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Business Development Manager - External Relations - 97138 - Grade 7

Employer
University of Birmingham
Location
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Salary
£30,942.00 - £42,792.00
Closing date
Apr 16, 2021
Department of Postgraduate Student Recruitment, External Relations

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time/Permanent

Grade 7

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,942 to £40,322 with potential progression once in post to £42,792

Closing date: 16 April 2021

Role Summary

The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world's top 100 institutions with a strong track record of success in postgraduate and professional education. The University has recently set ambitious plans to expand our vocational and academic short courses for working professionals and the local community as part of its ongoing growth and diversification strategy.

A new city centre location at 3 Centenary Square (The Exchange) will become a launch pad for delivery of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) across the University as we seek to broaden our postgraduate and professional education offer to include classroom and online based short courses and microcredentials. The building itself is in a fantastic location alongside the city's cultural, civic and corporate institutions on Centenary Square and will become the new front of house for University of Birmingham CPD programmes and short courses from September 2021.

To support this aim, we are seeking a talented and passionate individual to take up role of Business Development Manager (short courses). This new role plays a key part in working with the Head of Postgraduate Recruitment, Educational Enterprise team, and colleagues across the institution to develop the short course strategy and associated portfolio. Sitting within the PG Recruitment and Marketing team, the post is part of the broader Student Recruitment and Marketing team in External Relations, which is responsible for recruiting students from both the UK and overseas.

We are seeking interest from individuals who have business development experience, ideally working in large complex organisations. You will have an enthusiasm for people, the skill to interact with high-level corporate professionals and academics, experience of delivering against KPIs and KPTs, along with the ability to passionately translate complex information into a compelling case for support in both verbal and written form.

Main duties
  • Deliver the institutional strategy for short courses and microcredentials in partnership with academic colleagues and the product development team
  • Deliver a business development plan and associated business cases for short course and professional education at Birmingham
  • Work as a key member of the University's Short Course and Microcredential Steering Group to bring CPD together across the institution
  • Contribute to the delivery of The Exchange Project at 3 Centenary Square by supporting ongoing work related to the CPD business case, capital design, stakeholder engagement, internal communications, and cross workstream activities
  • Build effective, co-ordinated, working relationships with internal stakeholders including working with senior academic and professional services colleagues to bring relationships to fruition, securing income and opportunities that deliver against agreed targets
  • Implementing marketing and recruitment strategies to deliver the portfolio targets
  • Produce reports and relevant data with analysis to inform the ongoing development of the strategy
  • Seek out new opportunities in line with institutional priorities, and reflect external demand back into the University
  • Work with our academic Schools and commercial partners to identify and develop short courses in response to need and demand.
  • Ensure market research is undertaken, shared and appropriately factored into business cases.
  • Development of commercial opportunities and relationships to expand the portfolio and the number of learners
  • Identify opportunities to build upon existing third party relationships.
  • Manage relationships with other HEIs, professional bodies and commercial companies/public sector organisations, understanding their needs and requirements to drive sales and providing the platform for opportunities to build broader Corporate Partner relationships
  • Respond to funding opportunities
  • Set up processes for systematic approach to short courses and work with colleagues to embed across the institution
  • Collaborate with academic and administrative departments to coordinate the development, implementation and monitoring of new programs and processes
  • Manage internal capacity, project tasks and deadlines through rigorous resource planning
  • Support a framework for the development of new CPD initiatives - models, partners, pricing structures and routes to market etc.
  • Ensure University policies are developed or revised, including in response to legal or other external policy developments affecting Short Course and Professional Education
  • Any other responsibilities
  • Demonstrate and maintain a strong understanding of the higher education and CPD marketplace in the West Midlands and the UK and the key sectors for UoB
  • Demonstrate a strong understanding of the development, management and delivery of academic programmes both credit and non-credit bearing
  • Manage the budget in relation to the agreed strategy on short courses and other business development opportunities
  • Ensure University policies are developed or revised, including in response to legal or other external policy developments affecting Short Course and Professional Education
  • Support the Short Course and Microcredential Steering Group in the effective governance of CPD and short courses
  • Recognise external environmental factors that impact University of Birmingham and our strategic aims.


Skills and Experience
  • Educated to degree level or equivalent
  • Track record of customer focused service promotion, business development and client relationship building
  • Experience of business development for a professional education portfolio is desirable
  • Experience of planning and organising a comprehensive pipeline of opportunities to meet stretching targets for income
  • Experience of identifying and capitalising on business opportunities; developing business cases, gaining buy in from stakeholders and overseeing implementation.
  • Proven experience of managing their own workload to ensure that all tasks are performed to a deadline
  • Proven business development/sales skills and client relationship management experience
  • Proven ability to meet targets, milestones and contracted outputs within agreed deadlines


General knowledge, skills
  • A practical understanding of the strategic management of business partnerships from the identification of opportunities through to completion and 'sign off'
  • Display tact, diplomacy and the ability to challenge convention and persuade others
  • Demonstrable ability to rapidly assimilate complex and key issues and present these in a fashion credible to both senior academics and senior business leaders
  • Financial acumen
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Negotiation skills and the ability to persuade and influence
  • An empathy with, and understanding of, the worlds of business and academia and the ability to match motivations
  • The ability to represent the University at a senior level and to prominent, influential individuals, with confidence, diplomacy and authority
  • Ability to prioritise own work under pressure


For informal enquiries please contact: Steve Allmark, Head of Postgraduate Recruitment E: s.j.allmark@bham.ac.uk.

We value diversity at The University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community'

Valuing excellence; sustaining investment

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