Operations manager north jobs in harrogate, north yorkshire

Join a dynamic, fast-paced and growing social enterprise as the local manager for our new Leeds team - helping us to support young people across the Leeds City Region and the North of England to develop their skills, confidence and connection to purpose. You will play an integral part in Unloc’s mission to develop young people as changemakers; focused on building relationships with local stakeholders, managing the programme facilitation team & delivering programmes directly to young people.

You’ll be joining an organisation that believes every young person can be a changemaker. By developing young people’s skills and confidence, we empower them to shape their lives and the world around them.

Unloc continues to grow its impact; working with schools and colleges across the country. We have established teams, offices and community programmes in both Portsmouth and London - and we’re excited to add Leeds to that mix, as part of our strategic plan to reach 40,000 young people a year by 2027. 

The new local manager in Leeds will lead the charge to grow our presence and impact within local communities in Leeds and beyond. You’ll create powerful connectivity with schools, colleges, businesses, local authorities and public sector partners to help us deliver on our mission.

At the same time, you will walk-the-walk by being part of our front line facilitation team; delivering innovative and exciting programmes with young people across our network of schools, colleges, businesses and community organisations. We deliver a broad range of programmes that develop young people’s skills, confidence and connection to purpose - they come under four key headings; Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Youth Voice, and Careers and Employability.

Unloc programmes for young people are unique. Our facilitators use innovative learning tools, both digital and physical, to create engaging events and experiences that young people will truly remember. They champion young changemakers and celebrate their successes, believing  in the power of young people. You will play a critical role in growing our unique programmes in the Leeds City Region and beyond.

If you are excellent at delivering engaging experiences for young people, building effective teams, creating a network of likeminded stakeholders, and are compelled by our mission to support young people to be changemakers... we want to hear from you!

What We Offer

• A fun, driven and passionate team.

• A fixed term post with a view to extending the contract.

• Technology including a MacBook, iPhone and relevant accessories to make your working life easier.

• Growth: we invest in individuals and are an ambitious organisation.

• The opportunity to work with amazing young people.

• A flexible approach to working life and 39 days holiday, including Bank Holidays, your birthday, and a company shut down period at Christmas.

• Access to PerkBox, an external employee benefits & rewards scheme.

• A workplace pension scheme whereby the employer contributes 3% of total employee earnings, rather than the legal-minimum of 3% of employee earnings above the threshold.

• A comprehensive mental health support scheme for you and your immediate family through Health Assured including the Wisdom app.

• A full year of team-building and CPD opportunities.

All appointments are subject to pre-employment checks returning satisfactory results including an Enhanced DBS Check, a social media check and Right to Work checks. We carry out these checks as an organisation that undertakes ‘regulated activity’ as defined by the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (SVG) Act 2006. Please note that such checks will include both spent and unspent convictions. Any candidate with convictions relating to offences against children or other vulnerable people will be deemed as unsuitable to work at Unloc and any job offer will be made on this basis.

The recruitment process is outlined in Unloc’s Safer Recruitment Policy available on our Website. 

Where You’ll Be Delivering Our Mission

Most of the time, you’ll be based from our brand new Unloc Leeds office space in the city centre, or delivering programmes in Schools and Colleges in the Leeds City Region. 

You’ll also be out and about delivering programmes to our partners in other areas across the North of England. Occasionally, you will travel to London or Portsmouth (our HQ) to spend time with other teams. You will likely have more travel in your first three months as part of your induction programme. Of course, any travel costs outside of commuting to/from the Leeds city centre office will be covered, alongside an allowance for meals and accommodation.

Key Responsibilities

Supporting the implementation of the Unloc Leeds Strategy

• Working in partnership with the Senior Team to ensure the delivery of the Unloc Leeds strategy. This includes;

  • Building new relationships with local schools and colleges. 

  • Facilitating free-to-access Changemaker Challenge days for local schools in Leeds. 

