Social Mobility and Widening Participation Manager

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About King's:

The King's community is dedicated to the service of society. King's Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world. Our ambitious Education Strategy sets out the actions that we must take to transform how we teach, how and where our students learn and how we support them during their time with us.

Within the Social Mobility & Widening Participation Department we believe all young people should be able to have high expectations for their future. This means equal access to education and career opportunities. We run programmes that aim to empower young people from under-represented backgrounds to access and succeed at university.

We are part of the Students & Education Directorate, a collection of wide-ranging professional services in place to support King's students and their education. As a directorate we manage the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King's faculties to do so.

About the role:

The Social Mobility & Widening Participation manager has responsibility for delivering and overseeing key widening participation programmes in line with King's Access & Participation Plan.

This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking for a management role and who wish to utilise their skills and expertise to develop high quality, impactful activities to address educational disadvantage.

Main responsibilities:

• Oversee a range of widening participation programmes and projects aligned with the King's Access & Participation Plan. This includes oversight of evaluation to monitor programme effectiveness and associated governance
• Line management of Widening Participation practitioners and directing the planning and implementation of their work objectives. This includes managing performance and undertaking relevant HR processes
• Be an active member of the Social Mobility & Widening Participation Department's management team, contributing to discussion and decision-making
• Responsible for a budget, including reporting and annual monitoring of expenditure in line with department financial procedures.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in running workshops, classroom management, resource development and safeguarding

It is anticipated that this role will lead the department's established and new post-16 programmes, namely K+ and an online lecture series for each of King's nine faculties; these programmes will eventually support thousands of young people annually. The postholder will oversee the planning and delivery of A Level revision bootcamps for STEM subjects, as well as programmes focused on belonging for LGBTQ+ and Black heritage sixth-formers. They will keep abreast sector developments to inform our practice. Finally, it is expected that they will establish and execute a method of peer-to-peer staff observations to continually improve our workshops for young people.

This is a hybrid role which involves both remote and on-campus work, with a minimum of two office days per week (currently Monday and Wednesday) based at the Waterloo campus. However, as this position is delivery-focused, in addition to office days, the role requires a substantial amount of time on-campus and in schools to run activities for young people. This can include regular evening and weekend commitments.

We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role.

This is a full time post and you will be offered a fixed term contract (September 2025 - September 2026).

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Significant relevant work experience and/or education. This might include work in widening access or addressing social inequalities (education) in universities, civic organisations, schools or in the third sector
2. Experience in leading programmes and/or interventions for young people
3. Experience of supervising or line managing staff, interns and/or student ambassadors. This includes managing others' work priorities and performance
4. Experience of running multiple projects simultaneously
5. Ability to use experience and judgement to resolve complex problems with little supervision
6. Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to break complex information down for a range of audiences
7. A good understanding of the widening participation agenda and the role of higher education in social mobility
8. Experience in managing relationships with diverse stakeholders. This can include schools, community organisations, and academic staff

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of budget management, including financial projections, monitoring and reporting.
2. Excellent understanding of evaluation techniques used in Widening Participation and evidence of what works.
3. Experience in managing change, including creating and carrying out plans to ensure smooth transitions in workplace operations and systems.

Downloading a copy of the Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills and experience required can be found in the attached job description.

Further information:

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers review your application, please take a look at our 'How we Recruit' pages.

Interviews are due to be held on Wednesday 25th June 2025 at our Waterloo Campus.