Head of Business Development

Application Deadline: 25 March 2025

Department: Business Development

Location: Liverpool

Compensation: £39,513 – £43,157 / year

Description

As a proven self-starter, you will be responsible for growing the College’s workforce development programmes and creating new commercial opportunities. Your key responsibilities will involve generating business leads and enquiries to drive growth across the College’s wide-ranging apprenticeship offer as well as increasing take up of our professional development and pre-employment programmes. You will be instrumental in supporting the College’s commercial and business development service by strengthening our reputation with business through effective support and building lasting relationships. You will also be target driven, have a proven track record of developing business pipelines and managing support services – talent acquisition, account set up and funding support etc.

You will work closely with the Commercial Director to drive existing and new opportunities for income generation and take responsibility for monitoring and reporting on commercial business performance including funding through digital accounts and other income generation packages. You will also work across the college’s curriculum areas to identify and cost skills training packages providing advice to employers on funding opportunities through the Adult Skills Fund (ASF), other national and regional skills funding programmes or via commercial agreements.

You will have excellent business development acumen and a good understanding of national skills programmes and apprenticeship standards within various sectors. You will be able to work with employers to identify other commercial opportunities and new routes to market. You will be required to work in partnership with internal stakeholders and subject experts to develop new skills programmes and provide insight to evidence employer skills demands.

Key Responsibilities

• To generate a new client base for apprenticeships and other income streams, including loans and commercial business, with a particular personal focus on account managing existing levy clients and growing new levy account business.
• To manage levy client digital accounts ensuring all apprenticeship start opportunities are identified and levy funds are maximised for the benefit of the businesses.
• To lead the employer services function working in conjunction with the Work Based Learning and employability teams to set the marketing and sales strategy for apprenticeships and other income growth including Bootcamp, Adult Skills Fund, loans and commercial business opportunities.
• Establish on-going management reporting procedures to include regular business performance forecasting and performance reporting against starts and income generation targets.
• To be aware of national developments in subject area and update knowledge and skills on an annual basis.
• To plan, prepare and deliver a high-quality talent management offer to businesses working very closely with the work based learning and curriculum teams to achieve high employer and learner satisfaction results.
• To contribute fully to the mission and values statement of the College ensuring its effective implementation in all aspects of College life.
• Establish a highly motivated and target driven team environment where team members are well trained, professional and feel confident and valued.
• Evaluate and improve own communication skills to maximise effective communication and overcome barriers.
• To support the Commercial & Business Development Director and Work Based Learning Team in contributing to the design of apprenticeship programmes and other business development opportunities.
• To maintain business accounts and management information with the College’s CRM systems.
• To support the management of the college’s industry partnerships and attend networking events, business and stakeholder dinners as required.
• To ensure that all business in the Commercial & Business Development team is conducted professionally and complies with College’s policies and procedures.

Generic Duties

• To contribute fully to the mission and values statement of the College Group ensuring its effective implementation in all aspects of College life.
• To take proactive responsibility for Health & Safety to ensure that a safe working environment and safe working practices are maintained at all times.
• To comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
• To support cross college activities as required in particular the key enrolment and invigilation periods.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Essential Criteria

• Minimum of 3 years’ skills brokerage experience in a related role ideally with experience of identifying training needs and potential funding options.
• Ability to work in a fast paced target driven environment and results orientated with a determined attitude to hit and exceed targets.
• Ability to persuade, influence and negotiate effectively at all levels within and outside the organisation.
• Proven relevant experience of building strong working relationships (internally and externally).
• Knowledge and understanding of apprenticeships and learning and skills development.
• Excellent communication and organisational skills.
• Minimum of Level 2 literacy and numeracy or willingness to complete.
• High level of interpersonal skills and acts with integrity and sells with a high level of ethics.
• A people person with line management experience in a skills training environment working towards challenging performance targets.
• Ability to use own initiative and self-motivated.
• Excellent computer literacy – ability to use the current IT programs of the College an advantage.

Desirable Criteria

• Professional qualification relevant to the subject area.
• Membership of a relevant professional body.
• Experience of assessing employer skills needs and of providing and costing skills solutions for their benefit.
• Good understanding of the local labour market and meeting the training needs of employers.
• Good understanding of quality assurance and improvement processes.

Benefits

We really care about our people. As a member of College staff, you will have access to a wide range of benefits, wellbeing services and opportunities for professional development.

These include:

• Generous annual leave – We offer the highest holiday entitlement in the City Region
• Competitive salary – Our salaries are the highest within FE in the City Region
• Access to our Employee Benefits Platform, offering hundreds of discounts and savings
• Wellbeing support – Access to a free, independent and confidential 24 hour counselling support, as well as general wellbeing and lifestyle support through our platform and app
• Pension Scheme – Excellent pension provision, with memberships of Local Government Scheme, Teachers Pension Scheme and Aviva, depending on the role.

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