Investment and Monitoring Officer

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, which has been specifically designed to meet our needs. This is where most colleagues will meet to collaborate, both with each other and with stakeholders.

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 investing and monitoring a budget in excess of £972m, allocated for the provision of education at further education colleges, local authority maintained school sixth forms and adult community learning, and apprenticeship providers, as well as funding and monitoring other higher education funding streams for teaching, research and innovation.

The officer role is critical in ensuring the grants system reflects budget decisions made by Medr’s Board and reconciles with the finance system.

Job description

What you'll be doing

You will:

• Providing a high level of support and guidance to Project and Policy Managers across Medr, to promote awareness of the organisation’s grant management processes;
• Support Project and Policy Managers in the production of funding publications and grant award letters, ensuring they are issued to providers in-line with Medr standards;
• Upload all grant awards for all tertiary providers onto the grant system, seek approvals and schedule months payments, ensuring a high level of compliance;
• Maintain a live financial payment profile log for all grants across Medr and engage with Project and Policy Managers and Finance Team colleagues, to ensure all required payments can be made in-line with funding schedules;
• Complete and record the results of a detailed set of tests for both Medr’s grants and finance systems, to ensure the systems operate as required. The role will also ensure that budget and provider contact details on the grant system are updated and accurate;
• Produce finance reports and reconcile actual Medr expenditure against budget, and forecast future costs, to ensure planned delivery remains within agreed budgets.

Key Challenges

• Developing and maintaining your knowledge across the breadth of the work of the team and the tertiary sector;
• Developing an understanding of the work of the team and the requirements of the Tertiary Education and Research Wales Act 2022;
• Supporting all members of the team, including managing different pieces of work to a variety of deadlines;
• Ensuring accuracy when analysing large complex data sets which contain a high volume of data, which may include conflicting information;
• Securing credibility and trust with a range of internal/external partners.

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 value 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 to be appointed.

Your Line Manager

Laurence is the Investment and Monitoring Manager in the Tertiary Investment and Monitoring team and started his role on the 1st of August 2024.

Prior to joining Medr, Laurence worked for 25 years in the Welsh Government, in roles including Finance Management in both Further and Higher Education Division's, as well as more central grants management and IT projects roles.

Laurence received an undergraduate degree in Business Studies from Cardiff Institute in 1999 and has completed a Level 2 AAT accountancy qualification.

Person specification

What you will bring

Attributes

• Resilient: You adapt effectively to change and persevere to achieve goals in demanding situations.
• Giving and receiving constructive feedback: You approach challenges with a positive and proactive mindset, seeking opportunities for growth.
• Honest: You are open to challenges and seek collaborative
• Agile - You are flexible and able to manage different tasks and priorities.

Experience

1. Experience of grant management and systems within the public sector, or ideally within tertiary education.
2. Ability to analyse data and/or complex information and communicate it clearly and effectively.

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 £30,976, Medr contributes £8,973 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 (pro rata)
• 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

1. Agile - You are flexible and able to manage different tasks and priorities.
2. Giving and receiving constructive feedback: You approach challenges with a positive and proactive mindset, seeking opportunities for growth.

Experience

1. Experience of grant management and systems in tertiary education.
2. Ability to analyse data and/or complex information and communicate it clearly and effectively.

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 Sunday, 1 February.

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 which will be conducted on Wednesday, 4 March.

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

• Honest: You are open to challenges and seek collaborative
• Resilient: You adapt effectively to change and persevere to achieve goals in demanding situations.

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 Monday19 January at 11:00 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- Swyddog Buddsoddi a Monitro Opens in new window (pdf, 248kB)Job Description- Investment and Monitoring Officer Opens in new window (pdf, 241kB)