  • Delivery of workshops and presentations, attendance at events to to promote Unloc’s programmes and initiatives to schools, colleges and community groups.

Working in partnership and building new stakeholder relationships

• Liaise and act as a primary point of contact for current key stakeholders to promote Unloc’s work. This will include Local Authorities, Education Trusts, Businesses and Community Interest Groups. 

• Implement engagement strategies to build deep and meaningful new relationships with key stakeholders and people - developing advocacy for Unloc and our mission - and garnering insights into their challenges and priorities.

• Represent Unloc in external meetings, conferences and networking opportunities - building relationships that could support our efforts to generate new income.

Organise, plan and facilitate changemaker projects and programmes

• Organise, plan and facilitate bespoke changemaker events (with support from the Operations and Quality teams) for individual businesses, grant giving bodies, schools & colleges. These will span all four of our programme pillars; youth voice, leadership, entrepreneurship, and careers and employability. This generally involves designing agendas, booking speakers, managing event resources, actively leading individual sessions, briefing event support staff, liaising with key points of contact and managing attendance from multiple schools, colleges and partners.

• Examples of our school and college programmes include our 12-week Leadership Academy, Student Union training, Enterprise Days, Skills for Success Days, and public speaking & debating courses. You can read more about these on our website programmes page.

• Examples of recent bespoke business driven programmes include our Burberry/Verizon Women in Tech programme, the Palo Alto Skills for Success project, and Marketors’ Trust Changemaker Days. You can read more about some of these on our website blog.

Managing staff

• To line-manage other members of staff in line with Unloc’s People Management Approach. This includes:

  • Providing wrap around support to individual team members when they require it.

  • Promoting a culture of excellence in programme management and facilitation.

  • Ensuring that facilitators you manage operate in line with Unloc’s policies, procedures and practices whilst instilling Unloc’s core team values.

  • Maintaining a working knowledge of each staff member’s portfolio and current progress on programmes and providing a source of accountability.

  • Holding regular check-in meetings with team members.

  • Carrying out formal progress review meetings with team members every 6 months.

  • Dealing with staff member HR requests and scenarios such as flexible working, holiday requests, sick days, etc.

  • Supporting staff members to make progress against their CPD plans.

  • Providing praise and encouragement to staff members, and formally recognising and sharing excellent practice.

Providing additional support and opportunities for students

• Providing support and additional opportunities for young people you work with where possible, including the promotion of Unloc+ (unloc.online/oppportunities)

To support other Unloc projects

• To aid other Unloc projects as and when required by the team (in consultation between you and your line manager).

Person Specification:

Qualifications

Essential: GCSE Maths and English at grade 9-4 (A*-C) (or equivalent e.g. International Baccaluareate).

Essential: A-Levels at grade A*-C (or equivalent e.g. BTECs or T-Levels). 

Desirable: A Bachelor's Degree in a relevant subject (or equivalent industry/sector experience).

Desirable: A recognised qualification or chartership in management e.g. CMI

Experience and Knowledge

Essential: Previous knowledge, experience and connections across the youth and education sectors across Leeds.

Essential: Previous work with young people (e.g. youth work, education, activity centre).
Essential: Previous experience of managing other staff members.

Desirable: Previous experience of youth engagement and empowerment.

Desirable: Previous experience working in a social enterprise environment.

Abilities and Skills

Essential: High-level writing skills.

Essential: Ability to network and manage partner relationships.

Essential: Ability to prioritise and manage own workload. 

Essential: Ability to manage a budget.

Essential: Ability to work as part of a team and independently.

Desirable: High level of skill when using Google Workspace.

Desirable: Ability to maintain a professional online image on social media platforms, especially LinkedIn and Instagram. This includes promoting Unloc’s work and opportunities for young people.

Other

Essential: Passion for young people!

Essential: Willingness to undertake staff training and development as required.

Essential: Willingness to travel across the North of England and occasionally further afield to London and Portsmouth.

Desirable: Car driver with a clean UK driving licence.