West Midlands Regional Manager

Purpose of role:
Pathway Group aspires to be an organisation that Changes Lives Through Skills and Work with the aim of making a meaningful and impactful difference to clients and learners. We do this by nurturing and maintaining excellent and effective relationships with funding bodies, employers, learners, and other relevant stakeholders.
Pursuant to these goals, we are seeking an experienced and dynamic West Midlands Regional Manager to oversee and manage the delivery of multiple WMCA programmes as Path2Apprenticeship, Multiply, AEB, Bootcamps and related initiatives within our organisation. This is a vital management role within Pathway Group, and you will work with our Employability Manager, Performance Manager, Commercial Director, Growth Director, Delivery Managers, Head of Bootcamps, and the Executive team to drive and implement growth ensuring quality, annual programme of high-quality assurance and compliance engagements and to ensure a rigorous assurance and compliance framework is in place across the business. You will be responsible for managing the entire programme lifecycle from planning, implementation, performance monitoring, and reporting.
You will play a critical role in ensuring that projects and programmes are delivered on time, within budget, and meet high-quality standards. This role is essential in driving performance across our skills and employability sector programmes, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and ensuring effective communication with all stakeholders.
Key responsibilities of the role:
Superintend business planning and development, budget preparation, and budget management, evidencing your proficiency in financial stewardship and strategic planning. Design, implementation, and evaluation of programmes, ensuring that they meet the strategic objectives and are delivered on time and within budget.
Oversee end-to-end contracts management by implementing robust project management and review procedures with Pathway’s Multiply, AEB and Bootcamps programmes’ provision liaising with key stakeholders and funding organisations. Build and maintain strong relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, including funders, clients, partners, and government bodies to ensure alignment of programme goals with external expectations and requirements. Create new business contacts whilst nurturing existing relationships with the aim of securing future opportunities. Develop and maintain excellent relationships with Job centres, partner organisations, employers, and funding bodies
Take overall ownership of sales and business development activities. Identify and initiate opportunities for sales and partnership workings aligned with company objectives.
Track programme progress against agreed KPIs/OKRs and contractual obligations, identifying risks, resolving issues, and ensuring timely and accurate reporting to senior leadership and other relevant parties.
Oversee on an appropriate level regular contract reviews with key managers to assess performance, plan the approach to achieving future targets, and identify potential challenges and mitigating actions to ensure positive learner and contract outcomes
Ensure all programmes are delivered in accordance with industry regulations, including ESFA (Education and Skills Funding Agency) guidelines and Ofsted requirements. Lead on compliance audits and prepare for external inspections.
Identify and manage potential risks to programme delivery, implementing mitigation strategies as needed and escalating significant risks to senior leadership.
Manage and mentor programme delivery teams, ensuring they are equipped with the tools, resources, and support to perform at their best. Promote a high-performance culture and continuous professional development enhancing operational support towards our employer engagement strategy and business development.
Monitor performance, identify risks, and swiftly put in place improvement plans to address any identified areas of underperformance. Foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to enhance programme delivery, improve customer experience, and drive operational excellence.
Ensure a high-quality customer experience for both learners and employers, managing the entire journey from onboarding through to programme completion and evaluation.
Pursue regional targets agreed in our plan, to ensure targeted number of sign-ups, leads and completers are consistently being met
Work alongside the Bid Management team to support the development of new funding opportunities, ensuring programme design aligns with potential funding criteria and market needs. Promote Pathway Group policy developments and initiatives relevant to UK skills delivery, eengaging with external organisations and support in the tendering process to create new partnership opportunities
Oversee curriculum development for relevant programmes, ensuring that content is both fit for purpose and aligned with industry standards and learner needs.
Play a key role in internal and external audits, dealing with preparation and actual audits and ensure we are fit for purpose and compliance safe and ready for this year and previous year activities
Provide appropriate support and meaningful information based on any evaluation results, quality and progress assessments, or individual responses to the Executive Board, Senior Leadership Teams undertaking any other reasonable tasks and duties at ad hoc request
We expect you to:
Have a strong demonstrable knowledge of the skills and employability sector specifically in the niche we deliver, have an understanding of the funding landscape, incorporating both the ESFA Ofsted criteria and being commercially aware of new opportunities that build and add to our existing ecosystem.
Drawing on your extensive background, it's essential that you bring a wealth of experience in several key areas to this role. Your expertise should include:
Demonstrate forensic attention to detail and meticulous data analytical skills with an understanding of Business development, Compliance, Quality and Customer Focussed excellence
A strong track record in performance and/or contract management frameworks, demonstrating your ability to oversee complex systems and maintain high standards.
Proven experience in managing large multi-million contracts, showcasing your capacity and capability to perform at the highest level.
A solid background in business planning, budget preparation, and budget management, evidencing your proficiency in financial stewardship and strategic planning.
Experience working with adult learners or in the adult education field, highlighting your understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities in this sector.
You must have proven experience of sales/recruitment in a target driven industry, developing productive relationships with employers, partners, and external agencies and also able to provide high quality employability focused assessment
Proven experience of key stakeholder engagement at the highest levels.
Standard responsibilities of any role at Pathway Group:
Demonstrate an awareness of and ongoing commitment to Pathway Group’s values.
Comply with all Pathway Group policies and procedures, including taking responsibility for the health and safety of yourself and your colleagues.
Participation in the performance review and appraisal processes and ensuring that training and development goals are met.
Actively pursue the integration and achievement of equal opportunities across all activities.
Demonstrate an ongoing commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people and vulnerable adults.
Promote sales and service excellence by demonstrating expert knowledge of our products, features, and applications.
Ensure that all customer enquiries are tracked, handled, and responded to quickly and effectively, and that follow-up conversations are held when necessary.
Through engagement and customer feedback, review areas for improvement with the customer experience team leader.
Implement suitable sales and route options while attempting to enhance and maximise funding.
Collect, analyze, and provide facts and data as needed to executives and managers inside our organization.
Strong overseer, ensuring the timely delivery with financial constraints in mind
Superintend the areas of Compliance,
Business Development, Administration and Employee Engagement
Up to date and expert level knowledge of the EFSA current funding rules and successful Ofsted inspections achieving high-quality ratings (e.g., Ofsted Grade 2 or better).
Expert level of knowledge on Apprenticeships, Traineeships, Adult Education Budget (AEB), and ESFA funding frameworks.
The successful candidate will have to meet the requirements of the person specification and will be subject to pre-employment checks including an enhanced DBS check and satisfactory references.
You must have eligibility to work in the UK. Please note, only suitable applicants will be contacted. If your address and contact details are not on your CV, you will not be considered.
Some final few words from our CEO
“As a new team member not only must you have the knowledge and skills but also have the right mannerisms and attitude to be able to get along with us and help me to protect, support and grow the business in the “best way for the business”.
We should be able to have an effective working relationship that is professional and one that takes ownership and responsibility to ensure our people deliver performance and our intended outcomes. We expect the new team member to hit the ground running, be role model for others and have a clear understanding of how they will make a difference and contribute to supporting me and the business.”
Safaraz Ali