Chief Executive Officer / Principal

Salary: Competitive

Closing date: 9am on Friday 25 October 2024

Interview dates:  Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 November 2024

TAKING LEARNERS FURTHER

SGS College is seeking a new Chief Executive Officer/Principal to lead us into the next phase of our development. As a strong regional College with an excellent reputation our College plays a key role as an anchor institution across Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Stroud.

Our new Chief Executive Officer/Principal will inherit an excellent foundation to build upon and will lead an ambitious strategic agenda that positions us well for the future. We are seeking an experienced and inspirational senior further education leader who can use their track record of success to take our learners further.

We have appointed FE Associates to support us with this crucial appointment. Interested parties are advised to contact Jo.Johnston@fea.co.uk for an initial discussion.

Dear colleague,

CEO/Principal at SGS College

Thank you for your interest in the role of CEO/Principal at SGS College. After an extensive period of leadership stability at the College we are now seeking to make this new appointment to take what is a College with excellent and firm foundations into a highly successful future.

We are a regional College with three main campuses serving Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Stroud. As a regional College we are focused on meeting the post-16 education and skills needs of the West of England Combined Authority area and the county of Gloucestershire. SGS was formed from the merger of Filton College and Stroud College in 2012 and since merger we have successfully delivered growth, two Good Ofsted inspections with outstanding features, stable finances and a positive and valued student experience. We have strong relationships with employers and we make a strong contribution to meeting local skills needs.

The appointment of a new CEO/Principal is one of the most important responsibilities of any college governing body and as such the Board is determined to appoint an excellent leader who is able to build on our many strengths whilst positioning us successfully for the future. We obviously want our new CEO/Principal to be highly skilled, strategically strong and a first-class ambassador for the College, but I think it is helpful for candidates to have an insight into some of the board’s priorities in making this new appointment.

First of all, it is essential that there is strong alignment between our new leader and the culture of the organisation. Our staff are highly valued and enjoy working at the College. They have benefitted from a leadership approach that has been caring, ambitious and genuinely puts the needs and interests of our students at the centre of decision-making. We expect this culture to continue and therefore it is essential that our new leader can build on the culture that is already here rather than bringing about fundamental changes in the way that we achieve success. As a Board we are highly ambitious and following our recent successful Ofsted inspection we are determined to do even better at our next inspection and for us this means that we are striving to be an outstanding college. We believe that we need to achieve this for the benefit of our students, employers and the communities that we serve. We will expect our new CEO/ Principal to sign up to this ambition and to have the capacity to deliver on this strategic objective. As part of this aim, we need to continue to strengthen the quality of teaching, learning and student outcomes. We expect our new leader to drive a process of accelerated improvement, particularly around student achievement outcomes and to ensure the approaches we take to the delivery of education and training are innovative and future focused. Whilst our finances are in a good position, we believe that the next period for the further education sector could potentially be challenging and therefore we will want our CEO/Principal to strengthen our financial position, particularly our operating position, so that we are able to face the future from a position of strength.

As a Board we are highly ambitious for the organisation and we have a number of important strategic developments that are underway and which we will require our new CEO/Principal to continue with. Essentially, we are wanting positive and accelerated evolution rather than revolution. However, whilst we are clear on a number of priorities and our general direction of travel, our new leader will have the support of the Board to lead on the development of a new strategic plan and to bring their own leadership style, approach and ideas to the role.

The Board provides the right level of balance between support and challenge to our executive leaders. Over the past year we have focused on being more strategic and achieving stronger alignment between the work of the Board and the executive and as Chair of the Board, I will ensure that our new CEO/Principal is well supported to succeed in this very exciting role at this great College.

We have appointed FE Associates to support us with this crucial appointment and interested parties are advised to contact our lead consultant at FEA, Jo Johnston, for an initial discussion prior to making an application. Jo can be contacted at Jo.Johnston@fea.co.uk. It may be the case that potential applicants are also interested in a discussion with me and if you feel you would benefit from this then Jo can arrange this for you.

If you are excited by this opportunity and feel you have the skills, experiences and leadership values we are looking for, the Board looks forward to receiving your application.

With best wishes

Matt Atkinson
Chair of the Corporation

If you have the very special qualities and the passion to make a real a difference to the future of our students and business, then we would like to hear from you.

Please complete the registration form below to access the candidate information pack, application form and the equality and diversity form.

NB:  Please ensure you complete all fields and click on both the Terms and Conditions check box as well as the Consent check box to enable access to the documents.

We have appointed FE Associates to help us find the right person.  Prior to submitting an application, interested parties are advised to arrange an initial conversation with our FE Associates lead consultant, by emailing Jo.Johnston@fea.co.uk to discuss the role before the closing date.

Closing date: 9am on Friday 25 October 2024

Interview dates:  Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 November 2024

Stage 1 of 2: Complete the form below