Admissions Officer

Ambition Institute; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 24,000 - 29,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

25 days leave

Pension 11%

Wellbeing support

Office in Manchester

Job summary

Ambition Institute is seeking an Admissions Officer to join the Admissions & Operations team in Manchester. This full-time role involves guiding applicants through the application and onboarding journey, delivering high-quality customer service, and maintaining accurate data across systems.

You will work in a hybrid setup (office-based in Manchester) and report to the Senior Associate, Admissions. The role requires strong communication, meticulous data handling, and collaboration across teams to

Qualifications

• Strong customer service focus and ability to guide applicants through processes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with attention to detail.
• Ability to manage a busy workload and keep data accurate and up to date.

Responsibilities

• Provide high-quality customer service to applicants via calls and emails.
• Guide applicants through the application and onboarding journey; explain programme details and admissions criteria.
• Monitor communications and applicant progress using Pardot and Salesforce.
• Maintain accurate data, update records, and suggest process improvements.

Skills

Customer service

Communication skills

Data recording/analysis

Microsoft Office

Team collaboration

Organisation

Tools

Pardot

Salesforce

Job description

Admissions Officer

Application Deadline: 8 September 2026

Department: Admissions & Operations

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Manchester

Reporting To: Senior Associate, Admissions

Compensation: £26,228 / year

Description

We’re seeking someone with a strong understanding of customer service and best practice to join our Admissions team as an admissions officer (internally known as admissions associate). This is a full-time position.

In this role, you’ll provide high-quality support to applicants interested in joining one of our programmes. You’ll guide applicants through their application and onboarding journey by:

• Making calls and sending emails to current applicants.
• Responding to queries promptly and professionally.
• Supporting the development and delivery of communication strategies.
• Maintaining accurate data and running key processes to keep the applicant pipeline moving.

Your work will help more educators access professional development opportunities, shaping the future of education for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Who are Ambition Institute?

A great teacher changes the future every day. Especially for children who have had a tough start in life, a teacher can be the critical factor in their success.

At Ambition Institute we help schools tackling educational disadvantage to keep getting better and help their teachers and school leaders to become more expert over time.

That’s how we’ll make sure every child gets a great education and the best possible start in life.

• We train teachers and leaders at all levels to get better at the things that make the biggest difference: what you teach, how you teach it, and how you create the conditions for schools to thrive.
• We share what works. Everyone can benefit from evidence of how great teaching and leadership can improve schools and change lives, so we connect people to the latest research and best practice.
• We champion every teacher and school leader’s potential to develop, as the driving force for sustainable school improvement.

We would like you to:

• Provide excellent customer service by responding promptly and clearly to queries, resolving applicant issues, and collaborating with colleagues to deliver a seamless journey.
• Manage and convert applicant pipelines through effective communication, including handling enquiries, sales campaigns, and calls, while clearly explaining programme details and admissions criteria.
• Use systems such as Pardot and Salesforce to monitor communications, track applicant progress, and identify where additional support is needed.
• Maintain accurate data records, regularly update information, and contribute to continuous improvement by analysing reports and suggesting enhancements to processes and tools.

Working in a hybrid way, you’ll be attached to either our Birmingham, London or Manchester office and will report to Senior Associate, Admissions. In line with our current ways of working, you’ll be expected to be in the office at least 1 day a month, in addition to team days and this may be reviewed by Ambition.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Essential Our successful candidate will, of course, demonstrate their commitment to the mission to improve the education and outcomes of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

• They will also be able to demonstrate the following qualifications, skills and experience:
• Ability to identify own strengths and weaknesses and be open to feedback and improvement
• Strong attention to detail
• Ability to accurately record, monitor and analyse data
• A good understanding of customer service delivery and best practice
• Ability to manage a complex workload and able to balance potentially competing priorities
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to clearly communicate and deliver processes
• Ability to spot issues, problem solve and elevate swiftly when necessary
• Ability to work collaboratively and independently with a high level of self-motivation
• Computer/IT skills and knowledge of Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Ability to use own initiative
• Able to respond positively and flexibly to change and/or challenging situations with a desire to seek solutions and make improvements
• Committed to equality and diversity

Desirable

• Experience of working in the Education sector

What’s in it for you….?

• Competitive annual salary
• Professional development for all staff
• 25 days' annual leave, plus bank holidays and 'winter shut down' at the end of December/beginning of January
• Employer pension contribution of 11%
• Agile, hybrid working culture, so you can manage when and where you work
• Staff affinity networks that help keep equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our work
• Blind recruitment process to ensure equality and fairness in our hiring
• Enhanced maternity pay after a year’s service
• Shared parental leave package
• Access to free, confidential 24/7 wellbeing and support line
• Comfortable and collaborative workspaces in the city centres of Manchester, Birmingham and London
• Work-from-home technology package to support hybrid working
• Interest free season ticket / bike loans

We don’t expect the person we hire to have all of the following, but this should give you a sense of what would enable you to thrive in this role and in our organisation:

• You care deeply about educational disadvantage and being part of an organisation that challenges inequality
• You have a good work ethic and strive to make a difference in the job you do
• You always give maximum effort to understand and meet the needs of our partners and participants
• You always have a great attitude so we “can do” for all our colleagues, partners and participants
• You are open to feedback and learning because we want to keep getting better
• You work with your initiative to bring new ideas and a fresh perspective
• You are well organised and can prioritise work that will have the greatest impact

• You want a career with a person-centred organisation with a cause at its heart.
• You have a collaborative work ethos, bring warmth and good humour to work and constructive outlook to every situation
• You enjoy working in a fast-moving workplace, with a great support structure around you
• You would like to grow with an ambitious organisation as it progresses over time
• Want flexibility in how you work – splitting your time between one of our offices and remote working and managing your own working patterns to get the job done.

Applications will be accepted for all office locations.

All applications must be received by the closing date 11:59pm on 8 September 2026. Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 14 and 15 September 2026.

Please note - As part of the interview process, candidates will complete a short role-play task as part of the process. Further details will be provided at a later stage.

We recognise that AI function tools (such as ChatGPT or other generative AI tools) are here to stay and can be helpful for applications including to assist in researching for application responses and to shorten your first draft. However, we are observing a growing trend in the use of AI, and we would caution applicants against relying too heavily on such tools when drafting responses. The pitfall of such tools is that they produce generic responses that don’t showcase individuality, specific experiences or real-life examples. This usually results in applications being unsuccessful. We want to evaluate your response, and we will be looking for answers that use examples and experiences that are clearly specific to you. You are more likely to successfully demonstrate your soft skills like communication and teamwork when preparing answers to application questions yourself and this helps mitigate the unintended consequences of AI‑generated responses.

If we suspect you have used AI inappropriately, the panel reviewing your application may adjust how your response is rated. For more details of what we consider to be acceptable use of AI function tools in our application process, please review our FAQs on our careers page.

We are committed to the safeguarding of children and the most vulnerable in our society and, as such, we are unable to employ individuals with relevant convictions, including the following: a conviction for an offence involving violence or dishonesty, of a sexual nature or against minors, or for any other offence that is relevant to the nature of the services provided by our organisation.

For any questions or queries please review our FAQs | Ambition Institute Careers (pinpointhq.com) in the first instance. If we've not addressed your question in this section, please email us at [e-mail]

As an employer, we have a responsibility to prevent illegal working in the UK by ensuring that our employees have the right to work in the UK. Therefore, as part of the recruitment process to verify your eligibility you will be required to produce relevant documentation.