Senior Programme Manager

Job Title:         Senior Programme Manager

Reporting to:        Director of Transformations

Responsible for:    Chef Trainers

Hours/days:        40 hours per week

Location:    Flexible / hybrid with a minimum of one day per week in the Brixton office. The role will require regular travel to various locations in London, and some national travel with overnight stays, so would therefore not suit fully remote working.

Salary:        £45,000 FTE

Deadline:        Midday 19th September 2024

 

This is a unique opportunity for a person with experience in delivering training programmes, to lead our School Chef Educator Programme. This programme supports school chefs to improve their school food, and begin their journey as food educators. We are looking for someone with the drive to continue to scale this programme nationally.

 

Who we are

Chefs in Schools is a young, ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids' health, through improving school food & food education. We focus our efforts in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, where more than a third of children are entitled to free school meals, and diet-related disease is driving further inequality. 

 

We support and train school kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share learning and resources, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.

 

We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education,  setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.

 

About you and the role

In this role, you will manage and scale the School Chef Educator Programme, a 10-week training initiative for school kitchen staff. You’ll oversee delivery, manage Chef Trainers, and collaborate with our School Engagement Manager to build partnerships that help us scale delivery of this programme. Focused mainly in London but with UK-wide responsibilities, you'll ensure high-quality, impactful training.

 

The School Chef Educator Programme covers topics such as Reducing Food Waste and Food Education. It is delivered in a blended learning format, through a mix of in-person training, bitesize webinars, and our online learning website. 

 

Your week might include meeting partners, booking training venues, scheduling sessions, recruiting schools, attending webinars, and supporting Chef Trainers at events.

 

You will be joining a dynamic and growing charity who are passionate about delivering exceptional training, skill sharing, expertise and know-how to advance the quality of food preparation, food service and food education in schools.

 

You will have an understanding of the context that we operate in, education and food sectors. You will have strong people skills, be highly organised and have the ability to manage effective partnerships with external organisations.

 

The responsibilities, skills and experience listed below are intended to give you an idea of what we need for this role. If you don’t meet every requirement but feel you would be able to work with us to deliver the majority of them, we urge you to apply anyway. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and for us the most important ‘experience’ is passion for our mission. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.           

 

We want to get to know you at the interview and understand we can do this best if you’re at ease. We’re an inclusive employer and work hard to create a welcoming working environment for everyone, including appointing a neurodiversity champion to help us identify how we can make our work environment work for everyone. If you need adjustments to the interview process please let us know.

 

As we work with children and young people, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and DBS clearance, in line with our safeguarding policy.

 

Key responsibilities:

• Ensure high-quality programme delivery aligned with our vision and values.

• Manage programme logistics, including scheduling and venue booking.

• Lead national expansion and develop proposals for schools, trusts and caterers.

• Liaise with senior school leaders and manage relationships with sponsors.

• Monitor programme costs and risks, and ensure legal compliance.

• Drive high uptake for our fully funded training places.

• Evaluate and document programme impact and best practices.

• Maintain accurate data and support Chef Trainers with reporting.

• Oversee training material development and programme improvement.

• Line manage Chef Trainers.

• Keep our contacts database up to date with participant, partner, and programme data.

• Assist with programme delivery and provide guidance to Chef Trainers as needed.

• Ensure effective management of our Learning Management System (LMS), including version control and legal compliance, with day-to-day tasks delegated as appropriate.

 

Essential Skills & experience include:

• Passion for improving child health through better food and education

• You are good at building relationships, offering support while also being able to challenge when necessary

• Experience in delivering and designing training (in-person and online)

• You have experience in delivering, developing and/or rolling out training programmes at scale

• You have experience working with and managing relationships with different organisations and partners

• Clear communication and presentation skills

 

Desirable:

• Experience scaling programmes nationally

• Strong organisational and planning abilities

• You are comfortable using digital tools and can manage resources on an online platform while also bringing new ideas to enhance the learning experience

• You have hands-on experience with Learning Management Systems (LMS), including managing users, updating content, and solving technical issues

• Experience in team leadership or management

 

Benefits

You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who work hard, but believe in a healthy work / life balance. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to, and draw on, a variety of projects and strategic insights.

 

We offer 33 days (pro-rata for part time positions) of holiday per year, including bank holidays, a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues, enhanced parental leave. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.

 

We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the AIG Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.  

 

Application process

In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we will invite candidates to interview based on their answers to a series of questions related to their day-to-day job. Please follow this link to answer the questions and submit your application.

 

We recommend that you develop your answers offline and copy them in when you’re ready to ensure you don’t lose your work if interrupted.
 

Your answers will go through our sifting process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a first interview online on 1st October. Second interviews will take place on Tuesday 8th October at our office in Brixton, London.

 

At the second interview, we will also ask you to complete a short task. You have 15 mins to complete this task. The interview overall will take a maximum of one hour.

 

Expected duration of this application process: 6 weeks

First interviews will be held virtually, on 1st October

Second interviews will be held in person, on 8th October