ACL Work Based Advisor in Chelmsford

Permanent, Full Time

£29,467 to £34,667 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Working Style: Fixed-base worker

Closing Date: 26th July 2026

Interviews: w/c 10th August

Adult Community Learning (ACL) Essex is Essex County Council’s provider of lifelong learning experiences for Essex residents. ACL Essex offers qualifications to help people move nearer to, enter or progress within the workplace or gain skills to enhance life chances. The service focuses many of its programmes and activities on the hardest to reach communities within Essex. ACL Essex learners have access to a diverse range of accredited and non-accredited courses which encourage creativity, healthy lifestyles, social inclusion and engagement.

The Work Based Advisor leads a high-quality, inclusive candidate and employer journey for apprenticeships and other work-based programmes. The role provides proactive information, advice and guidance (IAG), manages recruitment pipelines and matching, and ensures compliant onboarding, documentation and early retention. The postholder acts as a trusted point of contact for employers and prospective learners, setting clear expectations for training plans and off-the-job (OTJ) learning and coordinating the steps from vacancy to enrolment. Operating in a fast-paced environment and collaborating across marketing, curriculum, quality and employer engagement teams, the Work Based Advisor contributes to service outcomes by progressing leads through the pipeline, improving customer experience and providing feedback and insight to inform continuous improvement.

Accountabilities

• Deliver impartial information, advice and guidance to employers and candidates, supporting informed decisions and improved conversion rates.
• Manage allocated vacancies and candidate pipelines from initial enquiry through to enrolment, progressing activity in line with agreed processes and targets.
• Maintain accurate CRM records and updated pipeline stages in a timely manner to support reporting, forecasting and performance monitoring.
• Deliver employer onboarding briefings using approved materials, setting clear expectations for training plans and off-the-job learning.
• Support early retention activity, including scheduled check-ins within the first ninety days, identifying risks and escalating issues where required.
• Work with marketing and sales colleagues to follow up campaign leads quickly and effectively, translating interest into applications and starts.
• Produce regular activity updates and contribute insight and feedback to support service improvements.
• Embed inclusive practice, accessibility and safeguarding within all recruitment and onboarding activity.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• Educated to Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) Level 3 or above; a formal Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) qualification is desirable (for example, Level 3 or Level 4 Advice and Guidance).
• Experience of recruitment, employability or apprenticeship onboarding within education and training environments, with a track record of converting pipelines into starts and supporting early retention.
• Excellent verbal and written communication and customer service skills, with the ability to influence and manage multiple stakeholders professionally.
• Strong organisation, time management and attention to detail, with proficiency in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and data integrity.
• Understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion, safeguarding and reasonable adjustments in recruitment, with the ability to embed these principles in everyday practice.
• Resilient, proactive and outcomes focused, able to follow defined processes, work at pace and balance priorities.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs. As part of employment with Essex County Council, if your role requires a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying. Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email.