Employment & Skills Officer

The Employment & Skills Officer combines personalised employment support with high-quality training. Working with young people and adults who may be unemployed, economically inactive, not in education, employment or training, or facing multiple barriers, the postholder will provide one-to-one coaching and group-based learning that builds confidence, resilience, essential skills, digital capability and workplace readiness.

The role owns each participant's support journey from engagement and assessment through learning, progression and sustained employment. It also contributes to curriculum development, employer engagement, partnership working, quality assurance, contract compliance and accurate outcome reporting.

As an Employment & Skills Officer, a typical day might include:

• Support young people aged 16-24 through our Youth Hub programme, helping them identify and progress towards their next step in education, training or employment.
• Engage and recruit eligible participants to employment, skills and wellbeing programmes, identifying the most appropriate starting point for each person.
• Complete robust initial and ongoing assessments, identify strengths, aspirations and barriers, and agree personalised action plans with clear, achievable goals.
• Manage a caseload throughout the participant journey, maintaining regular contact, reviewing progress and coordinating timely interventions that support attendance, achievement, progression and sustained employment.
• Provide effective one-to-one coaching and group learning in employability, confidence, wellbeing, digital skills and workplace readiness, adapting delivery to individual needs.
• Support participants to create CVs, complete applications, search and apply for vacancies, prepare for interviews and assessments, and use online job-search tools confidently.
• Use labour-market information to help participants explore realistic career pathways and progress into employment, education, accredited or non-accredited learning, Functional Skills, vocational training, apprenticeships, volunteering or work experience.
• Plan, prepare, deliver and evaluate engaging sessions and courses, producing schemes of work and learning materials and contributing to curriculum development and continuous improvement.
• Build productive relationships with employers and partners to create vacancies, presentations, workplace visits, work tasters, mentoring, job fairs, work trials and other progression opportunities.
• Work collaboratively with DWP Work Coaches, education and training providers, local services and specialist organisations, referring participants appropriately and maintaining professional boundaries.
• Provide flexible face-to-face, telephone, digital and outreach support, including activity in rural and disadvantaged communities and appropriate in-work support for participants and employers.
• Maintain accurate, timely and compliant participant records, evidence and monitoring information, and report on performance, outcomes, success stories, risks and areas for improvement.
• Meet agreed quality and performance targets while embedding safeguarding, equality, diversity and inclusion, trauma-informed practice, health and safety, data protection and quality assurance in all activity.

A willingness and ability to deliver a range of courses beyond your primary area of expertise with an enthusiasm to develop your skills to adapt our delivery to the needs of our learners.

• Are comfortable with, and can deliver, both 1-2-1 and group sessions in their role.
• Experience of engaging with adults and children.
• A genuine commitment to the personal and occupational success of the long-term unemployed.
• Ability to work as a team, under pressure and in a fast-paced environment.
• A good understanding of the barriers faced by unemployed and inactive people, and the solutions that may be able to benefit them.
• Ability to work collaboratively with others, whether in the same team or external support providers.
• You’re a positive, energised and enthusiastic person, with a real zest for helping others.
• Engaging and supporting people is what gets you up every day.
• Nothing makes you happier than seeing someone progress, knowing you helped them get there.
• Resilience. Working in the education, support and employment sectors is a challenging but rewarding career. You’ll be helping to bring real change to peoples' lives.

The added extras:

• Qualifications in your subject specialism (to at least Level 3 equivalent), or an in-depth knowledge and substantial experience in the subject area.
• Awareness of the needs of underachieving and disengaged young people
• Ability to deal with challenging behaviour at times.
• An understanding of the different local services available for customers
• You’re interested in supporting the wider team with our wellbeing activities, learning opportunities or employment support - and have some skills to offer in this area.
• You’ll be adept at change, having got hands-on experience living and breathing new ways of working and knowing how to bring your colleagues along for the experience.

Generous holiday entitlement - 25 days annual leave (rising by one day per year to max of 30) plus bank holidays

• Pension contributions up to 4%
• The opportunity to undertake professional training, funded by us.
• One days paid leave a year for volunteering work (in addition to your Annual leave entitlement)
• Staff benefits with Paycare - A health and benefits scheme giving you support and contributions towards various health benefits such as counselling, eye tests, vaccinations and much more
• Benefits with Acis Perkz - a discount scheme giving you savings off hundreds of schemes including discounts on your coffee, weekly shop, days out and much more!
• Employee recognition scheme, where we celebrate and award our Stars within Acis, including gift vouchers
• Long service awards for our loyal employees
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme to give you confidential advice and support, when you need it
• Professional membership subscription to support your continuous professional development
• Death in service benefit as part of our pension scheme

#J-18808-Ljbffr