About the job

Job summary

Leadership Development Officer

£30,388 - £31,789

Bristol

The challenge

 

The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator of higher education in England. Our mission is to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.

 

We’re looking for skilled, committed people who care about students and their experiences at universities and colleges. As we deliver our ambitious strategy, focusing on quality and standards, and equality of opportunity, this is an exciting time to join the OfS. We are looking for aspiring regulators to join our Leadership Development Scheme in September 2024 and develop the skills required to make a difference for students.

 

Job description

The role

 

Our two-year Leadership Development Scheme is designed to provide you with a broad range of experiences in different roles at a regulator.

 

In your first year you will complete two six-month placements in different roles across the organisation. You will work on areas that are critical to our success – such as developing strategy, evaluating our regulatory interventions, supporting engagement with our stakeholders, preparing communications for our staff, or allocating funding to universities and colleges.

 

You will then spend your second year in our core regulation teams, dealing with individual universities or colleges, delivering casework and supporting regulatory policy development.

Throughout your placements, you will be working collaboratively to support colleagues at all levels. The role is dynamic and varied, and you are likely to be working on several different projects at any one time. We will encourage you to focus on developing your own skills and will assign a mentor to help you with this.

Person specification

About you – person specification

 

This is an entry level role, so no prior experience is necessary. However, we are looking for people who have the following skills.

 

• Seeing the big picture – Understand how your role fits with and supports organisational objectives. Recognise the wider context of the organisation’s work, enabling better decision-making.
• Making effective decisions – Make well-reasoned, impartial decisions that stand up to scrutiny. Evaluate the impact and implications of decisions, ensuring that plans take these into account.
• Communicating and influencing – Communicate, whether verbally or in writing, with clarity, conviction and enthusiasm. Respect the needs, responses and opinions of others, and anticipate concerns.
• Collaborating and partnering – Work effectively as part of a team. Build inclusive, responsive relationships with colleagues across the organisation to deliver collective goals.
• Changing and improving – Adapt and innovate in response to challenges. Act decisively in the face of ambiguity or uncertainty.
• Developing self and others – Focus on professional development and learning. Seek to develop knowledge and skills by reflecting on, and learning from, success and failure.

 

A guidance document for applicants that provides more detail about these criteria is available on our website

 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £30,388, Office for Students contributes £8,235 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

Application process

 

Please submit your online application form by 23:55 on Sunday, 3 March.

 

We will assess candidates over three stages: application form, written task, and interview. We will aim to make offers of employment in late April. Newly appointed Leadership Development Officers will be expected to start at the OfS on Monday, 16 September 2024. Further details about the Leadership Development Scheme and the assessment process are available on our website.

 

If you have any questions about the scheme, we are running informal online drop-in sessions at 1200-1300 on Wednesday, 28 February and Friday, 1 March. To register for these sessions, or ask any questions about the scheme, please email LDSRecruitment@officeforstudents.org.uk.

 

We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and socio-economic background.

 

Working for us

 

The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience, and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.

 

Flexibility is important to the OfS, as we recognise that this can enable people to work more effectively. We have a flexible approach to hybrid working, and this role will require some office attendence. To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working applies to this role.

 

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.