Cafe Manager

Ashford College; Margate; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

A further education institution in Margate seeks a motivated Café Manager to lead the busy student café. Responsibilities include overseeing daily operations, ensuring high service standards, and supporting students with learning disabilities. Ideal candidates will have at least 2 years of relevant experience, excellent communication skills, and a flair for creating unique café experiences. The role offers a vibrant environment with generous leave and well-being support.

Benefits

Generous annual leave

Learning and development opportunities

Exclusive discounts

Flexible personal leave

Wellbeing and health support

Competitive pension scheme

Qualifications

• At least 2 years of experience in a café or catering environment.
• A relevant Health & Safety qualification is preferred.
• Proven ability to create a welcoming café experience.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the day-to-day running of the café.
• Ensure high standards of service, quality, and cleanliness.
• Lead by example and maintain smooth café operations.

Skills

Communication skills

Customer focus

Café experience

Health & Safety knowledge

Job description

About The Role

Got the beans to run a brilliant café? Join us as our new Café Manager

We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated Café Manager to lead our busy café in a vibrant student environment. If you’re a self-starter with a passion for great coffee, excellent customer service, and motivating a team, we’d love to hear from you.

This is a fantastic chance to shape a fresh space from the ground up; creating a welcoming hub, delivering great service, and keeping the operation running smoothly day to day.

You’ll also play a key role in supporting students with learning disabilities and difficulties on their work placements, helping them gain confidence, skills and real-world experience within the café environment.

Alongside our priority of excellent student experience, we also focus on our employees. Here are just some of our benefits when working for the East Kent Colleges Group:

• Generous Annual Leave - 24 days FTE per annum,
• Learning and Development Opportunities - 3-4 annual paid group development days and strong internal progression-1 in 3 roles are filled internally
• Exclusive Discounts & Perks - Inc. restaurant, grocery, retail and holidays discounts as well as car leasing and tech purchasing schemes,
• Flexible Personal Leave - Time off for your child's first day at nursery or school, moving homes and for interviews
• Wellbeing and Health Support - Generous sick pay, counselling services, discounted gym membership at Canterbury College
• Culture and Recognition - Being part of Community Days, an annual Staff Celebration Day, and an eco-friendly organisation dedicated to reaching net-zero by 2030
• Competitive Pension Scheme - 18% employer contribution

About You

We’re looking for an enthusiastic, creative Café Manager to shape a unique identity for our new space and make it a standout destination within the Group.

Accountability

• Oversee the day-to-day running of the café
• Ensure consistently high standards of service, quality, and cleanliness
• Lead by example to create a warm, welcoming space for students and staff
• Maintain smooth operations through strong organisation and effective administration
• Uphold all food safety requirements and business regulations

What you’ll bring

• A flair for creating a café experience with personality and impact
• At least 2 years’ experience in a café or catering environment, including preparing meals and snacks
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• A friendly, customer-focused approach
• A relevant Health & Safety qualification (or equivalent)

Interested? Applying is easy

No need to update your CV - simply click apply and complete our short application form. You can save your progress at any time, and we’ll be in touch with all applicants once the vacancy closes.

If you’d like an informal chat or have any questions, feel free to email us at [e-mail]

About Us

Outstanding Ofsted Provider

East Kent Colleges Group is an Ofsted Outstanding rated provider. It is proud to be the first General Further Education college organisation in the country to have received the Outstanding grade against each of the strands under the new Ofsted inspection framework. An inclusive provider, our colleagues place our students and the communities we serve at the heart of everything they do across EKC Group and this is illustrated in our ‘Strong’ skills grading by Ofsted.

Commitment to Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and we ensure that all staff are aware of their responsibilities for upholding these principles.

As a designated establishment, we are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore have an obligation to carry out checks to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. These checks include conviction/caution self-declaration, Enhanced DBS check and obtaining sufficient referencing.

It is a criminal offence to apply for a post which involves engaging in regulated activity relevant to children if you are barred from doing so.

If you are successful in being shortlisted to interview, your suitability to work with children and vulnerable adults will be explored as part of the interview process.

Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

East Kent Colleges Group is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all members of our communities. We are particularly keen to increase the diversity of our staff body and encourage applications from candidates where there is underrepresentation in our workforce.

We are proud to hold the Positive About Disability Award and are a Disability Confident Employer. This confirms our commitment to interviewing all applicants who declare that they have a disability and who meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification. With any successful candidate, we will explore any reasonable adjustments to a role due to a health needs or disability.

Similarly, we have a commitment to Care Leavers (Care Covenant Pledge) and to current or previous Armed Forces personnel (Armed Forces Covenant Pledge) with a commitment to interview applicants who meet the positions essential criteria and who have declared this on their application.

We welcome applications from anyone wishing to work flexibly and those considering a return to work from a career break.

We do not engage with agencies for permanent staff and have an in-house recruitment team.