Welcome from Claire Collins - Group Director HR and Organisational Development

A warm welcome to Capital City College Group (the Group) and thank you for expressing an interest in our newly created Group Deputy Director roles. I have been the Group Director for 2 years and am aware how exciting it can be to embark on a new role.

Firstly, let me share who we are. We are an innovative grouping of post 16 education and training institutions in central London. The Group comprises Westminster Kingsway College and City and Islington College, who merged on 1 August 2016; The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London who joined more recently on 1 November 2017, as well as our Training Arm, Capital City College Training. The Group has been created to maximise the advantages afforded to us by our scale and size, with the aim of delivering exceptional education and training for our students, business clients and other stakeholders.

At the heart of our service is a business model which drives administrative efficiency and excellence through lean and centralised group services for Finance, Student Administration, Human Resources and Organisational Development, Estates and Facilities, Technology and Infrastructure Services, Management Information Systems, Marketing and Communications and Performance and Quality.

Currently there is a centralised HR and OD team of 24 staff, serving twelve sites with approximately 2000 staff. While the colleges and business areas within the Group will maintain their unique style and place in their communities, we must ensure they benefit from excellent support and service provision from our centralised Professional Services.

Having gone through a significant period of change following the recent mergers, we are continuing to focus on developing the HR systems and processes, and delivering our HR Strategy. We have recently introduced a revised model of HR and L&D Business Partnering along with a new look HR Operations team, which will be key to firmly establishing HR’s roles as a strategic partner to the business. The HR and OD team is evolving and maturing. We are resilient, ambitious and we will need to work at a fast pace, if we are going to be successful in meeting the challenges ahead with the confidence and determination we envisage. This is an excellent opportunity to experience change management first hand within a supportive environment, encouraging personal development, continuous improvement and a creative approach towards implementing new styles of working.

I am seeking two senior HR professionals who can demonstrate professional expertise, leadership skills and personal resilience, to take forward our HR & OD agenda. You will lead by example, bringing energy, transformation and innovation to all aspects of our service delivery; giving confidence to our partners and executive teams.

I want all our staff to have high levels of skills and knowledge and to demonstrate innovation to our partners and executive teams. I want all our staff to be ambitious for the Group’s success, as that success will reflect our commitment to our students and partners.

If you would like to contribute your professional HR expertise and energy in this group of colleges, I would be delighted to hear from you.

Claire Collins - Group Director HR and Organisational Development