About the Role 

 The National Institute of Teaching (NIoT) has an unswerving commitment to high quality, evidence-informed teacher education, and is on a mission to improve the quality of teacher and leader development across the system. 

We are looking for a Personal Assistant to our Executive team who can provide efficient and high-quality administrative support. Our Executive team is made up of six roles: CEO, COO, CTO, and the Executive Directors of Programmes, Research and Best Practice, and Partnerships.  

The successful candidate will have relevant experience working in a busy environment in an administrative role and be able to demonstrate good diary management skills. As a new organisation, many of our processes are still evolving and we are looking for an individual who can help us manage complexity and who is comfortable with ambiguity and change. 

No two days will be the same in this role and you will engage your organisational and administrative skills to the full, responding to ever-changing priorities and ad hoc tasks in a positive and people-focused way. 

You will be comfortable managing confidentiality and exercising personal judgement.  You’ll enjoy a high degree of independence and have plenty of scope   

Key Responsibilities 

• To devise, maintain and monitor effective administration that enables the NIoT Executive team to fulfil their responsibilities  

• To offer full diary management for the CEO and scheduling support for the wider executive team as required 

• To proactively arrange internal and external meetings, prioritise work, manage conflicting needs  

• To provide effective secretarial and administrative support including drafting general correspondence, reports and briefings on behalf of the entire Executive team with speed and accuracy 

• To support the entire Executive Team by setting up meetings, booking rooms and venues  

• To proactively assist the Executive Team with forward planning, thinking ahead to ensure that meetings are prepared for in advance  

• To take minutes during Executive meetings  

• To screen and prioritise telephone calls and answer general queries by members of the public or sector colleagues 

• To proofread and support with the formatting of key external correspondence from the Executive team, including letters, presentations, comments on reports, etc.  

• To maintain a close working relationship with other NIoT staff, both centrally as well as in our four regions.  

• To carry out any other duties as reasonably requested by the CEO or Executive Team 

• To maintain the highest level of confidentiality, using discretion in providing information both within and outside of the NIoT.  

• To set up and maintain a filing system in compliance with Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation from 25th May 2018.  

 Essential Criteria 

• Previous experience in an administrative role 

• Ability to thrive when working independently  

• Very good working knowledge of Microsoft Teams and other MS applications 

• Strong communication skills 

• Ability to manage competing priorities 

• Previous work experience in a geographically distributed team 

• Sensitivity and discretion when handling confidential information 

  Desirable criteria 

• Experience in the education sector 

• Relevant professional qualifications 

This is an exciting opportunity for someone who can jump in at the deep end and pick things up quickly, enjoys collaborating in a fast-paced, start-up environment supporting colleagues to get things done, is organised and flexible, isn’t afraid to ask questions and is interested and excited by the work of the NIoT 

Further Information 

The NIoT team is currently made up of seconded staff from its Founding MATs supported by specialist external contractors. We are now transitioning from this start-up phase and are recruiting for permanent staff to carry forward the work of the NIoT from this founding team.   

We think a wide range of different work and educational experiences could support you to be successful in this role. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, communities and industries, and are committed to employing a team that has diverse skills, experiences and abilities. 

This post is a full-time position and will be offered on a permanent contract. 

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and Occupational Health clearance.