Careers Consultant - Dubai Campus

Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh; Dubai; On-site; AED 100,000 - 156,000; Full time

Job summary

Heriot-Watt University in Dubai is seeking a Careers Consultant to deliver high-quality career guidance and coaching to undergraduate and postgraduate students and graduates. The role involves working closely with Schools, employers, and the Careers Service team to support employability and plan activities across the Dubai Campus.

The successful candidate will have at least 3 years of relevant experience, strong IT and communication skills, and a proactive approach to developing careers

Qualifications

• Educated to first degree level or equivalent practical experience.
• Minimum of 3 years proven relevant experience providing effective guidance services.
• Up-to-date knowledge of theories underpinning careers education, information, advice and guidance/coaching.
• Significant and proven experience of relationship building with stakeholders.
• Strong IT skills, including databases, report generators, and Microsoft Office.

Responsibilities

• Provide high quality CIAG and coaching to students and graduates.
• Deliver centralised and school-based careers education sessions.
• Develop and implement plans to support graduates seeking employment post-graduation.
• Create and update materials to promote the service and its outcomes.
• Collaborate with Employers Engagement and other campus teams to enhance employability opportunities.

Skills

Excellent written and verbal comms

Strong IT skills

Coaching and guidance

Relationship building

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

Job Description:

Job Posting Title: Careers Consultant, Dubai

Grade and Salary: Grade 7

FTE and working pattern: Full Time

Organisation Name: Registry and Student

Services About our School/Directorate and Team:

TheGlobal RegistryandAcademicSupportDirectoratesupportsourstudentsandstaff acrossthe full studentlife-cyclefromenrolmenttograduation.

TheDirectorate hasresponsibilityasthedefinitiverecord-keeperofallstudent

information, programme and course details, as well as leading services that help students settle andstay at the University. This includes providing professional help and advice through a range ofsupportandwellbeingservices.

The Directorate supports academic and professional services staff across the University in a numberof areas, including: academic, institutional and student related Regulations and Policies, and global,nationalandinstitutional qualitymatters.

ItdeliverstheseservicesthroughfiveDivisions, eachmanagedbyaGlobalHead,andtwo Headsof CampusRegistryandStudentServices:

Student Life

OnlineStudents

AcademicOperations

AcademicQuality

AcademicSecretariat,RegulationandPolicy

Head of Registry and Student Services - Dubai

Head of Registry & Student Services - Malaysia

Campus The StudentLife DivisioninDubai ismadeupoffiveareas:

• Student Service Centre: A single point of access for students that delivers aconsistent student experience, including face-to-face and virtual services (eg, enrolment,studentaccount payments,student records, etc.)
• Student Records: Responsible for the management of back-office functions tosupport the Student Service Centre, acts as the definitive record-keeper of the studentrecord,andmanagesstandard/consistentprocessesfor allstudent transactions(eg,transfer,TemporarySuspensionofStudies,etc).
• Wellbeing:Providesarangeofservices to supportthestudent journey including support for people of determination, mental health, and retentionactivities.
• Careers Service: Delivers career and employability advice to studentsandrecentalumni,workingcloselywithlocalandglobal employers,andwith Heriot-Watt’sSchoolssupportingtheemployabilitystrands.
• Student Engagement: Supports the Student Council, and coordinates activities andevents for students to facilitate their extra-curricular development and buildcommunity.

Purpose of Role

The Careers Service aims to assist Heriot-Watt University students andgraduates to make informed career choices by providing a professional, high-quality career guidanceand information service. We work closely with employers and academic Schools to support studentsby developing the skills they need to maximise their employability. The Careers Service is dynamic, forward-looking and proactive in helping the University enhance theemployability of our students. They work with a wide range of organisations across all businesssectors to ensure that students and graduates can access a wealth of work experience, internships and graduateopportunities tosupporttheir readinessforlifeoncethey havecompletedtheirstudies.

The focus of this role is to contribute to the implementation of the University’s strategic aims byproviding a range of professional career education and guidance services to client groups ofundergraduate and postgraduate students, and graduates to enhance their employability. Thesuccessful candidate will deliver the service alongside other Careers Consultants and work in closecollaboration with senior school staff, academic colleagues, , the EmployerLiaison Coordinator, alumni team and employers to support students to develop their careerpotential. They will proactively develop the service to meet client needs linking closely with othercampuses to ensure parity and contribute to the positive impact of the service at the School andUniversitylevel.

Thisrolewillwork closelywithotherteamswithintheStudentLife department, specificallyStudent Engagement and the Student Council to improve engagement withtheservice.

This post reports to the Careers and Industry Engagement Manager (Dubai Campus).

