Caretaker
Heart of Worcestershire College
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Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
Heart of Worcestershire College is seeking a Caretaker in our Facilities department. You will manage the operation of all College buildings, ensure security and safety across campuses, and assist with deliveries and general maintenance tasks.
The role may require travel between Worcester and Malvern campuses as needed. A suitable candidate will have relevant industrial experience and a qualification in first aid (or willingness to gain one), with the ability to carry out maintenance repairs.
Qualifications
- Relevant industrial experience.
- First aid qualification or willingness to gain this.
- Ability to carry out general maintenance repairs.
Responsibilities
- Manage operation of all College buildings.
- Be on call for out of hours requirements (allowance paid).
- Ensure College is unlocked and secured as required.
- Assist with suppliers delivering incoming goods and distribute deliveries.
- Comply with Health and Safety at Work legislation.
Skills
Job description
Job Title Caretaker Closing Date 07/10/2026 23:59 Pay £24,556 to £25,381 - starting salary is dependent on experience and qualifications. Hours 37 Hours x 52 Weeks Type Full Time
Please note: HoW College reserves the right to extend the advertising period for this vacancy or close the vacancy early in line with volume of applicants. We would therefore advise interested candidates to apply promptly.
To become a Caretaker in our Facilities department, we need someone who has relevant industrial experience, a qualification in first aid or a willingness to gain this, and the ability to carry out general maintenance repairs.
The successful candidate will have the chance to acquire new skills and develop their abilities in a wide range of activities.
We have a variety of students from the surrounding area, we are a welcoming and inclusive community that champions diversity and equality across our college.
Our departments collaborate to establish and uphold the inclusive HoW culture, we keep this in mind as we manage interactions with the public, fellow employees, and nearby schools.
Although this position is centred on our Redditch and Bromsgrove campuses, all applicants must be prepared to travel to our other campuses or surrounding areas as required.
To find a more detailed list of your day-to-day responsibilities, please refer to the key roles and accountabilities section on our Job Description. In summary, as someone who has a flexible approach to working, you will support in many aspects. To name a few:
- Be conversant with the management and operation of all buildings occupied by the College.
- Be on call for out of hours requirements (allowance paid)
- Ensure the College is unlocked and secured as required,
- Assist with suppliers delivering incoming goods and distribute deliveries.
- Comply with the requirements of the ‘Health and Safety at Work’ legislation.
Heart of Worcestershire College, the county's largest further education institution, offers a diverse range of academic, vocational, and community courses throughout its campuses. In all we do, our principles of diversity, integrity, partnership, and trust come through, enabling us to offer timely and knowledgeable services both within and outside of our immediate neighbourhood. By 2030, we also intend to be 90% green!
Our goal is to advance, innovate, and inspire. We're looking for people who want to come along for the journey because our growth will be your growth.
A career with us entails much more than a pay check, because we know our employees are our most valuable resource. You can look forward to the following perks with us.
- Confidential Employee Assistance Programme (available 24/7, 365 days a year); giving access to free confidential counselling
- Regular Continuing Professional Development
- Opportunity to gain further qualifications and enhance professional development through our Awards process
- Agile and Flexible working (Dependent upon role)
- Employee discounts & benefits package including high street and travel discounts
- Fantastic progression opportunities
- A mentor to support you in your new role
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- Free onsite parking (Certain Campuses only)
- Opportunities of volunteering within local community and charities
Every person we hire has a different mix of experiences, cultures, and identities, as well as a unique background and physical make-up. Together, we strengthen HoW.
The College is striving to attract, develop and retain the very best people by offering a motivating and inclusive workplace in which talent is truly recognised.
We want you to know that HoW is an equal opportunity employer as you are probably applying for or considering applying for a job with us if you are reading this. This College expects everyone to share its commitment to promoting and protecting children, young people, and vulnerable adults' welfare and equality of opportunity.
For us, this means that we always work to be as inclusive as possible in all areas of employment and that we will not allow any form of discrimination.
All successful applicants will be required to complete and pay for a Disclosure & Barring Service check. Along with online verification to ensure the safety of our pupils.
