About the job

Job summary

Immigration Enforcement is responsible for enforcing the government’s immigration laws, tackling illegal migration, removing foreign national offenders and immigration offenders from the UK. It also aims to disrupt the organised criminal groups that exploit the vulnerable for their personal gain. Learn more on the Immigration Enforcement careers page.

Job description

Training and Skills Unit (TASU) sits in the new Operational Capabilities Command (OCC) within Enforcement Compliance and Crime (ECC) which is the operational front-line arm of Immigration Enforcement (IE). TASU provides an expert learning and development (L&D) service to all front-line officers within ECC and partners with the business on developing the capability needed to deliver strategic objectives, raising the visibility of L&D and the wider People agenda, with its pivotal role in cultural change. 

This is a professional learning team made up of subject matter experts (SME) and professional trainers who have the knowledge and the networks to enable partnership working within and outside of ECC extending to external stakeholders including the College of Policing. Our focus is on enabling leaders and managers to improve the experience for colleagues, building the capabilities required to create resilient, competent and confident IE officers of the future.  We aim to do this through being values driven, insight led, outcome focused, agile and expert. 

The team is headed by Grade six and is made up of four teams which cover the learning portfolio including Enforcement and Crime training, Public Personal Safety Training, Professional Development and the Learning Hub.

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us, and we offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career in Borders and Enforcement accessible to you. Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role. We are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues; an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve.

TASU works with law enforcement and cross-government partners to tackle serious and organised immigration crime with a focus on bringing to justice those who exploit the vulnerable, for example cases of modern slavery and human trafficking.

This is an exciting opportunity for the right candidates to join the Professional Development Team where you will develop and embed a wide range of people and engagement skills within a high performing team, delivering what is required to continue to make the team a great place to work and to support staff and senior managers in delivery.

The Professional Development team is a cross-IE learning and Development support function that provides development opportunities, support for career pathways, talent and skills, and clear governance and assurance structures across all IE business areas. We provide management and leadership training offers, apprenticeships, the evaluation of training and support compliance with mandatory and expected learning.     

You can be based at any of the Home Office locations listed and will be expected to travel to any of the other locations for meetings as required.

Person specification

You will support the Senior Professional Development Manager with delivering against the team’s objectives; these are wide ranging and currently include co-ordinating existing leadership and management offers, developing bespoke IE management training, supporting the Potential and Skills team ensuring that career pathways are fully supported by developmental opportunities, the governance, assurance and evaluation of training and supporting compliance with mandatory and expected training. The successful applicant will be allocated a portfolio to support on some of these workstreams and other work across TASU as required.

You will work with senior leaders across IE and across the Civil Service. This high-level engagement will give the successful candidate exposure to senior leaders across various IE business areas and Civil Service. 

This role may require line management of staff and as such you should prioritise staff wellbeing and development.

Responsibilities

• Supporting the Senior Professional Development Manger across workstreams which may include co-ordinating existing leadership and management offers, developing bespoke IE management training, supporting the Potential and Skills team ensuring that career pathways are fully supported by developmental opportunities, the governance, assurance and evaluation of training and supporting compliance with mandatory and expected training.
• Representing TASU in meetings with internal and external partners and will need to be able to respond at pace to changes in priorities as needed.
• Undertaking other TASU work as required.

Essential Criteria

Candidates must be able to demonstrate:

• Verbal and written communication skills.
• Excellent partner management and relationship-building skills.
• Flexibility and organisational skills, and able to deliver under pressure and at pace, particularly when unexpected changes to priorities and procedures occur.
• Experience in Microsoft suite (including OneDrive, Share Point, Teams and Excel)

Desirable Criteria

• A background in learning and development.
• Project management experience.

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:  

• a statement of suitability (personal statement) (maximum 750 words)
• provide evidence of the behaviour Communicating and Influencing (250 words maximum)

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

The statement of suitability should be aligned to demonstrate your skills and experience for the role and how you meet the essential criteria as detailed in the job description.

For guidance on how to construct your personal statement, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers. Links – Statement

For guidance on how to construct your behaviour examples, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers. Links –Behaviours

The sift will be held on the behaviour Communicating & Influencing and the statement of suitability (personal statement).                     

However, if a large number of applications are received, the sift will be conducted on the  statement of suitability (personal statement) only. 

The statement of suitability will be scored first for all candidates. Those who achieve the minimum pass score for the statement of suitability, will progress to a sift where the  behaviour will be scored. These candidates will therefore receive a sift score for both elements. Candidates who fail to meet the minimum pass score for the statement of suitability will not have their behaviour scored and will therefore only receive a sift score for the statement of suitability.

If you are successful at sift stage, you will be invited to an interview which will be a blended approach of strength-based questions and behaviour-based questions on all listed in the advert. 

Strengths are the things that you do regularly, do well and that motivate you. To find out more about strength based questions click here

Sift and Interview dates

Sift is expected to take place week commencing 22nd January 2024.

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 12th February 2024.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert, however on occasions these dates may change.  

Interviews will be carried out via video. Candidates will be required to have access to:

• A laptop (personal or work) with a working webcam
• Good internet connection
• Skype for Business/Microsoft Teams

Further Information

For meaningful checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years if the role requires CTC clearance, 5 years for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.  A lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.       

Note for Candidates

When completing your application you will have the opportunity to select your preferred location(s). Please ensure you select the location you are interested in. Candidates who are successful at Interview will be placed in order of merit per location and provisional job offers will be made in strict merit order per location preference. Provisional offers are made, as they are on condition that you successfully pass all pre-employment checks.

Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. All applications are screened for plagiarism and copying of examples/answers from internet sources. If any is detected the application will be withdrawn from the process. Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving internal candidates. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants. 

If you are currently an agency member of staff working within the Home Office, a contractor or contingent worker you can only apply for roles that are advertised externally, i.e. outside the civil service. If you are eligible to apply for a role, you are required to select yourself as an external applicant and not internal when submitting your application on Civil Service jobs. This will prevent any delays in pre-employment checks should you become successful in being made an offer of employment after the Interview stage.

There is no shift working requirement, and therefore no AHW allowance available for this post.

If you are considering applying for part time hours, please contact HORCCampaignTeamIE@homeoffice.gov.uk to discuss your request as not all working patterns may be accommodated.

Flexible working                                                                                                         

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working.  This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estates capacity, by Spring 2024.  Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details).

A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role or similar role become available within that period you may be offered this position.   

Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.

We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.

Existing Civil Servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the Terms and Conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.

Transfer Terms: Voluntary.

If you are invited to an interview you will be required to  bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks.

Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.

Any move to the Home Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. 

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the “Assistance Required” section in the “Additional Requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback

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

Security

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.