Professional Skills Centre Director at British Council

Role Type: Business Delivery
Pay Band: 8
Duration: Fixed Term Contract - 18 months
Reports to: Director Programmes Nigeria

Role purpose

• To plan a sustainable and surplus driven business model for the Professional Skills Centre, Nigeria
• To lead the development and launch of the Professional Skills Centre.
• To build relationships with key national and UK delivery partners and suppliers, and with key internal stakeholders in Nigeria, the region and UK
• To work effectively with colleagues in all SBUs to contribute to a holistic country programme for all customer groups and to build the whole business

Geopolitical/SBU/Function Overview
42% of Nigeria’s population is under 14. The government has recognised that its Vision 2020 must address the aspirations of this young population as part of its drive to achieve peace and prosperity. This has led to unprecedented interest and investment in Education, the Arts and good governance. This alignment with the UK’s priorities creates a growth environment for the British Council.

To be successful in this, we are building understanding with our UK stakeholders of Nigeria as an emerging economy with substantial commercial and development opportunities as well as the challenges they may be more familiar with. In this we seek to integrate our approach with that of the wider UK mission.

We are expanding and scaling up our existing programmes, contracts and services in the Arts, Education & Society, English & Examinations and developing offers to fill important gaps such as in Skills. To this end the Professional Skills Centre (PSC) is a completely new initiative to respond to the demand for quality, accredited skills training for adults to support career aspirations and enterprise development in soft skills, business development and programmes leading to recognised British qualifications.

This offer will be part of paid customer service portfolio that currently includes our Exam service, which included the delivery of 91,000 exams in 2016/17 to over 50,000 candidates. This new post will be responsible for building on the PSC design outlined in the business case and marketing it into a service ready for a soft launch by March 2018 with a number of selected products, and for putting the systems and infrastructure in place so that it can be developed in to a sustainable operation able to meet the customer demand and generate a surplus.

The PSC Director will report to Country Director or Director Programmes and to a governance Board in Nigeria of internal Directors and Country managers for Business Services, Arts, HE and Skills, Exams, Marketing and Communications and Finance. The PSC will be delivered through partners and suppliers’ premises and digital communications because the British Council operation does not have training premises to operate from.

Main Accountabilities
Business Planning and Strategy:

• Translate the Business Plan into a strategy and work plan to deliver targets, income, reputational value and profitability for the successful first year of the PSC
• Plan the financial, operational logistical, academic and staff resources required to deliver the strategy
• Plan the pricing strategy based on market research and competitor analysis
• Plan the controls required in line with BC Policy
• Ensure compliance with standards and policy for the following areas:
  • Child protection
  • Equal Opportunity and Diversity
  • Health and safety
• Design the launch strategy

Management:

• With the Human Resources team plan and execute the recruitment and contracting of the management team required for the staffing model agreed by the Governance Board and Country Management Team, and proposed in the Business Plan.
• With Human Resources (HR), plan the induction of new staff
• Design the PSC launch schedule including marketing ,registrations, trainers, venues, materials and all logistics
• With Head of Finance plan the registration and on line payments system for customers to use, consulting Exams team for complementarity
• With Head of Finance, develop the systems to record sales on SAP

Academic Management:

• Review market insight work to determine which products/services are most relevant to the local market.
• Commission the adaption of products to suit the Nigeria market
• Commission a suite of blended and face-to-face courses to meet target audience needs including "pathways" (groups of courses suitable for specific audiences and to be offered as packages)
• Start to build the annual course directory for the full scale PSC.
• Commission HR to recruit local trainers according to HR policy and carrying out due diligence and background checks.
• Work with local HR team to ensure trainer contracts are created and sent out in a timely manner
• Plan trainer accreditation and induction, following corporate standards
• Ensure up-to-date knowledge of current trends in training and in the target market and the UK that can meet the customer demand.
• Put standards in place on the quality of materials.

Marketing and Sales:

• Decide sales targets and produce sales forecast based on agreed business plan
• Plan the sales strategy, responsibilities and timeline with PSCN and local teams.
• Commission and analyse local market intelligence.
• Keep up to date with latest market/skills training trends/legislation from ministries working closely with colleagues in the Exams, Education, Skills and HE teams who also work in this space.
• Develop in-country PSC marketing strategy (including digital) with Marketing and Communication (Marcoms) team
• Develop marketing collateral and local campaigns, with Marcoms team
• Complete ad hoc intelligence and market insight gathering as required.
• Evaluate competitor products, services and marketing strategies.

