Employment Services Manager (West Midlands)

Job title: Employment Services Manager (West Midlands)

Location: Birmingham– hybrid working, with a minimum of 2 days a week in the office.

Salary: £35,000 - £39,000

Hours: 37.5 hours per week, with occasional evening or weekend work (TOIL provided)

Contract: Permanent

Language Requirements: Fluent in English

Overall purpose

Your primary responsibility will be to lead Breaking Barriers’ employment programme in Birmingham and the West Midlands, and support the Senior Employment Services Manager and Director of Services in ensuring high standards of quality and efficiency in the support we provide to clients.  

Working closely with the Senior Employment Services Manager, you will take ownership of delivery within this region and lead on the delivery of the contract, including maintaining effective external stakeholder relationships and providing accurate and timely reporting. You will line manage and support a team of Employment Advisers (“Advisers”), enabling them to provide high-quality support to clients and coordinate the day-to-day operational activity which keeps our programmes running.

You are a highly organised and effective worker who knows when to adopt a creative approach and when to follow the established process. You will have an empathetic manner, be willing to go the extra mile to support clients and be proactive in looking for ways to improve our service. Lived experience would be helpful but is not essential.  

In addition to exceptional people skills, you will be a strong communicator and possess meticulous attention to detail. You will be confident working autonomously, helped by excellent time management skills and the ability to prioritise and cope with interruptions.  

You should have at a demonstrable track record of transferrable work experience in coordinating service delivery, projects or programmes, or another relevant field. Equally important is a demonstrable commitment to working with marginalised populations who face barriers to employment, particularly refugees. A strong interest in employability support and experience delivering employment programmes or careers advice would be a strong advantage. 

For our part, we offer a strong team environment, where your ideas and drive will be welcomed and where you as an individual can make a real difference in people’s lives. 

To view the full job description and person specification, as well as details on our accessible recruitment process, please view the attached recruitment pack.

Other considerations

• As part of our safeguarding commitment to our clients, we carry out preemployment checks to ensure that successful applicants are suitable to work with adults at risk. These include basic DBS checks, obtaining references and verifying a candidate’s identity and right to work in the UK.
• Some travel between our different areas of operation (including London, Birmingham and Manchester) will be required. Occasional evening or weekend work may be required. Time off in lieu would be provided in this case.
• We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity status, race, religion or belief.

How to apply

If you are looking for a role where you can make a real difference, we want to hear from you. To apply, please submit a CV and statement (up to approximately 500 words/1 A4 page) outlining:

• Which location you are applying for
• Why you are interested in the role
• What skills you would bring to be successful in this role
• Any experience you would like to highlight
• Any reasonable adjustments you require for the interview process
• Disclosure of disabilities if you wish to do so (as a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, we guarantee an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role)

Please note that applications without a covering letter will not be considered.

Closing date for applications is 11:30pm on Thursday 24th October. Interviews will be held on a rolling basis so please apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

We belong to the Experts by Experience Employment Initiative, which advocates and supports organisations to employ more people from a refugee background. With this in mind, we particularly welcome applicants with experience of seeking asylum and/or a refugee background. 

If you are an expert by experience (a refugee or a migrant with direct, first-hand experience of issues and challenges of the UK asylum or immigration system), you can ask for an independent and confidential support for your job application from the Experts by Experience Employment Network. Please reach out to HR Manager Dani Meier for further details (we are unable to include email addresses in this advert, but you can find contact details on the final page of the attached recruitment pack).