Learning Mentor

Benefits: 27 days of annual leave plus bank holidays, Peoples pension, Retail and Leisure Discounts, excellent professional and personal development opportunities, accessing college courses.

Contract Type: Permanent - Term Time

About the role:

We are currently seeking a Learning Mentor to join The Bedford College Group based at both Bedford College and Tresham College, Kettering.

As a Learning Mentor you play an important role in the success of our students through:

• Welfare and support – understanding starting points and working with students to develop resilience, growth mind set and strategies to help them to prepare for their next step and the World of work.
• Ensuring consistently high attendance and readiness to learn while proactively tackling persistent absence.
• Working with students who are ‘at risk’ due to welfare issues, undertaking early interventions to provide support and remove barriers in order to improve their learning opportunities (caseload of 250 learners).
• Providing support for vulnerable students by being a conduit between internal and external support agencies and curriculum teams.
• Carrying out all aspects of the role in line with TBCG culture and values
• Ensuring the student experience is kept at the heart of everything your Directorate does

About you:

Ideal candidates will have:

• Math's and English to GCSE (Grade A – C) or equivalent level 2
• Willingness to work towards Level 2 Safeguarding and Youth Mental Health First Aid qualification
• Knowledge and awareness of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• Experience of working in a student support or related role
• Knowledge of safeguarding, equality and diversity issues in education
• Experience of providing careers advice and guidance or education to young people and/or adults
• Good IT skills to include Microsoft Office (Word, Excel etc.)
• Ability to travel to all campus locations for meetings, events, training etc.
• An understanding of young people with mental health would be beneficial and a DBS if possible

Successful candidates must also be able to demonstrate alignment to our organisational VISION values:

• Valuing Teamwork - We are one team who by working together can achieve great things, respecting the opinion and valuing the contribution each of us makes.
• Improving Continuously - We challenge ourselves to always do better by trying new things, sharing knowledge, reflecting on practice and learning from others.
• Student Centred - At our heart is always doing what is best for our students. We consider students in all of our decision making to create positive outcomes and memorable experiences for every student.
• Inclusive - We celebrate differences and diversity, recognising that we can learn from each other.
• Open and Caring - We care about the wellbeing of our staff, our students, our community and wider society, creating an environment built on trust where we listen, engage with and support each other.
• Nurturing Education Excellence - We promote educational excellence by delivering programmes that challenge our students to achieve their ambitions.

About The Bedford College Group
The Bedford College Group was formed in 2017 following the merger of Bedford College and Tresham College and is now the largest provider of education in the South East Midlands, with over 15,000 students passing through our doors each year.

Today, the Group is made up of a family of colleges across Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire: Bedford College, Central Bedfordshire College and Tresham College in the towns of Bedford, Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard, Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough; Shuttleworth College, a specialist land-based college; The Bedford Sixth Form, (the only dedicated sixth form in Bedford); The Corby Sixth Form, (opened in September 2023); and the National College for Motorsport alongside Silverstone race circuit. To widen accessibility to education and training, the Group also has community-based Learning Centres in Bedford, Corby and Kettering which offer IT training.

Safeguarding our Students
The Bedford College Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be subject to thorough vetting process which includes, an enhanced DBS check and satisfactory references.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Exceptions Order 1975, provides information about which convictions must be declared during job applications and related exceptions and further information about filtering offences can be found in the DBS filtering guide. The Bedford College Group's policy on Employment of Ex-Offenders is attached to this vacancy.

Candidates who are barred from working with children are reminded it is a criminal offence to apply for this post.