-line staff to effectively deliver the programme content. This position is integral to ensuring The Access Project is delivering a high-quality programme that supports the needs of our students and drives the outcomes of the programme across all regions and schools. The postholder will bring their knowledge of the HE sector and the experiences of our students to decisions about the direction of our own programme. They will also support further development of our programme-level Diversity and Inclusion work, to ensure that the programme is tailored where feasible to the needs of all students.

Role responsibilities

Design & Development

• Project manage and deliver our programme design process, leading the implementation of an agile, in-year approach to effectively iterate The Access Project’s Accelerate (2-year) programme.
• Lead the development of our self-paced online learning provision, incorporating learning from delivery and best practice from the sector.
• Work with the Head of Programme Development and Quality to incorporate University Access Officer, Programme Leadership, school, and student feedback on how to best drive short-term and long-term outcomes across our programmes.
• Project manage the implementation of changes driven out of programme design. This includes the creation of or changes to delivery resources and training materials, as well as our university readiness framework and the Salesforce system that supports delivery.
• Ensure we continue to update our long-standing Gateway (4-year) programme as part of standalone programme design project.

Research to inform programme design and quality

• Remain critically engaged with the widening participation/social mobility sector, and able to synthesise key changes/challenges and ensure that they are applicable/actionable by the organisation.
• Ensure that any relevant Widening Participate sector developments and trends are fed into The Access Project’s way of working. For example, this might be changes to resources for the programme or working with colleagues to communicate with students (e.g. plans for A Level Results Day).
• Provide nuanced insight about the WP/HE sector, with a coherent view of the landscape and how it’s changing, to enable The Access Project to make informed choices about our programme.

Quality Assurance

• Be responsible for the implementation of the university readiness strand of the quality assurance strategy, to drive the quality of the activities The Access Project delivers to young people in schools.
• Lead on the quality assurance of self-paced learning content, collaborating with Online Delivery colleagues to identify best practice and develop a comprehensive approach.
• Participate in The Access Project’s quality assurance processes, including performing drop-ins on University Access Officers, and coordinating with other members of the team to perform drop-ins in an efficient and effective manner.
• Embed learning from The Access Project’s quality assurance process into our standard practice. This will include training and development for University Access Officers and updates to resources and guidance for what best practice looks like.
• Contribute research on wider pedagogical best practice into our quality assurance work to ensure the highest quality in our delivery of educational programmes.

Student Voice

• Maximise student voice within programme design through varied feedback mechanisms, including the organisation and facilitation of regular student focus groups.
• Lead the development and administration of The Access Project’s annual student survey, considering the needs of key stakeholders across the organisation.
• Lead and develop The Access Project’s overarching student voice strategy.
• Continue to drive improvements in TAP’s student voice work through research and engagement with sector leaders.

Any other duties as required by the Head of Programme Development or Director, Delivery

Person specification

Essential

• Confident leader and collaborator: ability to work positively and collaboratively across functions to drive continuous improvement.
• Strong communicator: demonstrable success at giving feedback and clearly communicating your perspective.
• Strong facilitation skills: an experienced and dynamic, meeting, training and workshop facilitator.
• Excellent time management and organisational skills: and a proactive and creative approach to problem solving.
• Experience of programme design and development: committed to and confident using data to make evidence-based decisions.
• Project management skills and experience, particularly in planning and monitoring.
• Deep knowledge of and passion for youth mentoring.
• Strong understanding of the UK education system and the challenges facing learners from widening participation backgrounds.
• Strong research skills in sector analysis.

Desirable

• Experience of using Salesforce (or another CRM system) as a case/student management system.
• Experience of designing engaging online learning or educational resources.
• Knowledge of Diversity & Inclusion issues related to education and motivation to adapt The Access Project’s programme to make it more inclusive.
• Experience of project/programme evaluation.
• Line management or supervisory experience.

Benefits:

25 days annual leave p.a. (pro rata) plus Bank Holidays and Christmas closure.

PerkBox – offering nationwide shopping discounts, gym memberships, holidays, learning and much more.

Employee Assistance Programme, a 24-hour helpline for staff

Online Medical assistance – access 24/7 to a qualified GP within minutes, with referrals and prescriptions available same-day.

Interest-free travelcard loans

Cyclescheme loans

3 paid Volunteering Days

Employer’s pensions contributions (3%)

CPD options

The Access Project welcomes requests for flexible working arrangements

Equal Opportunities Statement

The Access Project aspires to represent the diversity of communities across the UK at all levels of the organisation and proactively takes steps to support this. We are committed to creating a culture where the experiences and voices of people from marginalised backgrounds are listened to and valued; where their skills are appreciated; and where their talents are nurtured and encouraged.

The Access Project is an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from people from all backgrounds. If you believe you have most of the skills to fulfil the role we encourage you to apply. Amongst staff at our organization, there is under-representation of people who are Black, Asian or people from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled, care-experienced, from low socio-economic backgrounds, and who are LGBTQIA+. We particularly welcome applications from people with lived experience in reference to our mission.

We are proud to be a Level 1 Disability Confident employer. If you require any reasonable adjustments please contact us.

Disclosure of a Criminal Record

The Rehabilitation of Offenders 1974 (Exceptions) (Amendment) Order 1986 applies to posts where there is access to children. This means that applicants for employment that involves working with children and young people must disclose anything listed in their criminal record, with the exception of protected cautions and convictions. All Disclosures are carried out in the strictest confidence and are made only in connection with your application for employment and for no other purpose. The application for a DBS check at a level appropriate to the job role will be activated before your first day of work. Members of staff who are not eligible for a standard or enhanced DBS check are required to undertake a basic DBS check only in line with legal requirements. If you are selected for appointment to the role, you will be subject to this procedure.

Present or most recent employment

It is important to give full information, including the organisation you work in, or most recent employment if not currently working, full dates, address and explanation of any gaps in employment.

References

All appointments are subject to verification of employment and suitability of the candidate for the post applied for. We reserve the right to approach any previous employer for a reference and to verify their identity but will request your permission before doing so. If you have experience of working with children, please include this as one of your references.

Education, Qualifications and Training

Ensure you give all the information requested, including dates, establishment where you studied and make clear the level of any examinations e.g., GCSE, GCE 'O' Level or 'A' Level or equivalents etc. and the grades you obtained. Also include any skills training you have had. You will be required to produce original documentary evidence of any qualifications relevant to the job, and these will be detailed on the person specification.

Proof of qualification is required before the appointment is confirmed.