Lead Curriculum Innovation, Empower Every Learner, Drive the Community's Future - Join us as Head of Department for Built Environment

EKC Canterbury College is seeking an ambitious and inspiring Head of Built Environment to lead and shape a dynamic programme area. In this pivotal role, you will drive high standards, fostering a positive and supportive culture that is fully committed to achieving outstanding outcomes for both students and staff.

As Head of Department, you will take strategic ownership of the quality of provision, championing excellence in teaching, learning and assessment. You will lead with purpose, motivating your team to improve and innovate, while ensuring effective and efficient management of a delegated budget to maximise impact and performance.

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:

Generous Annual Leave - 38 days FTE per annum
Competitive Pension Scheme - 28% employer contribution
Learning and Development Opportunities - 3-4 annual paid group development days and bespoke programmes e.g. Senior Leadership Development Programme and strong internal progression-1 in 3 roles are filled internally
Culture and Recognition - Being part of Community Days, an Annual Staff Celebration Day, and an eco-friendly organisation dedicated to reaching net-zero by 2030
Wellbeing and Health Support - Generous sick pay, health checks, free flu jabs, free eye tests, glasses vouchers, flexible support for medical appointments and return-to-work support
Exclusive Discounts & Perks - Inc. restaurant, grocery, retail and holidays discounts as well as car leasing and tech purchasing schemes
Flexible Personal Leave - Time off for your child's first day at nursery or school, moving homes and for interviews

About You

Our ambition is to appoint an experienced, forward-thinking and proactive leader to join our management team and play a key role in shaping the future of the department. You will be instrumental in ensuring high-quality curriculum delivery, while creating an inclusive and supportive environment in which every learner can thrive and succeed.

You will bring energy, credibility and a genuine passion for raising standards, coupled with a positive, can-do approach that inspires those around you.

In this role, you will:

Lead and develop a high-performing team, driving a culture of continuous improvement and excellence
Ensure consistently high standards in teaching, learning and assessment across the curriculum
Design and deliver an engaging, industry-relevant curriculum that meets learner and employer needs
Create a supportive and inclusive learning environment that enables all students to achieve their full potential
Use your up-to-date industry knowledge to inform practice and keep provision aligned with current trends
Contribute strategically to departmental and organisational priorities

To be successful, you will have:

A degree-level qualification
A recognised teaching qualification (DET, PGCE or CertEd)
A proven track record of delivering good or outstanding teaching practice
Experience of curriculum planning, development and quality improvement
Strong leadership and management experience, with the ability to motivate and inspire a professional team
A clear commitment to excellence, delivery and strategic impact

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 [email protected]

About Us

Outstanding Ofsted Provider

East Kent Colleges Group is an Ofsted Outstanding rated provider. It is proud to be the first General Further Education college organisation in the country to have received the Outstanding grade against each of the strands under the new Ofsted inspection framework. An inclusive provider, our colleagues place our students and the communities we serve at the heart of everything they do across EKC Group and this is illustrated in our ‘Strong’ skills grading by Ofsted.

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 a 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.

EKC Group

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Head of Built Environment