Senior Workforce Development Manager

About the role

Join WorldSkills UK as a senior programme manager to lead the award-winning Centre of Excellence, where you’ll drive transformative change in workforce development and education on a national scale. We’re looking for a dedicated, results-oriented leader with a proven track record in managing and delivering impactful workforce development programmes. In this role, you will lead a team, ensuring high-quality outcomes, strengthening stakeholder partnerships, and making a measurable impact on teaching, learning and assessment across the UK.

Role purpose

The Centre of Excellence is WorldSkills UK’s flagship programme, dedicated to transforming the quality of teaching, learning, and assessment across Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). This pioneering programme drives innovation and raises standards by delivering world-class training and development opportunities for educators, ultimately enhancing outcomes for learners and ensuring the UK’s global competitiveness in skills excellence. As Senior Workforce Development Manager, you will lead the programme management of the Centre of Excellence, playing a pivotal role in advancing its mission. You’ll oversee a growing network of member institutions committed to achieving excellence by integrating international expertise and best practices from around the globe. Your leadership will ensure the Centre of Excellence influences every aspect of teaching, learning, and assessment, setting new benchmarks that elevate the quality of education across the sector.

Key tasks and responsibilities

1. Programme management:

Provide effective programme management ensuring the Centre of Excellence operates at the highest standards, with strategic oversight of all workstreams, including stakeholder engagement, resource management, and performance monitoring.

• Leading the programme’s strategic planning and execution, ensuring that all workstreams—including budget management, timelines, and resource allocation—are closely aligned with overall objectives. Proactively address challenges to maintain programme momentum and achieve milestones effectively.

• Building and maintaining strong relationships with both internal and external stakeholders to support programme success. Facilitate effective communication and alignment across teams, partners, and member institutions, promoting active engagement and collaboration throughout all programme phases.

• Establishing and overseeing a robust framework for monitoring and evaluating programme performance, focusing on impact assessment and continuous improvement. Provide regular reports on outcomes and insights, manage risks to ensure programme goals are met, and utilise evaluation data to inform strategic adjustments that enhance programme effectiveness.

• Overseeing the marketing and communication activity to promote the programme, ensuring it is visible and well-positioned among key audiences and stakeholders. Collaborate with the marketing team to develop targeted campaigns that highlight programme achievements, generate interest, and enhance engagement within the Centre of Excellence network and wider education and skills sector.

2. Network member Management:

Lead and execute a comprehensive member engagement strategy, driving value through targeted onboarding, recognition programmes, and an evolving account management framework to foster long-term member satisfaction and retention. Oversee tracking and analysis to inform strategic improvements and identify growth opportunities that align with the Centre of Excellence’s mission to expand impact.

• Developing and implementing a member engagement strategy, ensuring that institutions gain significant value from their involvement in the Centre of Excellence to include a recognition and awards programme to reward and celebrate members’ excellent practice and engagement with the Centre of Excellence.

• Providing strategic oversight to the enrolment and validation process for new members, ensuring that new institutions meet the Centre of Excellence’s standards, and work closely with the Network Member Manager to streamline onboarding, guaranteeing a positive initial experience that sets the stage for long-term involvement.

• Overseeing the tracking and evaluation of member engagement, using data to identify trends and areas for improvement. Provide regular updates on membership retention, engagement levels, and impact to leadership, and work with the Network Member Manager to develop strategies based on these insights.

• Identifying growth opportunities and enhancements to the programme offerings that can address emerging industry needs, supporting the Centre of Excellence’s mission and expanding its reach and impact.

3. Workforce Development:

The Senior Workforce Development Manager will lead a team of High Performance Skills Coaches to design, implement, and continuously improve a world-class teacher training programme. By incorporating global insights and innovative practices, this role ensures that the programme enhances teaching quality and raises educator capacity to deliver world-class education.

• Utilising insights from international benchmarking and emerging trends from global partners to incorporate cutting-edge methodologies and world-class standards into the teacher training programme.

• Leading a team of Skills Coaches to guide the development and delivery of high impact teacher training experiences, focusing on practical and solutions focussed strategies underpinned by international best practice that improve teaching, learning, and assessment.

