Investment and Monitoring Manager (Learner Support)

Job summary

About Us

We are an arm’s length body of the Welsh Government, responsible for the strategy, funding and oversight of:

• further education
• higher education including research and innovation;
• apprenticeships
• adult community learning; and local authority maintained school sixth forms.

We work in close collaboration with our partners to enable a tertiary education and research system which is centred around the needs of learners; society; and economy with excellence, equality and engagement at its heart.

Our values really matter to us, they help shape the culture of our organisation:

• Dysgu (to learn; to teach; to educate) - learning is at the heart of everything we do. We believe curiosity fuels innovation and helps expand our horizons.
• Cydweithio (to work together; to collaborate; to co-operate) - we can achieve far more together than we ever could alone.
• Cynnwys Pawb (to include everyone; to involve everyone) - we are passionate about inclusion, seeking to create the right conditions for everyone to achieve their full potential.
• Rhagori (to exceed; to excel) - we have high aspirations for tertiary education and research in Wales and always set high standards for ourselves to be the best we can be.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and accredited as a Living Wage employer.

Location

Our headquarters is in 2, Capital Quarter, Cardiff. This is where most colleagues will meet to collaborate.

As we operate across Wales, we also have limited office and collaboration space in Welsh Government offices in Llandudno Junction, Aberystwyth, Swansea and Merthyr Tydfil.

Main Purpose of the Job

The Investment and Monitoring team is responsible for the investment and monitoring of a budget in excess of £1bn, allocated for the provision of education at FE colleges, Local Authority Sixth Form and Community Learning and Apprenticeship providers as well as funding and monitoring of other higher education funding streams for teaching, research and innovation.

This role considers the policy and processes of learners with Additional Learning Needs (ALN). This includes the implementation and monitoring of targeted budgets , such as Additional Learning Support, the Financial Contingency fund, Top up funding and Period Dignity funding.

A key aspect of this role will be the consideration and development of curriculum for the Independent Living Skills programme. In addition, you will work with the senior manager to ensure that all tertiary providers and internal Medr directorates have the best possible outcomes for all ALN learners.

Job description

What you’ll be doing

• Oversee the effective grants management of each of these funding streams; ensure accurate records of allocations and expenditure are maintained.
• Work with the Senior Manager on the development and implementation of Additional Learning Support, the Financial Contingency fund, Top up funding and Period Dignity funding and other funding streams.
• Assisting with the gathering of data for provider risk assessments related to ALN provision and transition, including safeguarding and support effectiveness.
• Supporting the development of relationships with tertiary education providers, local authorities, and third-sector organizations involved in ALN support. This will include monitoring arrangements and regular regional and individual meetings.
• Working together with Colegau Cymru and Welsh Government to support the transition and support of ALN learners.
• Providing support and guidance to providers across the tertiary sector on ALN investment.

Key challenges

• Ensuring that Medr’s investment aligns with national ALN policies.
• Ensuring the Independent Living Skills Programme and Additional Learning Support Grant are allocated and utilised effectively to maximise learner impact.
• Gathering and analysing complex data related to ALN provision and transition outcomes, to drive evidence-based improvements.
• Supporting with the process of ALN learners transitioning from statutory education to post-16, assisting all stakeholders to work together to help the learners.
• Navigating and balancing the needs of providers, local authorities, third-sector organisations, and learners with ALN.

About your team

The Investment and Monitoring team plays a pivotal role in ensuring the compliant and effective use of the budget made available to Medr. The team is responsible for deriving, allocating and monitoring funding across the entire tertiary education sector. They work across Medr with policy, data and analysis, finance and performance teams to ensure our strategic priorities are funded and offer the very best values for money. They have developed credible and strong working relationships with partners and keep abreast of emerging priorities such as net zero and Welsh language provision. The team will work with both internal and external stakeholders using a co-production approach to refine existing funding methodologies and to design and implement new funding approaches to achieve policy priorities.

The team includes 13 people who are geographically dispersed within the Development, Investment and Performance Directorate. This team is made up of some experienced people and with additional team members recently appointed.

Your line Manager

Abigail is the Senior Learner Support Manager and recently started her role in January.

Prior to joining Medr, Abigail worked for Coleg Y Cymoedd as an Assistant Head of school and lecturer for Independent Living Skills. Abigail has led community initiatives and transition programmes for learners with ALN. Prior to working in education, Abigail worked in the community in mental health and social care.

Abigail has an undergraduate and PGCE from University of South Wales, she is currently on her final year of her master's in education (Additional Learning Needs).

Person specification

What you will bring

Attributes

1. Inspire People: You set ambitious goals and inspire others to strive for excellence, driving a culture of continuous improvement.
2. Agile: You drive forward improvements, through collaboration, embracing new technologies and nurturing a culture of continuous learning.
3. Giving and Receiving Constructive Feedback: You address conflicts and challenges in a constructive manner, seeking to find mutually beneficial solutions.
4. Humility: You listen to diverse perspectives and incorporate feedback into decision-making.

