Project Manager – National Competitions Delivery

About the Role

This new role within the Operations Directorate will manage our existing portfolio of national skills competitions, work with the wider team and network to develop our offering to ensure we are aligned with the UK economic priorities. You will have experience of the technical and vocational education and training or apprenticeship systems, be proactive and able to engage with a range of stakeholders.

Role purpose

The purpose of this role is to manage relationships with key stakeholders to ensure the national competition programme is delivered to a high standard, ensuring a collaborative approach to its development and delivery, in partnership with education and industry

Key tasks and responsibilities:

1. Management of a portfolio of national skills competitions across a range of industry sectors:

Develop knowledge and understanding of each competition and their operational needs and requirements, through meetings (one-to-one and group), with competition organising partners (COPs), educators and industry.

• Provide technical and operational advice, guidance, and support on competition delivery to internal teams, partners, and external stakeholders in education and industry.

• Undertake mid-year and annual reviews of competition organising partners (COPs) and continually seek to develop efficient quality procedures.

• Support competition organising partners (COPs) to understand programme requirements and produce key documentation to a consistent high quality and standard, submitted to agreed timeframes

2. Management of all contracts and processes associated with WorldSkills UK’s network of competition organising partners (COP’s):

Implement the competitions organising partner (COP) quality assurance and continuous improvement model and monitoring framework, to ensure the programme runs effectively through contract compliance and that key milestones are met and risks are mitigated.

• Quality assure and sign off key competition deliverables and milestones, reporting and tracking progress on centralised monitoring systems.

• Carry out monthly catch up and bi-annual reviews of competition organising partners (COPs) and support them to continually improve programme delivery resulting in a high-quality, innovative competitions and a positive competitor experience. Page 7 of 10

• Provide development support to delivery partners to raise the standard and quality of competitions delivered within their footprint, in collaboration with the Quality and Standards team. This also includes organising sector-based cluster meetings for competition organising partners to foster greater collaboration and collect, synthesise and exchange information and best practice pertinent to their particular industry or sector.

• Ensure monitoring and reporting systems are accurate and kept up to date.

• Work with the Corporate Partnerships team to manage competitions funded through an investment model.

3. Support the development of new skills competitions:

• Review, assess and implement initiatives that create future-proof skills competitions that are sustainable, responsive to employer needs and provide greater alignment to UK economic priorities.

4. Project management:

• Take ownership of allocated projects within the Operations directorate ensuring all deviations from targets (time, money, people etc.) are identified and addressed at the earliest possible stage.

• Effectively coordinate resources (including agencies, suppliers, contractors) so that all project elements are delivered to acceptable standards on time, to budget, and meet the required specification(s)/objective(s).

5. General

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.

• 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 National Competitions 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. Any significant changes will be made in consultation with the post holder acknowledging experience, education and ability.

Person specification Key: [E] Essential / [D] Desirable.

Qualifications and experience:

• Project management or education related qualification and/or relevant experience [E].

• Experience of contract managing complex projects and programmes in the publicly funded sector [E].

• Experience of working within technical and vocational education and training and apprenticeships systems [E].

• Proven track record of multi-stakeholder and relationship management [E].

• Experience, knowledge and skills within education quality frameworks, industry standards or awarding body [E].

• Experience of delivering to challenging timelines against multiple, occasionally conflicting, priorities and delivering to time, budget and quality [E].

• Experience of managing successful teams and/or learners’ outcomes in professional and technical education [D].

Knowledge and skills:

• Strong analytical, problem solving and critical thinking skills [E].

• Skilled in managing multiple projects with a wide range of stakeholders, overseeing activities through effective prioritisation, planning and resource management [E].

• Excellent interpersonal and communications skills to build strong relations with delivery partners and TVET stakeholders in the UK [E].

• Proactive, creative self-starter able to prioritise to operate in a fast-paced environment, largely unsupervised and able to deliver to deadlines [E].

• Ability to lead and manage an external network of stakeholders to include individuals, providers, and employers [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].

• Possess a strong work ethic and desire to achieve results [E].

• Flexible in working methods and ideas [E].

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

• Responsive and proactive with a can-do attitude [E].

• Enthusiastic and able to motivate others [E].

• Respect for diversity and inclusion with practical ideas for their implementation within the scope of the post [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.