Innovation Projects Support Officer

Oldham College; Oldham; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional further education college is seeking an Innovation Projects Support Officer to ensure effective running of programs through coordination and administrative support. This role requires excellent organizational skills and the ability to maintain clear communication. The position is fixed-term until March 2026, offering a hybrid working model based in Greater Manchester with various employee benefits.

Benefits

Generous Pension Scheme

Fantastic Staff Benefits and Rewards platform

Very generous holiday entitlement

Employee Assistance Scheme

Enhanced Maternity/Paternity provision

Staff Development days/week

Free confidential counselling service

Car Scheme

Subsidised car parking

On-site Day Nursery

On-site hair and beauty salon

Qualifications

• Experience in project coordination and administrative support.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to manage multiple tasks.
• Ability to work flexibly and adapt to dynamic environments.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate and support consortium and project meetings.
• Maintain communication channels across the consortium.
• Provide administrative support across multiple projects.

Job description

Main Purpose of Role

The Greater Manchester Further Education Innovation Partnership (GMFEIP) is a nationally recognised collaboration of nine FE Colleges delivering ambitious innovation projects with Innovate UK and other partners.

The Innovation Projects Support Officer will play a vital role in ensuring the smooth and effective running of our programmes. This role provides coordination, communications, and administrative support across multiple projects, helping to keep activities on track, meetings productive, and records accurate.

Working as part of a supportive and collaborative team, the postholder will contribute to monitoring, reporting, and project delivery in a fast-moving and evolving space for FE. This is a role for someone who enjoys variety, problem-solving, and supporting others to succeed.

Fixed Term Contract: Until March 2026 (with possibility of extension). Employed by Oldham College on behalf of GMColleges gmcg.ac.uk

Based in Greater Manchester (hybrid working). Main office is Oldham College. Occasional travel for national events may be required.

Main Duties And Responsibilities

• Coordinate and support consortium and project meetings, including scheduling, agenda preparation, record-keeping, and follow-up on actions.
• Maintain clear communication channels across the consortium, ensuring partners receive timely updates and information.
• Provide day-to-day administrative support across multiple projects, maintaining accurate records and ensuring compliance with funder requirements.
• Act as a point of contact for enquiries, managing communications in a professional and timely way.
• Support the planning and delivery of events, including booking systems, venues, catering, attendee lists, and on-the-day coordination.
• Assist in creating and updating forms, communications, and reporting templates to support smooth delivery.
• Contribute to project monitoring by collating information, maintaining spreadsheets and records, and supporting data submissions to Innovate UK.
• Assist with producing clear and accurate reports for funders, partners, and internal stakeholders.
• Provide administrative support to project financial processes, such as raising purchase orders, processing payments, and liaising with suppliers.
• Ensure efficient use of College systems for procurement, booking, and reporting.
• Work flexibly across different project areas, adapting to emerging needs in a dynamic innovation environment.
• Contribute positively to the collaborative culture of the GMFEIP, supporting colleagues and partners as required.

Joining Our Journey

When you join our college, not only will you benefit from an annual reviewed salary but have access to numerous benefits and facilities:

• Generous Pension Scheme
• Fantastic Staff Benefits and Rewards platform
• Very generous holiday entitlement
• Employee Assistance Scheme
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity provision
• Staff Development days/week (Jan, July, Aug)
• Free confidential counselling service
• Staff recognition awards
• Car Scheme
• Subsidised car parking
• On-site Day Nursery
• On-site hair and beauty salon

Oldham College is a great career choice for ambitious professionals. With one of the best apprenticeship programmes in the region, excellent 16-18 results and truly outstanding GCSE English results, we are already a high performer.

But we want to deliver much more than this. Our ambition is to be The Best Place to Learn and Work and we have a clear Strategic Plan which sets out what this means and what we will do to deliver it. We will keep on improving and innovating, and we are investing in new provision, new facilities, and new technology; including our state-of-the-art clinical simulation suite.

We expect a lot from you, so we want ambitious, open minded candidates, who are ready to give their best. But we give a lot in return, from training to pensions, our own benefits package, and one of the best and most helpful group of colleagues you could ever wish to meet.

The role will require you to embed and work to the colleges values; working with Integrity, having Ambition to help our learners succeed and being Inclusive to learners and colleagues alike.

At Oldham College, our mission is to welcome everyone and create inclusive teams. We encourage everyone to join us, as we create a workforce that is as diverse as our wonderful student community. We do monitor responses to our diversity questions in our application, to ensure that we can continue to build a workforce that is representative of the community that we serve.

We understand that not everyone works to the same timetable, and offer a range of flexible working options, including flexible start and finish times, part-time, term-time only or hybrid options, where the role permits.

We will do everything we can to support you during your application. If you need us to make any adjustments to our recruitment process, contact our HR team who will be happy to advise.

If your application is successful, your personal data may be used for a pre-employment screening check by a third party as permitted by applicable law. Depending on the vacancy and applicable laws, a pre-employment screening could include, employment history, education and other information (such as media information) that may be necessary for determining your qualifications and suitability for the role.

Oldham College is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share in this commitment.

Any appointments will be subject to enhanced DBS checks and a check of the DfE Barred List.

Further details including a Person Specification are included within the attached Job Description.

This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation Act 1974. It is an offence to apply for the role if the applicant is barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children and vulnerable adults.