Employability Skills and Placement Officer

£33,160 - £37,283 per annum (this will be pro-rata'd to reflect the hours worked)

Package

Annual leave - 30 Days (222 hours) + 8 Bank Holidays (59.2 hours)- this includes a discretionary Christmas closure period

Enhanced pension contributions scheme with SYPA

About us

The Sheffield College is a thriving further and higher education community, empowering around 13,000 learners each year to achieve their goals. Driven by our mission to transform lives through learning, we foster an inclusive environment — recognised through our 2026 Investors in Diversity Gold award and 3rd‑place ranking in the National Centre for Diversity’s 2025 Top 100 Most Inclusive UK Employers.

About the Role

We have high aspirations and standards for ourselves, and our learners and this role will be a key one in supporting the college’s mission to be consistently great and ensure our students get the qualifications and skills they need to go further in employment, careers, apprenticeships, further training, and university level courses.

You will be responsible for ensuring learners gain high quality placements, experience of work and placements tasters, you will interact with the learner to jointly identify challenges and find solutions to overcome barriers to placements. You will be required to manage a case load of vacancies and candidates including shortlisting student applications and liaise with employers to set up student interviews. You will visit students in the workplace, offering training, support and assessment for the units within the qualification.

Main Responsibilities:

You will work closely with course leader, tutor mentor and the employer to ensure students are fully engaged with their learning and placement, fully stretched and able to achieve their goals.
Support curriculum teams, students, and employers to plan and deliver industry placements, mandatory placements, and placement tasters
Plan and coordinate employability development opportunities, guest speaking workshops and job ready activities for all students, working in collaboration with the Heads of Student Experience and other College colleagues, in accordance with the curriculum plan.
Provide outstanding customer service to employers via established contact routes and site visits
Deliver Work-related activity including a minimum of 300 hours classroom delivery, induction workshop including introduction to placements and placement tasters and relevant employability programmes e.g. MoveAhead, GetAhead and StayAhead
Assess students’ readiness for the industry placement, agree and implement individual employability development plans, including the setting placement objectives linked to the qualification and populate student learner record on WRA
Provide a range of professional, guidance and information to overcome challenges the student has, referring to specialists where appropriate
Prepare learners for interview (supported by careers team where appropriate)
Support the CAS Team to ensure collection of all student compliance documentation including the obtaining of DBS clearance, parental consent forms and signed student service level agreements and other compliance documentation prior to the placement commencing
Manage first day in placement date including the completion of the 3-way induction paperwork (learner, employer, college)
Act as a support for a caseload of “at-risk” students seeking new opportunities to complete their qualification or study programme
Agree a work placed action plan with employers, curriculum teams and assess student performance against agreed plan.
Monitor and assess the performance of students and keeping appropriate records to comply with college policy. This could include, amongst others, assessing presentations, practical demonstrations, group work etc. Recording the results of practical assessment, tracking progress, providing constructive feedback, and setting targets are integral to this element of the role
Coordinate, plan and host internal events to promote employability development across all College students and the Employer Skills Academy programmes.
Support and encourage the logging of placement hours on the WRA system

If you want to find out more about the role please contact Bradley Morton, Head of Student Experience - Bradley.Morton@sheffcol.ac.uk

What we can offer you

As the successful candidate, you will be offered a salary of between £33,160 - £37,283 (this will be pro-rata'd to reflect the hours worked) per annum based upon a combination of the skills, knowledge and experience that you can bring to the role.

Alongside your salary, your pension is one of the most valuable benefits of joining the College. The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), administered locally by SYPA, provides financial security in retirement and support for your loved ones.

Our Full Benefits Package

SYPA – with a generous employer contribution
Annual leave - 30 Days (222 hours) + 8 Bank Holidays (59.2 hours)- this includes a discretionary Christmas closure period
Health and wellbeing, we offer
Employee assistance programme through Bupa
Occupational Health through PAM
Free eye tests for VDU users
Free parking is available at the majority of our campuses
Hybrid and flexible working opportunities
Continuous professional development opportunities
A people‑focused working culture where you can grow and thrive

Further information can be found on our Benefits and Career Development pages.

Disability Confident

We are a Disability Confident employer and are committed to removing barriers for applicants with a disability during our recruitment process, upon appointment and as an employee. Please review our Recruitment Guidelines for Disabled Candidates which provides further information on reasonable adjustments and how the Disability Confident scheme works in practice. If you require any reasonable adjustments or any support at any point throughout the process, please contact jobs@sheffcol.ac.uk

Armed Forces Covenant

As part of our commitment through the Armed Forces Covenant, we’re pledged to support the Armed Forces Community. Recognising the value Personnel, Veterans and military families contribute to our community and country.

Safeguarding

We are an employer who is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of students. Successful applicants will be required to have an enhanced DBS check and will be subject to safer recruiting procedures. Further details on our safer recruiting procedures, including the employment of ex-offenders can be found here Safeguarding

Next Steps:

To apply: Click apply online and follow the links to complete the online application. For queries regarding the application process, please contact the Recruitment Team at jobs@sheffcol.ac.uk CVs are currently not accepted.

As a Leader in Diversity employer, we encourage applications from everyone and value diversity in our workforce.

Closing date: 5th of June 2026

Please be aware – If we have a high number of applications, we may decide to close the vacancy earlier.

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Employability Skills and Placement Officer

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