Closing date for this post is: 7th October 2026
For further information on the role, please contact our HR Department on 01527 405467 or hr@howcollege.ac.uk .
If you are viewing this advert on Indeed, Total Jobs or another job board, it is worth noting there is more information about the position on the Heart of Worcestershire website, this will include the role profile.
- Provide front line support to deal with problems concerning the fire and intruder alarm systems.
- Undertake basic maintenance duties as required including painting and other minor works.
- Ensure that the standards of cleanliness on each site are maintained e.g. litter picking to all areas and dealing with any hazard that requires immediate attention e.g. spilt chemicals, broken glass.
- Assist (as required) with the general maintenance of college grounds e.g. weeding, trimming shrubs and removing moss from block paving and other surfaces.
- Liaise with building contractors or other organisations coming on site.
- Process incoming jobs notified by the maintenance reporting system.
- Ensure that chairs and furniture in rooms are set out and cleared away as required.
- Ensure the College is unlocked and secured as required.
- Be responsible for the security of the premises and assets, including the operation of intruder and CCTV systems.
- Patrol the campus including car parks to maintain the safety and wellbeing of those on campus to support the College’s safeguarding initiatives.
- Maintain an incident log and liaise with Police and other agencies as appropriate
- Support College Managers in aspects relating to facilities and security issues
- Oversee and monitor student behaviour and deal with people who smoke in unauthorised areas.
- Check identity passes
- For a minimum number of occasions provide out of hours on call support which requires you to attend site and meet with a security company and deal with alarms that have been activated when the College is closed. The security company is engaged to provide support so that you are not in a lone working situation.
- Assist with suppliers delivering incoming goods and distribute deliveries.
- Undertake driving duties, regarding postal delivery services across campus sites (to include cleaning maintaining and refuelling College vehicles as required)
- Obtain monthly meter readings for utilities supplied to each site.
- Promote the College’s policy on sustainability.
- Comply with the requirements of the 'Health and Safety at Work' legislation.
- Work as part of a team carrying out statutory testing of fire protection systems e.g. emergency exits, fire appliances and emergency lighting.
- To commit to the safeguarding and promotion of the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults
- To participate in the College’s Performance Management Scheme and attend such training events as are necessary to enable him/her to carry out the duties of the job description.
- To continually improve teaching, learning and assessment through proactive CPD and sharing best practice.
- To actively participate in the College’s Quality System, including quality improvement strategies and initiatives.
- To undertake such other duties as may be assigned commensurate with the grade and purpose of the post.
- To take reasonable care for the health and safety of him/her and for others affected by his/her work.
- To actively support College Safeguarding, Equality and Diversity policies.
- To operate/conduct all HR tasks and functions within the principles of GDPR.
The appointment is subject to the Conditions of Service for Business Support Staff.
All successful applicants will undergo the following checks:
- Enhanced DBS
- 2 x References, one of which must be your current or most recent employer
The salary range for this post is from £24,556 to £25,381 per annum. Your starting salary will be dependent upon your qualifications and experience. Once you have successfully passed your probationary period, your salary will increase within the salary band on an annual incremental basis, until you reach the top of the salary scale.
The hours of work will be based on 37 hours per week, 52 weeks per annum.
The post carries 25 annual leave days, plus eight public bank holidays plus a further five concessionary days as ‘leave to be taken at the principal’s discretion’.
After 2 years continuous service, your annual leave entitlement will increase to 30 days per annum.
Please note that only in exceptional circumstances, with your director’s permission, will staff be able to take more than 3 consecutive weeks of leave in any leave year.
The College operates an occupational pension scheme, namely the ‘Local Government Pension Scheme’.
All newly appointed staff must serve a 4-month probationary period. During the probationary period you will have to complete the corporate staff induction, a Teaching and Learning Induction session if you deliver learning and additional mandatory courses on: Equality & Diversity session, Keeping Children safe in Education, Safeguarding Training session, Prevent, GDPR, Cyber Security and Health & Safety training session. Failure to complete these will prevent you from successfully completing your probation.
As defined in the person specification of the job description, those staff with these responsibilities are required to undertake first aid and or fire marshal duties across the College, when called upon to do so. Staff must ensure they are up to date with the relevant training.
