Job Description
This is an exciting opportunity to be directly involved in building upon strategy and implementing activities for engaging, supporting and developing students from diverse backgrounds at Goldsmiths. This position will focus on developing and facilitating careers provision for students who fall within the widening participation categories of the Goldsmiths Access & Participation Plan which include but are not limited to disabled students, BAME students, care leavers, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and mature students. The aim is to provide support throughout the full student life-cycle so that Widening Participation (WP) students can access and participate in academic programmes and extra-curricular activities at Goldsmiths, achieve success during their studies and progress beyond Goldsmiths into graduate level employment or further study.
This role holder will work closely with a number of key internal partners including:
- Goldsmiths Careers Team
- Careers Consultants within The Careers Group, particularly special interest groups dedicated to WP
- Goldsmiths School and departmental stakeholders in both academic and professional services
There is a new WP strategy for the Careers Service, and the institution has recently set up a formal university committee for WP with a remit to produce an institutional strategy. The profile of WP work has increased over the last few years and is an institutional priority, given the Office for Students (OfS) focus on this area and the revised 5 year Access & Participation Plan (APP) framework. The role holder will be expected to work with colleagues to gather and analyse student data about careers readiness and planning to inform new interventions, and monitor short and long term impact.
An overview of The Careers Group
The Careers Group of the University of London is an expertise-led, collaborative membership organisation, set up to serve predominantly, but not exclusively, the member institutions of the University of London. The Group comprises the careers services of:
• City, University London
• Goldsmiths, University of London
• King’s College London
• St Mary’s University
• SOAS
• University College London
• The University of London Careers Service
The University of London Careers Service supports both distance and flexible learning students, and those at small specialist colleges in the University’s federation including the Courtauld, Royal Veterinary College, St George’s Medical School, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the School of Advanced Study. It also provides careers provision to the Institute of Cancer Research, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and the London Arts & Humanities Partnership.
All The Careers Group institutional services are closely aligned to the strategies for education, employability, enterprise and student experience of the institutions that they serve. This means that staff will partner with academics, professional services colleagues and students on creation and delivery of key initiatives that support the future outcomes of students. The group has over 250 staff and serves a population well in excess of 150,000 students, researchers and graduates.
The Group HQ is at Stewart House and contains the Director's office and a small central team, which supports the institutional services by coordinating recruitment and resourcing, providing professional development, supporting research and evidence-based practice, overseeing the creation and curation of shared resources, and undertaking special projects on behalf of member services and the Group as a whole. Stewart House is also the base for the University of London Careers Service.
In October 2020, The Careers Group began implementation of a new action plan for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, shaped by external expertise in inclusion, social justice and anti-racism, and led by the Director of The Careers Group, Dr Kate Daubney. This plan takes both a collective and individual approach to reviewing learning and practice in equality and diversity, striving to improve our understanding of the differences in and the impacts of lived experience both across our staff community and among our students and other partners. We are seeking to address structural inequality and obstacles to progression in our organisation through a range of actions including: establishing an internal Advisory Panel of staff of diverse heritage to inform the Group’s strategic priorities; reviewing our manager progression processes, experiences and data; and embedding approaches to building and maintaining safe spaces for all.
From October 2022, The Careers Group will offer a unique new postgraduate online learning module: Strategic Approaches to Careers and Employability in Higher Education. This module will be offered as part of The University of London’s Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. The module has been designed for global higher education colleagues with responsibility for or an interest in careers and employability strategy.
Further information
For more information on the role, please read the Job Description and Job Pack attached.
To be considered for this opportunity, please submit your application by clicking ‘Apply for job’ at the bottom of this page before the closing date at midnight on Sunday 2 October 2022.
Interviews will take place online on the following dates:
- First interview – between Tuesday 18 – Fri 21 October 2022 via online meeting
- Second interview – between Wed 2 – Fri 4 November 2022 in person at Goldsmiths
We look forward to receiving your application.
The University of London is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive working environment where we can all be ourselves and succeed. We particularly encourage applications from members of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities as this group is currently under-represented in senior levels within the University. All appointments will be made on merit, based on the criteria identified in the job description.
The University will be unable to sponsor candidates for a visa for this role. Successful applicants must be able to demonstrate their right to work in the UK for the duration of their employment.
Pursuing excellence in education and equal opportunities.