Experience

1. Current knowledge of Additional Learning Needs within the tertiary sector.
2. Experience of delivering interventions and funding methodologies. Effectively monitoring the investments, identifying trends and issues and taking remedial action as required.

Welsh language requirements

Desirable

Welsh desirable means that while having Welsh language skills is useful for the role, it is not an assessment criterion, so it won’t disadvantage you during recruitment if you don’t currently possess these skills.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,457, Medr contributes £11,430 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Your Perks and Benefits

We recognise the importance of looking after ourselves in work and in life, so in recognition of this we provide:

• 34 days annual leave a year
• An environment that embraces work life balance.
• A culture that celebrates diversity and welcomes everyone.
• Dedicated well-being time to all our people each week.
• A Cycle to Work Scheme to make owning a bicycle more affordable.

Additional Support when you need it

We know that sometimes you may face challenges or life events that mean you need additional support.

• We provide a comprehensive employee assistance programme with remote access to resources and in person support whenever required.
• We have a special leave policy ensuring everyone in the organisation receives the support they need during difficult times.

More than just a workplace

• You will be entitled to take 5 days paid leave per year to undertake voluntary work to support the communities we serve.
• We will encourage you to grow your networks across Wales, the UK and internationally.
• We have an active social committee who offer a range of activities for our people to come together outside the work setting. You can participate as much or as little as you want.

Personal and professional development

• Once you’re offered a post, we will get to know you and work with you to develop a personalised onboarding plan which considers your experience, skills, learning style and knowledge.
• We’ll help you shape your development plans with personalised career conversations and objectives, taking account of delivery goals alongside your career aspirations and helping you own your career.
• We support all our staff to learn or improve their Welsh language skills.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

We are really interested in you as an individual and what you will bring to our organisation.

Our assessment process is designed to help us get to know you better enabling us to appoint someone who will thrive in the role and who shares our organisational values.

If you are interested in working with us, please send us your application and personal statement through Civil Service Jobs.

The following attributes/experience will be assessed at sift stage:

Attributes:

• Inspire People: You set ambitious goals and inspire others to strive for excellence, driving a culture of continuous improvement.
• Agile: You drive forward improvements, through collaboration, embracing new technologies and nurturing a culture of continuous learning.
• Humility: You listen to diverse perspectives and incorporate feedback into decision-making

Experience:

• Current knowledge of Additional Learning Needs within the tertiary sector.

To be fair to everyone who applies, we won’t accept:

• Late applications
• Applications with missing or incomplete information
• Personal statements over 1,250 words

The deadline for application submission is Wednesday 10 June.

Applications are welcome in Welsh and will not be treated less favourably than those submitted in English.

All applications will be notified of their outcomes via Civil Service Jobs at sift and interview stage.

Candidates who successfully navigate the sift stage will be required to complete an online exercise to enable us to determine their behavioural and personality preferences. Immediately on completion you will be given a report which highlights your strengths plus some development tips to help you prepare for interview. Candidates should note that the online exercise is not intended to eliminate anyone from consideration. Instead, it serves as a tool to aid in the decision-making process.

Following this, you will be required to participate in an interview on Friday 10 July

In addition to the attributes and experience assessed at sift stage, the remaining attribute and experience will also be assessed at interview:

Attribute:

• Giving and Receiving Constructive Feedback: You address conflicts and challenges in a constructive manner, seeking to find mutually beneficial solutions.

Experience:

• Experience of gleaning information from multi-source data, which can be incomplete to reach reasonable conclusions.

We strive for a diverse and inclusive workplace and we want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. We are happy to discuss any person-centred adjustments required to the recruitment process. Please contact swyddi@medr.cymru

We're looking forward to meeting everyone invited to interview at our headquarters in 2, Capital Quarter, Cardiff. We don’t usually pay travel expenses, but if this presents a real barrier to your attendance in person or if you require a reasonable adjustment, please let us know in advance by emailing swyddi@medr.cymru so we can discuss and agree arrangements prior to your interview.

Following interview we are committed to offering constructive and actionable feedback to support you on your future career journey.

Next Steps

Interested…? Want to find out more?

We know how important it is for you to find out more about us so we will be holding a virtual information session for candidates on Monday 8 June at 13:00 on Microsoft Teams. This session will not be recorded.

This will be an opportunity for you to hear more about our organisation; the role and how we invest in our people.

If you would like to attend, register by emailing swyddi@medr.cymru.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : People and Culture Team
• Email : swyddi@medr.cymru

Recruitment team

• Email : swyddi@medr.cymru

Attachments

Canllaw i Ymgeiswyr ar Lunio Datganiad Personol Opens in new window (pdf, 112kB)A Candidate's guide to crafting a personal statement Opens in new window (pdf, 113kB)Swydd Ddisgrifiad- Rheolwr Buddsoddi a Monitro (Cymorth Dysgwyr) Opens in new window (pdf, 284kB)Job Description - Investment and Monitoring Manager (Learner Support) Opens in new window (pdf, 289kB)