All candidates must have 2 satisfactory references.
The successful applicant will be based at our Worcester and Malvern campuses but may be required to work at other locations from time to time. This could be due to operational need or staff development days.
The College will undertake qualification validation by writing to the appropriate educational institute. Only those qualifications which are essential for the post will be followed up.
If you are required to obtain a qualification as a contractual requirement, the College reviews its CPD budget on an annual basis regarding availability of funds and cannot therefore guarantee that newly appointed staff will receive either part or full funding for the course fees. However, student loan facilities are available.
All staff are required to have a minimum level 2 qualification in both English and Math's. If you are not already in receipt of one or both of these qualifications, you will be expected to obtain it (them) during your employment at the College.
The College is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All newly appointed staff will be required to undertake safeguarding training during their probationary period.
Heart of Worcestershire College adheres to the Department of Education’s guidance on ‘Keeping children safe in Education’. As part of your induction, you will be required to read and understand part 1 of this document.
Candidates shortlisted for interview and then subsequently become successful in the recruitment process and prior to a formal offer of employment being made will be subject to online checks being carried out by a neutral party not directly involved in the recruitment process. Consent for these checks was requested at application stage.
All successful applicants will be required to complete and pay for a Disclosure & Barring Service check. The costs of this check will be deducted from the applicants first salary payment from the College. The College adheres to the DBS Code of Practice and has policies covering the Recruitment of Ex-Offenders and the Secure Storage, Handling, Use, Retention and Disposal of Disclosures and Disclosure Information. Copies of these are available on request.
The College is committed to the fair treatment of its staff, potential staff or users of its services, regardless of race, gender religion, sexual orientation, responsibilities for dependents, age, physical/mental disability or offending background.
As an organisation we use the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) to assess the suitability of all prospective appointments. We undertake not to discriminate unfairly against any subject of a Disclosure on the basis of conviction or other information revealed.
Applicants/employees are required to declare any pending criminal prosecutions they may have as well as any spent criminal convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings as defined under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. The only exception to this requirement is that applicants/employees do not need to disclose any ‘protected’ cautions, or convictions as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2013.
Please read the ‘Guidance Note to applicants on disclosing information about cautions and convictions in their application’ document before you complete your application form.
Having a criminal record will not necessarily bar you from working with us. This will depend on the nature of the position and the circumstances and background of any offences.
All successful applicants will be required to undertake all mandatory training and update sessions and any appropriate training and development as required, including Health and Safety.
HoW College is a Smoke Free environment from the effects of direct/indirect contact with smoking, including using the following:
- Cigars
- And all other associated smoking products
Candidates with a disability should contact the HR Department before interview if they require any adjustments to be made for the interview and/or selection tests.
A completed application form should be submitted. Curriculum vitae will not be accepted as a substitute.
It would greatly assist the shortlisting panel if the information submitted on your application clearly identifies and demonstrates how your qualities match those listed under the essential requirements on the person specification.
Please remember that it is not sufficient to merely repeat what is in the specification – you must show how you meet each requirement. You must also provide details under ‘previous employment’ which must include all employment undertaken since leaving full time education.
Completed application forms should be submitted by 7th October 2026 via our website at www.howcollege.ac.uk
The Interview date for this post is TBC; short-listed candidates will be notified with the details for interview. In view of the high cost of postage, it is not our intention to notify unsuccessful applicants. If you have not heard from us within four weeks of the closing date, please assume that your application has been unsuccessful and accept our thanks for your interest in applying. College reserves the right to withdraw a position before the closing date if the appointment has been arranged or no longer required.
Please be aware that HoW College complies with the current Data Protection Act and is currently developing systems to ensure that we will be fully compliant with GDPR when this comes into force in May 2018. GDPR is a European wide update to the Data Protection Act, with more requirements and stronger enforcement. As such we expect all staff to fully comply with the requirements of these legislation. Failure to do so will lead to formal disciplinary action.
Members of staff will be provided with guidance in relation to GDPR to ensure that full compliance is achieved and maintained within the College.
Further information can be obtained by using the following link:
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