Director Enterprise and Employability - April 2025
Job Description
The Director of Enterprise and Employability is an exciting lead role on supporting individuals to develop their skills and knowledge, in being prepared to start businesses, explore self-employment
options; complete training and development opportunities; and improve their wellbeing.
With a proactive work-first approach, the postholder will support senior students in their personal development to enter self-employment or start their own business(es). Results focused, the
postholder will use a mix of holistic support, challenge, and mentoring techniques to facilitate individuals progress, keeping a focus on achieving sustainable employment or self-employment based on individual preferences.
Oversight of Programmes
• Construct, document and implement aspirational programmes that incorporates best practice in developing students’ enterprise and employability opportunities.
• Lead Work Experience events, ensuring a suitably wide-range of opportunities are available to the Senior School community.
• Lead the organization of the school’s Careers Fair, exposing Secondary School students to a wide range of future employment career pathways.
• Annually review, quality assure and update programmes, ensuring each aligns with the school’s strategic priorities and promotes the Enterprise and Employability agenda.
• Ensure all programmes compliment and enhance the school’s existing academic and extracurricular provision.
Mentoring & Support
• Offer high-quality advice and guidance to students wishing to start their own business.
• Provide support to individuals seeking assistance on their journey to enterprise start-up or self-employment, including soft skills development (confidence building, financial management, communication skills) as well as business start-up guidance.
• Motivate students and ensure engagement by tailoring activities, removing barriers, and offering a range of services which meet the overall programme and individual needs.
Community
• Promote the school’s Enterprise and Employability agenda with the local and wider business community, establishing strong partnerships.
• Form a large portfolio of partnerships to support work experience, entrepreneurial and employability opportunities. This includes but is not limited to: Local residents and service users, Business Incubators, Voluntary and Community Organisations, Service Providers,Strategic and delivery partners, Funders and commissioners, Professional advisers and services, GEMS4Life.
• Organise a range of activities and specialist services which support students in their journey, e.g. business visits and workshops, alongside development activities that build the necessary
skills for success.
• Ensure effective communication to the various school community stakeholders providing clarity of role, initiatives, deliverables and timelines.
• Ensure alignment in all forms and instances of communication with the overarching GEMS Corporate values alongside MTS specific objectives and communications plans.
• Support wider school work and participation in community activities/events linked with
GEMS4Life.
Programme Expectations
• Ensure all eligible Senior School students partake in meaningful work experiences that aid and support their future entrepreneurial, employment or further study aspirations.
• Ensure all eligible Secondary School students experience high-quality and diverse careers information from experienced postholders within their employment fields.
• Develop and manage an active caseload of students pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities, building on the individual skills, experience, and talents.
• Coordinate and submit the annual Enterprise & Employability Impact Report detailing all information pertinent to programmes the postholder holds responsibility for.
Skills
Significant experience of successfully supporting individuals with development, enterprise or employability programmes which help them to build core skills needed.
• Appropriate business or enterprise development qualification or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrable ability to appropriately apply mentoring and coaching techniques within a result focused approach in a 1-2-1 and group settings.
• Promote and support the vision, values and ethos of the School.
• Consistently deliver high quality leadership of the Enterprise and Employability programmes.
• Knowledge and understanding of what constitute high quality entrepreneurial practices.
• Work collaboratively with SLT to ensure community needs are attended to.
• Maintains knowledge of employment-related issues, shifting landscapes and best practices.
• The ability to gain the confidence ofstaff,students, parents and third parties.
• Have a positive outlook and solution focused attitude
• Effective communication skills.
• Good organisational and administrative skills
• Willingness to go the extra mile to do the job well
Job Location UAE Company Industry Education Job Role Education Career Level Entry Level - Less than 2 years experience
GEMS METROPOLE SCHOOL - MOTOR CITY
Education Dubai, United Arab Emirates GEMS Metropole School, located in Motor City in Dubai, opened its doors in September 2014 and has continued to flourish and grow in student number and stature. The school is now open to students from FS1 to Year 13 with an all-through school capacity of 4200 students offering the National Curriculum for England. The school has become well-known for their key areas of success, such as a ... strong community approach to education, highly inclusive school support to strong secondary options at Key Stage 4 and academic and vocational choices at Key Stage 5. In addition, the school has well-equipped classrooms, a highly competitive sports department, a farm, digital media rooms, innovation laboratories, dedicated science labs, music, art rooms and libraries. Students from our Foundation Stage classes have access to attractive indoor and outdoor learning areas to explore and investigate, high quality Information Technology provision and Science provision to develop IT and Science-based literacy, and most recently a language hub to support key language skills across school. In the Primary section, with the use of 1:1 technologies, students and teachers use iPads and interactive whiteboards to enhance learning opportunities where appropriate. The Secondary school continues to develop and grow and has seen the LEAD and skills programme blossom supporting students to make informed decisions and develop their learning and leadership skills. A new focus of personalised pathways is supporting students in their preparation for life after school and their journey towards success. In conclusion, GEMS Metropole School is a member of the British Schools of the Middle East (BSME) with the School Principal as a BSME Country Rep. This allows both teachers and students alike to continue to grow and develop with the rich traditions of the National Curriculum offerings and align itself with ‘like schools’ across the region and overseas.
