Learning Design Specialist (7324 & 7151)

College of Policing

Scotland

Remote

Expires: Expiring in less than 2 weeks

Flexible

£36,520 per year

Job summary

About us

Our mission is: Leadership, Standards, Performance. This guides our work with individuals, forces, and policing partners towards our vision. We exist to support police officers, police staff and volunteers to deliver the best service to the public. Only through high quality leadership, consistent standards and continual performance improvement can everyone in policing reach their full potential. Our mission guides our work with individual, forces and partners towards our vision.

We are uniquely placed to work both with national policing organisations and local forces to support frontline officers, staff and volunteers in their day-to-day roles.

A new National Police Service (NPS), will bring together existing national policing bodies under a single organisation with a clear mandate. The Police Reform White Paper, published in January 2026, confirmed that the College will move into the NPS "in its entirety", ensuring that the leadership, standards and performance work the College has led since 2012 will continue within the NPS.

We offer a supportive and inclusive environment for people to thrive through our extensive flexible-working policy, employee wellbeing support, family friendly policies,, and status as a disability confident leader.

For further information visit our ‘Work for us’ page.

The role

Are you interested in becoming part of a talented and dedicated team of learning design specialists?

We have two permanent learning design specialist roles available within the learning design team.

Our team are committed to creating training products for classroom delivery by specialist police trainers both in the UK and overseas.

The team are based across the UK and are predominately home-based workers however design specialists will be expected to travel for projects and departmental meetings as required.

Vetting

The role requires vetting level NPPV3 and SC and you may need to complete further vetting forms if you do not already have this level.

Job description

To succeed in this role, you will bring excellent communication and engagement skills, experience in creating professional creative classroom learning materials, and a commitment to supporting the policing profession.

You will have a genuine passion for learning, with a commitment to continually increasing your knowledge of policing and applying these insights to design innovative, high-quality adult learning solutions that make a measurable impact.

Your work will help ensure that police officers, police staff and volunteers have the knowledge, skills and confidence to deliver the highest standards of service to the public.

As a learning design specialist, you will be involved in every stage of the design process across a range of learning products — from researching, designing, planning, evaluating, and handing over final products to trainers for delivery. You will contribute to both the enhancement of existing learning products and the creation of new programmes aligned to the National Policing Curriculum.

These programmes are delivered both in the classroom and through our internal learning platform, supporting the professional development of police officers and staff to serve and support the public. You can find out about some of our work on the College of Policing website.

While our work can be high-profile and fast-moving, with tight deadlines and competing priorities, you'll be part of a welcoming and supportive team. We regularly connect online and face-to-face to share expertise, learn from one another, overcome challenges and recognise our achievements.

Success in this role depends on your ability to build strong partnerships and work collaboratively with policing professionals, academics and subject matter experts. By developing a deep understanding of complex policing issues, you will create engaging, evidence-based learning solutions that are relevant, impactful and tailored to the needs of police professionals. You will also effectively manage projects, tracking progress, mitigating risks and ensuring high-quality delivery.

Person specification

Some of your responsibilities will include:

Design, develop and maintain high quality learning products applying innovative design solutions for face to face and online delivery. Maintain up to date knowledge of learning methodologies, emerging learning practices, digital trends, evaluation, assessment and quality assurance strategies and apply to learning products under design and development.

Confidently engage and collaborate with colleagues and stakeholders to share information, resources and support.
Co-ordinate and project manage aspects of the learning design process to ensure projects are completed on time, to customer requirements and within quality parameters

To be successful in this role you’ll need:

A Level 5/6 qualification in education, learning design, professional development or related discipline and/or significant equivalent experience

Demonstrable experience of creating learning resources which utilise a wide range of learning methodologies to inspire and develop learning in new ways
Skills in research, consultation and analysis of information from multiple sources to identify clear, appropriate learning and prepare supporting options papers.
Proficiency in MS Office suite, Microsoft 365, learning design software and knowledge of remote learning platforms such as MS Teams.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Developing Self and Others

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

Demonstrable experience of creating blended learning solutions which utilise a range of learning methodologies appropriate to adult learners
Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to influence, challenge and build effective working relationships with internal and external senior stakeholders and staff to achieve timely results
Experience of co-ordinating projects or working on multiple projects to meet deadlines.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £36,520, College of Policing contributes £10,579 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

The College is a great place to work. We're passionate about our people and offer a wide range of benefits. The benefits we can offer include:

Defined benefit pension scheme with an employer contribution of 28.97%
Up to 30 days holiday (this is in addition to 8 public holidays and 2.5 privilege days)
Educational funding and study leave
Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave
Flexi-time (for certain grades)
Flexible working hours
Childcare vouchers
Benenden Healthcare
National Dental Plan
Discount scheme which provides cut-price on-line shopping
Free employee support line
Interest free loans for travel.
Staff networks: You will have the opportunity to join our employee-run networks to provide advice and support and to enable the views of employees from minority groups to be heard. There are currently 6 staff networks; Diversity Champions, LGBT, Carer’s, Women’s, Parenting and our Diverse Ethnic Action network. Each network has access to an executive level sponsor.

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Sifting

An initial sift based on the technical skill “Demonstrable experience of creating blended learning solutions which utilise a range of learning methodologies appropriate to adult learners” may be held if a large number of applications are received. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

The initial sift will be assessed against a minimum benchmark score of 4. Where necessary, we may increase the minimum selection criteria to support the effective management of the recruitment process. In such circumstances, only candidates achieving the increased benchmark score at the initial sift stage will progress to a full sift assessment.

Vacancy reference: 7324 & 7151

Anticipated interview dates: Between 9th to 15th December 2026.

Interview Location: MS Teams

The closing date for this vacancy is 17th November 2026.

The role is available as a Permanent position.

This post is open to applicants who can meet the College’s nationality, UK residency and vetting requirements.

Please note that in order to work for the College of Policing you must have the Right to Work in the UK with indefinite leave to remain. Any other type of visa cannot be accepted. In addition, you will also be required to provide an address history in the UK for the preceding 5 years. Applications that do not meet these requirements will be rejected at sift stage and will not be progressed to interview.

Our vetting

If you are successful at interview, you will be required to undertake pre-employment security checks. You will be sent a security questionnaire which must be accessed within 24 hours.

Please note, these checks can take up to 10 weeks. You will only be offered a start date after the checks have been completed. If the outcome of these checks is not satisfactory, your recommendation for employment will be withdrawn.

Contact details and further information

If you would like to discuss the role in more detail please contact Claire Smith claire.smith@college.police.uk, Head of Learning Design

Due to our status as Public Servants, we are not eligible to participate in the Civil Service transfer process. Therefore, while successful candidates can transfer into the organisation on their existing terms and conditions, any move back to the Civil Service may mean that continuity of service is not automatically recognised by the receiving department, and new starter or modernised terms and conditions may apply, subject to the receiving department's policies and arrangements. However, employees who move directly to a Civil Service department without a break in service may retain continuity of service for redundancy and pension purposes.

Any previous service with local government or other external Modification Order bodies will not be carried forward or count when calculating redundancy entitlement.

The College is committed to supporting the Greening Government Commitment and reducing our environmental impact. Through our Environmental Management Plan, we promote sustainable ways of working and provide electric vehicle charging points to support greener travel choices. We also encourage employees to become Environment Champions and support our One Step Greener approach, helping to create a better future for everyone.

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

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.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

Salary range

£36,520 per year