About the job

Job summary

Learning without barriers for a workforce that protects borders

The Home Office’s mission is to deliver a safe, fair and prosperous UK. As well as working to reduce crime and enforce the law, we secure the UK border by carrying out controls and facilitating legitimate  people and goods entering the UK.  Learning and development is critical to ensuring everyone working for Border Force, from senior managers to frontline staff, has the skills, knowledge and motivation to do an excellent job.

Job description

As a senior member of the Border Force team, you will have the opportunity to enable organisational change around learning, and make a direct impact on our ability to develop, attract and retain diverse talent. Starting from our organisational priorities and an analysis of learning needs, you will create and communicate a learning strategy for Border Force that supports wider workforce planning. You will ensure that the Border Force learning offer is consistent, inclusive and accessible, and best in class across government. We are looking for a high quality, customer-focused service. As part of this, you will manage and maintain trainer standards, accreditation and career development.

With a successful track record of working as part of a senior management team, you will demonstrate strong leadership and relationship skills. Demonstrable knowledge of current learning practices, including tech-based solutions and self-service culture, is important, and you will also have a good understanding of the wider learning landscape. You will be used to working in a large and complex organisation, you will have an agile approach and an ability to network with managers and team members at all levels.  Excellent planning skills, critical thinking and sound judgement will also be vital, while a CIPD, PGCE or relevant Masters qualification would be a bonus.

Along with extensive training and development, we offer structured career progression.  Other benefits include access to a valuable civil service pension and flexible working arrangements.

Person specification

Essential Criteria  

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate their knowledge, experience, capability and behavioural approach to a high standard against the following key criteria:

• Strong L&D experience and professional knowledge, ideally supported by L&D professional qualifications. Able to maintain a balance between purist L&D practice and ideals, and any greater operational risk that may require concessions to be applied in learning.
• A successful track record of working as part of a senior management team in a large and complex organisation, with a significant track record of successfully influencing and delivering at a senior level, with the ability to interpret and use data and information to support and drive conversations with seniors.
• A strong corporate leader with proven ability to: set direction, convey a persuasive future vision, empower teams, and develop, attract and retain diverse talent, maintaining focus on strategic objectives whilst delivering results in high pressure situations.
• Excellent critical thinking skills: the ability to break down complex problems and identify the underlying issues, gaps and opportunities and translate these into a simple and coherent narrative underpinned by programmes for delivery.
• Demonstrable experience of enabling organisational change in a highly complex, large matrixed organisation and evidence of positive shifts in diversity and inclusion.

Desirable Criteria

• CIPD qualified.
• Masters in Education, PGCE or teaching/training qualification.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Home Office contributes £20,250 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Online Application        

Please follow the Job Advert instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply online, no later than 23:55hrs on Thursday 22nd February 2024.

Provide some basic personal information;

1. A CV - setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, including details where budgets and numbers of people managed, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years;
2. A Statement of Suitability – (limited to 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.
3. Diversity Monitoring - as part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say'. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy: 2022 to 2025 (HTML) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) for more information.

It is essential that in your written application you give evidence, using examples, of proven experience. These responses will be developed and discussed with candidates invited for interview.

Failure to submit both a CV and Supporting Statement will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

For further information on SCS careers and the application process, please see below:

Home Office SCS Further Information

Home Office Senior Leaders - Home Office Careers

Home Office SCS Application Process

Applying for Senior Civil Service vacancies - Home Office Careers

 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.