The Bedford College Group - Chief Operating Officer

Be part of our team!

Formed in 2017 following the merger of Bedford College and Tresham College, The Bedford College Group is now the largest provider of education in the South East Midlands, with over 18,000 students passing through our doors each year. Today, the Group is made up of a family of colleges across Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, including Bedford College, Central Bedfordshire College, and Tresham College, among others. This is an exciting time for the Group, we are committed to ensuring significant improvements to our whole college infrastructure and have ambitious plans for our estate with a large capital development programme planned.

We are seeking a Chief Operating Officer to provide strategic leadership and management across the Group’s Estates, IT and Health & Safety functions. This new role will be integral to us ensuring that all our students have an outstanding student experience and achieve excellent outcomes. The successful candidate will be a proven leader with experience of large-scale infrastructure projects from within a similarly complex environment. Strong commercial awareness, excellent communication skills and the ability to translate strategy into operational plans are essential.

We have appointed FE Associates to support us with this important appointment. Contact Jo.Johnston@fea.co.uk to discuss this exciting opportunity before applying.

Dear Colleague,

Thank you for your interest in the role of Chief Operating Officer at The Bedford College Group (TBCG). The Group is the 7th largest further education college group in the sector by income and comprises 7 distinct colleges with 3 further educational colleges, 2 sixth form colleges, 1 agricultural college and 1 national college for motorsport.

Our values are extremely important to us and keep the student at the heart of everything we do, but none more so than those of valuing teamwork, continuously improving, caring and inclusive, all of which sit at the heart of this role.

The successful candidate will provide strategic leadership and management across key professional service departments of TBCG and is integral to ensuring the Group achieves continuous improvement by ensuring our staff have the right tools and infrastructure to achieve excellent student experience and outcomes.

To succeed in this role, you will come to us as a successful senior leader of corporate services functions within a similarly complex environment as that of TBCG’s. As well as being an excellent communicator, you should have a strong commercial awareness and the ability to translate strategy into operational plans.

You will be coming to TBCG at an extremely exciting period of change, with our new CEO having commenced in January 2024 with a passionate commitment to, and vision of excellence that will take us forward in the next stage of TBCG’s evolution.

Interested parties are strongly encouraged to contact our FE Associates recruitment partner, Jo.Johnston@fea.co.uk, to arrange an initial discussion prior to submitting an application.

With best wishes

Yiannis Koursis
Group Chief Executive

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 Thursday 30 January 2025

Interviews: Tuesday 11 February 2025

Stage 1 of 2: Complete the form below

Stage 2 of 2: Submitting Your Application

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.

Once you have obtained the full information and had an informal discussion with Jo Johnston, you must email your application to recruitment@fea.co.uk by the closing date deadline. Applications received after this time will not be considered.

Please read the 'Submitting Your Application' Section in the Candidate Information Pack for full instructions on how to submit your application.

Your application must include the following 2 documents:

A fully completed Application Form (located above). Please do not include your CV as part of, or substitute for, the application form.
The Equality and Diversity Form (located above).

Key Dates for Submitting Your Application:

Closing date: 9am on Thursday 30 January 2025

Interviews: Tuesday 11 February 2025

Chief Operating Officer

Introduction

Be part of our team!

About Us - Welcome

Supporting Documents

How to Apply