Head of Employer Partnerships

Job description

No candidate will meet every single desired qualification / criteria. If your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you!

Salary: £60,992 - £67,310 per annum

Hours per week: 37

Weeks per Annum: 52

Working pattern: Monday to Thursday 7.5 hours per day, Friday 7 hours per day

Location: Abingdon Campus

Contract type: Permanent

Are you an experienced business development, employer engagement, or commercial leader looking to make a significant impact within education and skills?

As our new Head of Employer Partnerships, you will lead the College's employer engagement strategy, strengthening relationships with employers across Oxfordshire and beyond while driving commercial growth and sector-led partnerships.

You will be responsible for leading the Business Development function, developing strategic employer relationships, identifying new business opportunities, and ensuring employer insight directly influences curriculum development, learner opportunities, and workforce skills provision.

Key responsibilities include:

• Developing and implementing the College's employer partnership strategy.
• Leading relationships with major employers, business networks, sector bodies, and local authorities.
• Driving growth across apprenticeships, workforce development, industry placements, and commercial training.
• Identifying new commercial opportunities and income streams.
• Leading and developing a high-performing Business Development function.
• Using labour market intelligence and employer feedback to inform strategic decisions.
• Representing the College at employer events and industry forums.

About you:

We are looking for a commercially driven and relationship-focused leader who is passionate about building partnerships that create opportunities for employers, learners, and communities.

Successful candidates will demonstrate:

• A proven track record of building and managing strategic employer relationships.
• Experience driving commercial growth, generating new opportunities, and achieving targets.
• Strong leadership skills with experience developing high-performing teams.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• The ability to use market intelligence and employer insight to inform strategic decisions.
• A collaborative approach and a passion for creating opportunities for employers, learners, and communities.

*Abingdon and Witney College reserve the right to close all applications before posted closing date.

AWC values diversity and encourages applications from all sections of the community. We are committed to safeguarding and expect all our employees and volunteers to share this commitment. We are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and all appointments are subject to satisfactory clearances including enhanced DBS checks.

Abingdon and Witney College are committed to safer recruitment practices. In addition to our pre-employment checks, we will conduct an online search. This includes checking Google main results feed as well as the 'News' and 'Images' tab. We will be checking for any publicly available information that suggests the applicant may not be suitable to work with children or young/vulnerable people or content that could potentially damage Abingdon and Witney College's reputation. This may include inappropriate posts, comments or images displaying evidence of offensive or inappropriate behaviour, jokes or language, discriminatory comments, inappropriate photos, drug or alcohol misuse.