• Overseeing the planning and scheduling of training activities to align with the academic calendar, ensuring that sessions are well-timed and accessible to educators throughout the year. Collaborate with the Marketing and Communications teams to promote training opportunities, generate demand, and expand programme reach, actively engaging member institutions and their teaching staff.

• Establishing robust tracking and evaluation systems to monitor programme outcomes, using data to measure the effectiveness of training content and delivery. Analyse engagement and impact metrics to inform ongoing improvements, ensuring alignment with Centre of Excellence goals and maintaining the programme’s reputation for excellence.

4. General responsibilities for a Senior Manager

In addition to the key tasks and responsibilities set out above, all employees at this level are expected to:

• Manage, support and motivate allocated staff to successfully deliver activities/tasks.

• Manage resources (including staff, volunteers, suppliers, and partners) so that all project elements are delivered to acceptable standards on time, to budget and meet the required specifications and objectives.

• Contribute to a performance driven culture ensuring outcomes and activities are continuously monitored, reviewed, and evaluated against grant KPIs, resolving issues, and initiating appropriate corrective action.

• Establish a strong mechanism to measure impact, capture, report, and transfer intelligence across programmes of work.

• Produce requirement specifications in line with WorldSkills UK’s procurement strategies for all outsourced activity.

• Maintain WorldSkills UK’s established management policies for dealing with risks and issues for the Workforce Development team and the wider organisation.

• Contribute to the successful delivery of WorldSkills UK’s strategic priorities and annual business objectives.

• Promote and comply with WorldSkills UK’s Employee Handbook and the policies contained therein with particular reference to those related to Health and Safety and on equity, diversity and inclusion.

• Carry out any other duty as may be reasonably assigned that is consistent with the nature of the job and its level of responsibility. 

Person specification Key:

[E] Essential / [D] Desirable.

Qualifications and experience:

• Experience in leading and managing workforce development programme or membership management in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) [E].

• Experience working as a manager within education or business with a focus on TVET [E].

• Experience managing multi-stakeholder education and training programmes for TVET teachers and trainers [E].

• Experience in leading or managing large scale complex programmes in the publicly funded sector [E].

Knowledge and skills:

• Knowledge and understanding of current policies and reforms in further and higher technical education, apprenticeships, and T Levels [E].

• Strong programme and budget management expertise [E].

• Ability to implement change initiatives, focusing effort and commitment on making change work [E].

• Ability to absorb and evaluate complex information quickly and use this to construct and manage robust plans which deliver the required strategic objectives [E].

• Understands consequence of actions and long-term impact and / or wider implications of decision-making process [E].

• Ensuring issues, dependencies and risks are identified, assessed, mitigated; ensuring delivery is in line with organisational prioritise [E].

• Able to influence, negotiate and manage the action of others, including remote teams [E].

• Able to develop and manage highly effective relationships and coordinate a range of partners and stakeholders both internally and externally to successfully deliver objectives [E].

• Proven ability to drive member engagement and retention strategies [E].

Personal qualities and attributes:

• Very reliable and with a high level of probity [E].

• Able to work to own initiative with broad direction [E].

• Able to think creatively and solve problems [E].

• Flexible in working methods and ideas [E].

• Excellent team player and collaborative approach to work [E].

• Enthusiastic and able to motivate others [E].

Special circumstances:

• Prepared occasionally to work outside normal hours [E].

• Prepared to travel within the United Kingdom [E].

• Able to spend time away from home [E].

This role is office based (as above) but with flexible hybrid working. It is expected the postholder will attend the office at least once or twice a week.

Full time working hours are a minimum of 35 hours per week, normal working hours are 09:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday although we pride ourselves on having a flexible approach to our working practices and service delivery and are happy to discuss flexible working options, including part time, with suitable candidates.

25 days’ annual leave [which will increase by one additional day for each completed year of service up to a maximum of 30 days] plus public and bank holidays.

Reasonable adjustments will be offered to all candidates and every stage of the recruitment process.