Director of Schools and Employability

Are you ready to make a meaningful impact on one of the most critical periods of Birmingham City Council’s future?

In a city facing unprecedented financial challenges, Birmingham City Council is seeking dynamic individuals who demonstrate the expertise, determination, and unwavering resilience required to ensure the delivery of vital services to our citizens. Our city, like many others, is grappling with complex economic realities. We recognise the daunting hurdles ahead, but we also firmly believe in the potential for transformation and progress. The economic pressures underscore the urgency of our mission – to safeguard and enhance the wellbeing of our residents.

Our Children and Families leadership team is moving at pace, and we have created a new post that will significantly increase our ability to make a difference to Birmingham’s children and young people.

This is your opportunity to help us to continue to develop strong relationships of trust and confidence across our City – relationships which tap into and build upon Birmingham’s outstanding community spirit.

Birmingham is attracting much publicity right now and we are keen to ensure continued service delivery to our citizens and successful decision-making – that’s why we need people like you to join us to foster and ensure the delivery of essential frontline roles that benefit the lives of children and young people. Great councils need great leaders and our quest to deliver essential services to our citizens means that we want to hear about your strengths, skills, and experience and how you’ll contribute to our improvement journey.

If you are challenged by succeeding in complexity and/or ambiguity, then we’d like to hear more about your strengths and how you like to contribute.

About the Role

This role requires a dynamic and strategic leader to focus on the high-profile strategic agenda of the city relating to education, skills and employment. It brings together all of the teams in Children and Families that work directly with schools, colleges, post 16 training providers and Birmingham’s universities, to lead a strategic partnership focussed approach to ensure our young people can access appropriate and diverse education and employment pathways which enable them to thrive. The new Director of Schools and Employability is integral to our Children and Families directorate’s improvement journey, and in supporting the development of Birmingham as an Inclusive City.

For further information, please download our candidate pack and role profile below.

Indicative Timetable

Closing date for applications: Monday 22 April 2024
Technical Interviews: Tuesday 7 May 2024
Final Interviews: Thursday 23 May 2024

For a confidential discussion about the role please contact our retained consultants at Faerfield:

Martin Tucker
Tel: 0121 312 3755
Email: mtucker@faerfield.co.uk

Sean Anderson
Tel: 0121 312 3755
Email: sanderson@faerfield.co.uk

To apply

To apply for this job please click on the Apply button below and fill out the requested information. When prompted, please submit your CV and a Supporting Statement (no more than four sides of A4 each).

With your CV, please also provide the names and contact details of two referees, one of whom should be your current or most recent employer. Referees will only be contacted if you reach the final stages, and we will not contact referees without your permission.

Your supporting statement should express why you are interested in this role and what experience you can bring to the organisation. The statement should tackle the specific requirements of the role; outlining examples and outcomes showing how you meet those requirements.