South Thames College Group

Here at South Thames Colleges Group, we are recruiting a Director of Student Recruitment & Partnerships to be responsible for partnerships, employer engagement marketing and admissions at Group Leadership level across the Group. You will maintain a highly positive profile amongst prospective students, employers and other key stakeholders and strengthen the employer engagement activities of the college group, driving significant business growth through commercial activities, and further establishing the group as a key provider of skills solutions. Working alongside the Executive Director of Business Development & Partnerships to develop, implement and monitor the delivery of a comprehensive employer engagement and partnership strategy, you will secure and grow student recruitment for all funding streams, utilising all appropriate channels and identifying new routes to market, which will positively contribute to the organisation meeting its recruitment targets. As our Director of Student Recruitment & Partnerships, we would like you to be educated to degree level or equivalent, have experience and knowledge of admissions and/or marketing functions within a College or University setting and have an extensive understanding of the Further Education Sector and its constituent markets. You will have a proven ability to successfully manage large staffing and non-staffing budgets with demonstrable determination and tenacity to move major initiatives forward, injecting pace and focus, and producing value for money. With significant and successful experience of driving successful improvement through change management, you will be able to demonstrate entrepreneurial drive combined with strong commercial instinct, able to communicate strategies and concepts, with the ability to be a challenger or market changer. You will have experience of working to develop external partnerships working across multiple networks with the ability to establish credibility at all levels and able to communicate, challenge, inform and influence at senior level with data and metric driven communications. This is a Group Wide post, and you will be required to travel to or work from any of the South Thames Colleges Group sites. Closing date for the return of completed applications is 16th April 2026. Interviews will be held on 1st May 2026. The benefits package includes generous annual leave of 37 days plus up to 8 additional days over Christmas/New Year as well as an additional 5 days Wellbeing leave to enhance employees' physical and mental health. This leave is all in addition to Bank Holiday entitlement. There is an excellent pension scheme that receives a significant financial contribution from the employer (Teachers Pensions or Local Government Pension Scheme), subsidised sports facilities and professional development and training plus a salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme. South Thames Colleges Group is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults. As outlined in the Public Sector Equality Duty of the Equality Act 2010, we are committed to equality of opportunity for all staff and applications from individuals are encouraged regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships. As part of our due diligence checks on prospective employees, successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced DBS check, satisfactory references, an online search and proof of eligibility to work in the UK. The South Thames Colleges Group is made up of Carshalton College, Kingston College, Merton College and South Thames College, which merged on 1 August 2017. South Thames Colleges Group is one of London's largest providers of post-16 education and training and is an ongoing and significant contributor to its local communities. We aim to put students' success at the heart of everything we do.