Stakeholder management:

• Maintain regular communications with internal stakeholders for the PSC, ensuring their support and interest
• Develop a stakeholder management plan for the PSC to build relationships with prime external stakeholders who drive customers to the PSC including, existing and new BC contacts
• Identify and manage UK partners that have an offer which can be delivered through the PSC. Negotiate contracts and agreements with them that respond to customer demand and increase sales, in collaboration with Exams team when the UK partners are Exams team clients.

Customer Services:

• Design customer care procedures and policies to ensure that the highest of standards are met.
• Work with the Customer Service team in Lagos to integrate the PSC into the other customer services offered
• Ensure the payment system is easy to use and reliable.
• Put standards in place for external venues to meet

Key Relationships
Internal:

• Internal
• Senior Leadership Team
• Marketing and Communications team
• Country Exams Manager and exams team
• UK based senior management in Education and Society and English and Exams
• PSC Global network
• Colleagues in British Council Nigeria

External:

• Venues
• Partners

Role Requirements
Threshold requirements:

1.) Passport requirements/ Right to work in country:

• Right to live and work in Nigeria
• Valid passport
• Assessment stage: Shortlisting

2.) Direct contact or managing staff working with children?

• Appropriate child protection assurance checks in accordance with British Council policy
• Notes: Some weekend and evening work will be required to meet the demands of a busy operation and a new business area.
• Assessment stage: N/a

Qualifications

• Degree level qualification or equivalent - Essential
• Relevant teaching qualification - Desirable
• Assessment Stage: Shortlisting

Role Specific Knowledge & Experience:

• Knowledge of the Nigeria education system - Essential
• Knowledge of the global and Nigeria discourse on employability skills - Essential
• Knowledge of the UK education system - Essential
• Assessment Stage: Shortlisting and/or interview

Experience:

• At least 5 years’ experience of working in an adult professional skills training or other education environment - Essential
• 3- 5 years’ experience of management in a multi-disciplinary environment, including human resources and business development - Essential
• Experience of business start up - Desirable
• 3 year’s marketing and sales experience - Desirable
• Assessment Stage: Shortlisting and/or Interview

British Council Core Skills
Business Development:

• Leads business development
• Able to plan and deliver business development activities for a major and/or new market category which is significant for the Council.
• Assessment Stage: Shortlisting and/or Interview

Managing People:

• Leads a major unit
• Leads a major business unit or function, setting its structure and processes, defining workforce requirements, promoting diversity in the workplace and shaping the workforce to meet need.

Communicating and Influencing:

• Influences at the highest level
• Influences and manages relationships at the highest levels to build mutual understanding, shapes perceptions of the British Council and creates positive change over the medium term.

Planning and organising:

• Plans for the longer term
• Shapes forward plans for 3-5 years ahead for a major unit or multiple units, taking account of British Council strategy and the need to manage contingencies, risks and impact.

Managing Finance and Resources:

• Plans and deploys resources
• Negotiates and agrees the resources for a defined area as part of forward planning, monitoring progress and adjusting resources or priorities to meet goals.

Managing Risk:

• Exemplifies strategic risk management
• Has track record of balancing and mitigating risks in strategic and business plans and of providing a clear model of best practice to the business area/function.

Managing Accounts and Partnerships:

• Plans and leads on accounts and partnerships
• Develops and leads on the delivery of account management and development plans across a range of stakeholders/customers/partners to deliver medium term business and/or reputational gains for both parties.

British Council Behaviours
Being Accountable:

• Most demanding - Showing real dedication to the long-term mission of the British Council or the team
• Assessment Stage: Shortlisting and/or Interview

Connecting with others:

• Most demanding - building trust and understanding with people who have very different views

Working together:

• Most demanding - Working with stakeholders to come up with solutions and gain support

Making it happen:

• Most demanding - Achieving stretching results when faced by change, uncertainty or major obstacles

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Click here to download BC Core skills (pdf)