Careers Consultant - Dubai Campus

Heriot-Watt University; United Arab Emirates; On-site; AED 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus is recruiting a Careers Consultant to deliver high-quality career information, advice and guidance to undergraduate and postgraduate students and graduates. You will work with Schools, employers and the Careers Service to support employability and provide career education across diverse student groups, including international students.

You will develop materials, run sessions, and contribute to employer engagement and labour market intelligence initiatives in

Qualifications

• Educated to first degree level or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 3 years proven relevant experience providing effective guidance services.
• Up-to-date knowledge of theories underpinning careers education, information, advice and guidance/coaching, particularly in relation to graduate provision.
• Up-to-date knowledge of graduate career paths.
• Ability to empathise with and understand the needs of students from a wide variety of backgrounds.
• Strong IT skills with the ability to learn new applications and work with databases, report generators, Microsoft Office suites and related software.
• Significant and proven experience of relationship building with a variety of stakeholder groups and audiences.
• Project management experience.
• Strategic thinker.
• Able to work effectively both independently and as part of a team.
• Excellent written and verbal communications skill.
• Able to prioritise across multiple and complex agendas.
• Able to provide constructive advice, analyse and interpret complex issues and translate these into efficient management summaries.

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.
• Deliver centralised and school-based careers education sessions to a wide range of students and graduates.
• Develop and implement a plan to support graduates seeking employment post-graduation to enhance outcomes.
• Contribute to the development and updating of materials to maximise student engagement with the service.
• Represent the University at events and engage with employers to support employability skills and labour market intelligence gathering.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of labour market trends relevant to the curriculum.
• Work with academic staff to develop knowledge to support students in specific disciplines.
• Plan annual activities with the Careers Service team and collaborate with the wider student life team to market integrated services.
• Promote Careers Advisory services to ensure awareness and referrals across the University.
• Design, write and update materials to promote the service to students, staff and employers.
• Contribute to quality standards and external accreditation through ongoing review of practices and data management.
• Engage in continuous professional development as guided by management.
• Undertake other duties as appropriate to the grade.

Skills

Career guidance

Communication

Relationship building

IT skills

Education

First degree or equivalent

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

JobPostingTitle: 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 Student Life Division in Dubai is made up of five areas:

• 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 closelywithotherteamswithin the StudentLife 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

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

At Heriot Watt we are passionate about our values and look to them to connect our people globally and to help us collaborate and celebrate our success through working together. Our research programmes can deliver real world impact which is achieved through the diversity of our international community and the recognition of creative talent that connects our global team.

Our flourishing community will give you the freedom to challenge and to bring your enterprising mind and to help our partners with solutions that can be applied now and in the future. Join us and Heriot Watt will provide you with a platform to thrive and work in a way that also helps you live your life in balance with well-being and inclusiveness at the heart of our global community.

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.