Summary of Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide high quality careers information, advice, guidance (CIAG) and coaching to students and graduates to help them fulfil their career potential, operating within the agreed careers guidance model. This will take account of best practice across the sector, and include a range of different approaches, such as one-to-one sessions, e-guidance, group teaching through career education seminars and group work, coaching and mentoring, working with a wide range of students, including international students and those withdrawing early.
• Deliver a centralised and school-based careers education sessions to a wide range of students and graduates.
• Develop and implement a plan to support graduates who are seeking employment post-graduation to enhance the Graduate Destination Survey outcomes.
• Contribute to the delivery of existing materials and produce new, innovative and dynamic materials to maximise student engagement with the service.
• Work proactively in support of the Service’s Employer Engagement Strategy. Represent the University at events such as careers fairs and other events, local, national and international employer networks, gather and analyse high quality labour market intelligence and collaborate with employers in activities such as delivery of career education, career guidance and employability skills. Gather and analyse high quality UAE labour market intelligence and collaborate with employers in activities such as delivery of career education, career guidance and employability skills.
• Through continuous professional development, maintain an in-depth current knowledge of career options, routes, labour market trends and employers as relevant to all areas of the university’s curriculum.
• Work proactively with academic staff in Schools in order to develop specific knowledge to support students and graduates of particular disciplines.
• Work closely with the Careers Service team to plan and develop an Annual Plan of general activities as well as programme specific integrated careers activities. Work closely with the wider student life team to market and deliver integrated services.
• Promote Careers Advisory services generally to ensure that colleagues are aware of what is available and can therefore refer their students appropriately.
• To develop and maintain excellent working relationships with a range of internal and external customers and colleagues; ensure good communication and exchange of ideas/information/ability to develop new initiatives.
• Use information technology to its full potential in delivering, developing and supporting service provision, communicating about the Careers Service, and engaging both staff and students with the work of the service.
• Gather, analyse and use customer feedback evidence to make improvements to the service
• Contribute as appropriate to projects across the university, working groups or initiatives which support the achievement of strategic and operational objectives, and the enhancement of the student experience.
• Designing, writing, and updating material to promote the service to students, academic and support staff and employers. Assisting in writing new materials on specific careers topics for students and other stakeholders, such as employers.
• Contribute to the maintenance of agreed quality standards and external accreditation through on-going review of practices, contributions to the assessment process and the delivery of high quality, measurable outcomes. Proactively contribute to Careers and Graduate Futures strategic planning and innovativedevelopment to ensure the Service’s key objectives are achieved.
• Maintain appropriate statistical records to contribute to the development of the service through effective data management.
• Engage in continuous development of professional practice and engage in developmental activities as guided by the Careers and Industry Engagement Manager andHead of RAS, Dubai, to maintain and improve knowledge and skills as required within a challenging and ever-changing environment.
• Undertake other duties as appropriate to the grade and content of the post, as directed by the Careers and Industry Engagement Manager This list of duties is therefore not exhaustive.

Education, Qualifications & Experience

Theseare the criteriaonwhichthe short-listingandrecruitmentselectionwillbe made:

Essential

1. Educatedto firstdegree levelorequivalentpracticalexperience inthe workplace
2. Minimum of 3 years proven relevant experience of providing effective guidance serviceswithvaried individuals andclient groups,across arangeofsettings
3. Up to date knowledge of theories underpinning the practice of careers education,information,advice andguidance/coaching,particularlyinrelationtograduateprovision
4. Uptodateknowledgeofgraduate careerpaths
5. Ability to empathise with and understand the needs of students from a wide variety ofbackgrounds
6. Demonstrable ability to work quickly, flexibly and accurately in a dynamic, changing andpressuredenvironment
7. Strong IT skills with the ability to learn new applications and work with databases, reportgenerators,Microsoft Officesuitesandrelatedsoftware
8. Significant and proven experience of relationship building with a variety of stakeholdergroups andaudiences
9. Projectmanagementexperience
10. Strategicthinker
11. Aresilientinitiative-takerwithpersonal drive,tenacityandresults-orientated
12. Abilityto workeffectivelybothindependentlyandaspartofa team
13. Excellent writtenandverbalcommunicationskill
14. Abletoprioritise acrossmultiple andcomplexagendas
15. Able to provide constructive advice, analyse and interpret complex and or specialist issuesandtranslatetheseintoefficientmanagementsummaries

Desirable

1. ExperienceofworkinginHigherEducation
2. Experienceofworkingincareersguidancewithinahighereducationinstitution
3. Experiencing of developing and using online resources to support career development,includingsocialmedia
4. Ability to manage budgets
5. Sound knowledge of the Higher Education sector and current issues surroundingemployability

Special Factors

Occasionalrequirementtoworkatweekendsoroutofhours

Heriot-Watt University Values

With a history dating back to 1821, Heriot-Watt University has established a reputation for world‑class teaching and professionally relevant, leading-edge research, which has made it one of the top UK universities for business and industry.

We are a vibrant, forward‑looking university, well known for the quality of our degrees with employers actively seeking out our graduates. Heriot-Watt is also Scotland’s international university with an unsurpassed international in‑country presence. We deliver degree programmes to circa 30,000 students in 143 countries around the world, have a further overseas campus in Dubai and boast the largest international student cohort in Scotland.

At Heriot-Watt we’ve created an environment that nurtures innovation and leadership - where our researchers, staff and students can realise their potential and develop their ambitions.

We are proud of our collegiate atmosphere and integrated teaching and research approach which has helped to build a community of committed academics and highly motivated students. Our focus on careers delivers results and we’ve an excellent reputation for graduate employability.

In addition to the Edinburgh campus, we currently have campuses in the Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai and Malaysia. For all of our campuses we aim to provide stimulating, supportive environments conducive to effective learning and research, where staff and students can excel. At Heriot-Watt, we have an established set of values that help us to nurture innovation and leadership, and show our commitment to continuous improvement and development in all our activities.

Our values describe our deeply held beliefs and our community spirit. They characterise not only how we are as a higher education institution but also frame how we want to be.

Our values are:

• Belong
• Collaborate
• Inspire
• Celebrate

As learning, living and working institution, we use our values as the building blocks of how we go about doing our work and how we each conduct ourselves as members of Heriot-Watt University. They represent what binds us together as a University community and help us to become the best at what we do.

For full details on our University, please view our website https://www.hw.ac.uk/about.htm

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.

The appointment is conditional upon successful completion of all Labor and Immigration formalities, and the start date will need to be delayed if the employment visa is not in place.