Director of Education (Bar Training)

The Council of the Inns of Court (COIC) is a charity with the object of advancing education in the administration and practice of the law, including promoting high standards of advocacy. COIC advances this principally through the activities of the Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA). COIC seeks to promote excellence in advocacy and professional knowledge, ethical practice and integrity, an accessible, diverse, and inclusive profession, and a collaborative profession.

The ICCA delivers high quality, innovative and flexible academic and professional education and training by:

• Addressing the training needs of Bar students and practising members of the Bar throughout their career;
• Creating training and professional development resources for delivery by others, particularly the Inns, Circuits and Specialist Bar Associations;
• Delivering training nationally and internationally where the ICCA is best placed to do so.

The ICCA Bar Course has delivered an exceptional Bar Course since the BSB’s Bar Training reforms in 2019, enrolling over 1,000 students. The aims of the course were to offer flexibility, widen accessibility, improve affordability and sustain high standards in the delivery of Bar training. All of these objectives have been achieved, making the ICCA the most successful Bar Course in terms of student outcomes on Part One with exceptionally high pupillage success rates.

The ICCA course is a flexible and blended programme offering online education leading to the BSB centralised assessments (Part One), and a skills course which is face-to-face and based in the Inns in London (Part Two).

The ICCA seeks to appoint a new Director of Education to lead and manage the day-to-day delivery of the Part Two Bar Course. The newly appointed Director of Education will join the ICCA’s Senior Management Team (SMT).

The Role

The ICCA seeks to appoint an outstanding individual to the important role of Director of Education whose primary focus will be education, leadership, strategy, and regulation.

Key Responsibilities

Reporting to the Dean, the following sets out the key requirements of the role:

• Be familiar with the detailed BSB curriculum developed and mapped to the BSB’s Professional Statement, Authorisation Framework and other relevant regulatory and policy requirements;
• Be cognisant of the ICCA’s strategic priorities, policy and procedures and forthcoming developments to cascade them down to academic staff;
• Understand the marketplace including undergraduate needs and aspirations, and competitor endeavours, to differentiate the offer of the ICCA and maintain high standards of education and outcomes;
• Be familiar with regulatory demands and expectations and conditions of registration;
• Investigate problems raised by students or staff and give advice on general matters relating to the course in line with ICCA policies;
• Communicate to team members about change initiatives and give feedback from the team on behalf of the course;
• Provide teaching and assessment on the Part Two Course;
• Innovate to develop strong relationships between students and tutors;
• Be one of the spokespeople for the ICCA’s Bar Course and maintain relationships with external bodies, and professional, statutory and regulatory bodies;
• Contribute to appropriate operational, quality assurance and programme management protocols;
• Ensure that all External Examiner recommendations are acted upon and issues reported to the Dean and relevant stakeholders.

Course management, curriculum oversight and leadership

• Ensure that the Bar Course is delivered in line with programme specification and regulations;
• Discuss proposed resource requirements for the course with the Dean and the Director of Operations to ensure the course is delivered within agreed resourcing parameters by high quality teaching staff;
• Oversee student complaints, notification of any extenuating or mitigating circumstances and academic irregularity processes in line with ICCA policies and procedures;
• Address and resolve issues relating to the quality of course delivery, student satisfaction, student progress and retention as they arise;
• Liaise effectively and work in a professional manner with all members of the SMT, the academic course team, administrative and any technical staff to ensure synergy of provision and non-siloed working practices;
• Liaise effectively and diplomatically with a wide range of internal colleagues and external stakeholders and organisations;
• Provide routine and ad hoc reports and updates and contribute towards written proposals and liaising directly with contractors, service providers, our academic partner and other significant key stakeholders;
• Organise and chair the SSLC and follow up on any action points arising;
• Assist with the management of the ICCA Advocacy Committee, Extra-curricular events programme and mooting endeavours;
• Assist other members of the COIC team with the design, development and review of any ICCA content and materials as necessary;
• Work with academic team members to plan and create an Annual Assessment and Feedback Plan for the course;
• Attend the regular Board of Examiners to present student results and prepare and submit any required reports;
• Oversee the delivery of course induction, welcome events and student transition activities, working with relevant academic and operations colleagues;
• Oversee the election of student ambassadors and mentors; liaise with them regularly to ensure they are supported;
• Working with Registry staff, provide students with academic support, including any specific issues related to students with disabilities, international students, or mature students;
• Refer pastoral care issues to appropriate specialist sources of guidance and support where appropriate and in accordance with ICCA policies;
• With relevant colleagues, ensure academic support is provided to students where progress or attendance is giving cause for concern;
• Ensure students are made aware of key procedures such as Notification of Extenuating Circumstances, Academic Appeals and Academic Misconduct, and contribute to the handling of academic appeals and academic misconduct issues;
• Support students by supplying references and arranging any appropriate alumni activities.