Overall Purpose of the role 

Working with the HR team and our Transformation Board you will manage the development and delivery of the Learning and Development (L&D’) interventions across the Arts Council to meet organisational learning priorities and needs. You will build and promote good learning practice across the organisation, whilst also reacting to changing organisational requirements to support Arts Council England’s (ACE) strategy.

Main day to day responsibilities – learning and development 

You will: 

- Work with the HR team and Transformation Board to develop and deliver the L+D priorities to support the delivery of the wider corporate strategy, ‘Let’s Create’. This is likely to include skills analysis and resultant training needs analysis. 

-Jointly develop and deliver an ongoing programme of learning for the c.700 Arts Council staff.  

- Oversee the creation and delivery of appropriate learning content that is relevant, forward-looking and best-practice. Working with Directors, managers and HR colleagues, you will strive to understand the development needs of staff across the organisation and develop and evaluate appropriate interventions.  

- Work closely with management teams to identify and agree priority learning and development areas arising from organisational, area and departmental strategies and plans. You will also draw on data from staff surveys and Investors in People to do this. 

- Identify and develop in-house subject experts to deliver learning content for subject areas where there is a substantial in-house knowledge base. 

- Carry out continuous evaluation and quality assurance of the learning programme, implementing necessary improvements and reporting to executive board and other governance bodies. 

- Line manage and develop the L+D Officer and Apprentice

- Ensure our training programmes (including e-learning) and processes, are up to date, relevant, thorough and delivered in a timely way. 

- Work closely with the Internal Communications team to build staff awareness of learning opportunities and embed a general culture of learning in the organisation. 

- Evaluate our current training offer and make any recommendations to ensure it continues to be fit for purpose.  

- Actively contribute to and champion the organisation’s commitment to diversity and its implications for arts and culture and our staff, promoting a diversity perspective in all aspects of your responsibilities.  

- Oversee and manage and monitor individual requests for bespoke training including identifying trends and recommending / progressing alternative approaches if applicable. 

- Management responsibility for the training budget (current budget circa £492K) 

Key relationships 

You will report to the Senior HR Partner and strategic lead for L&D and work closely with all members of the HR and Internal Comms teams. 

You will line manage the L+D Officer who has a lead responsibility for maintaining and updating content on our Learning Management System and programme administration, as well as our L&D Apprentice.

You will also work closely with the key stakeholders and main beneficiaries of different L&D interventions across the organisation and ensure there’s a shared understanding on the aims and objectives of these. You will work with colleagues with responsibility for building up skillsets in particular areas across the organisation - to ensure there is a co-ordinated and informed approach. 

You will manage the relationships with L+D service providers ensuring they understand the brief and deliver high quality product on time and within budget 

You will be primarily responsible for managing your own time effectively and prioritising your workload. 

Essential (Skills, Knowledge and Behaviours) 

You will have strong experience of: 

- Developing, implementing and evaluating an organisational learning and development strategy. 

- Analysing organisation development and learning needs and designing, implementing and delivering L&D interventions and activities to meet these needs. 

- Working collaboratively and constructively with a variety of internal and external stakeholders at all levels up to and including Directors, as well as suppliers. You will be able to influence and appropriately challenge at all levels.  

-  Setting up and supporting coaching programmes, action learning sets, and mentoring.  

- Briefing, negotiating and working with external training providers/ suppliers on significant and substantial programmes of activity  

-You will also have excellent influencing and coaching skills, with a track record in developing professional and personal credibility with colleagues at all levels 

You will possess:  

·     Financial awareness and numeracy. 

·     A high level of personal organisation, with the ability to juggle multiple priorities and to work autonomously.

·     Demonstrable experience in project management. 

·     Excellent verbal and written communication skills. 

·     The ability to communicate in a persuasive, confident and engaging manner without resorting to jargon. 

·     An ability to influence and lead others over which you have no direct line management responsibility. 

·     An ability to make decisions and initiate work and perform to self-imposed timetables. 

·     You will also have a good understanding of the current diversity agenda and its relationship to L+D and, more broadly, HR. 

Desirable (Skills, Knowledge and Behaviours) 

·      MCIPD or equivalent qualification. 

·      Knowledge of government procurement systems including framework agreements

·      Excellent and proven coaching skills