Programme Director - English GCSE and Functional Skills

East Kent College; Folkestone; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job description

About The Role

Please note that this is a temporary appointment to cover maternity leave until 31st August 2026.

An exciting opportunity has arisen at Folkestone College, EKC Group for a Programme Director (aka Course Leader) of English. This fixed term opportunity will give the right candidate an opportunity to gain valuable experience as a curriculum leader, as part of their ongoing CPD. This is predominantly a teaching role, with the expectation to support development of the curriculum area.

Are you passionate about empowering students to achieve their academic and personal goals? Do you have a knack for teaching across all levels of English? Do you want to experience teaching and leading on curriculum design in a dynamic learning environment? If so, we want you!

About Us:

At EKC Folkestone College, we are dedicated to providing high-quality education to learners from diverse backgrounds. Our commitment to inclusivity and excellence drives us to create a supportive atmosphere where students can thrive.

Key Responsibilities:

1. To plan a highly relevant and distinctive curriculum to meet the local/regional skills requirements.
2. Develop and deliver engaging lesson plans tailored to individual learner needs.
3. Foster a positive and inclusive classroom environment.
4. Lead and coordinate the delivery team so all students receive up-to-date course information during their time at college.
5. Create course/programme activities to support student understanding of the objectives, assessment schedules and requirements in line with awarding body criteria, including the course handbook.

Alongside our priority of excellent student experience, we also focus on our employees. Here are just some of our benefits when working for the East Kent Colleges Group:

1. Competitive salary and holiday entitlement.
2. Access to 100's of online discounts via our Rewards Scheme (Inc. Restaurant, Grocery, Retail, Gym, Holidays).
3. Access to cycle to work, car leasing and tech purchasing schemes.
4. Generous pension scheme - 28% employer contribution.
5. Being part of a company with an Eco-Sustainability focus of being Net-Zero.
6. Time off for your child's first day at school, moving home and for interviews.
7. My 10 Days initiative - bid for up-to 10 days off work to pursue voluntary work.
8. Being part of our Community Days and Annual Staff Celebration Day.

About You

The ideal candidate will be:

1. Highly organised and creative.
2. Able to plan and teach engaging and innovative lessons.
3. Demonstrating excellent interpersonal skills.
4. Assessing and tracking student progress.
5. Planning impactful interventions ensuring all students develop the skills they need to succeed.

You will be passionate about making a difference to the future careers of our students, providing academic leadership and guidance in this area and managing the curriculum delivery and accreditation. Teaching and vocational experience is essential and strong leadership skills are desirable.

This is the ideal opportunity for a proven teacher or lecturer to progress their career to the next stage as you will oversee the curriculum provision from the beginning, building relationships with key stakeholders as well as delivering high quality teaching, learning and assessment.

It is a requirement for teaching experience and qualified teacher status for this position.

No need to spend time updating your CV, just click apply and complete our short application form. You can save your progress as you go, and we’ll review all applications and get back to all candidates after the closing date.

If you are interested in an informal chat about the role, or have any queries, please email us on [e-mail].

Commitment to Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and we ensure that all staff are aware of their responsibilities for upholding these principles.

As a designated establishment, we are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore have an obligation to carry out checks to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. These checks include conviction/caution self-declaration, Enhanced DBS check and obtaining sufficient referencing.

It is a criminal offence to apply for a post which involves engaging in regulated activity relevant to children if you are barred from doing so.

If you are successful in being shortlisted to interview, your suitability to work with children and vulnerable adults will be explored as part of the interview process.

Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

East Kent Colleges Group is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all members of our communities. We are particularly keen to increase the diversity of our staff body and encourage applications from candidates where there is underrepresentation in our workforce.

We are proud to hold the Positive About Disability Award and are a Disability Confident Employer. This confirms our commitment to interviewing all applicants who declare that they have a disability and who meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification. With any successful candidate, we will explore any reasonable adjustments to a role due to health needs or disability.

Similarly, we have a commitment to Care Leavers (Care Covenant Pledge) and to current or previous Armed Forces personnel (Armed Forces Covenant Pledge) with a commitment to interview applicants who meet the positions essential criteria and who have declared this on their application.

We welcome applications from anyone wishing to work flexibly and those considering a return to work from a career break.

We do not engage with agencies for permanent staff and have an in-house recruitment team.