Virtual School 16+ Personal Advisor

What are we looking for in our Virtual School 16+ Personal Advisor?

Job Title:  Virtual School 16+ Personal Advisor
Directorate:  Children’s Services
Team: Virtual School
Job Family:  Community Services
Salary: £19.35 per hour
Location:  Stevenage (Work Anywhere)
Contract: Initial 1 year secondment, with the hope to extend to 2 years then permanent.                              
We are actively recruiting for Virtual School 16+ Personal Advisor within the Virtual School 16+ Team.

You will join a team of specialist, highly experienced practitioners, whose focus on engaging and supporting Looked After Children (CLA) into and through education, employment and training. The Virtual School’s 16+ Service works closely with education providers both in and outside of Hertfordshire, as well as our CLA social care service and accommodation providers. Our goal is to ensure the best possible outcomes for an ever-evolving cohort of vulnerable young people who are currently being supported by HCC as Looked After Children.

The core responsibilities of the job include:

• To ensure that the needs of individual young people who are looked after or leaving care are met, so that they fully supported to engage in education, training, work opportunities and constructive activities that lead to a successful transition to adult life.
• To meet with looked after young people and care leavers regularly including through the Personal Education Plan termly review, whilst they are in education, training work or NEET to support their progression and engagement with EET, accurately identifying barriers to learning/engagement and strategies to remove these barriers
• To support colleges, educational settings and employers to become trauma and attachment aware.

A typical day will be varied, but always focused on the young people on your case load; it may include supporting PEP meetings in colleges or semi-independent placements, processing reports and data regarding the academic progress of your allocated young people, meeting with young people or professionals to offer EET information and guidance or supporting delivery on one of our growing number of intervention and extracurricular programmes.

Technical, skills and qualifications needed for the role include:

Importantly, you should display a commitment to equality and diversity particularly in respect of young people, evidencing the ability to challenge stereotyping and advocate on their behalf. You should also have strong knowledge of programmes of study for Further Education learners, ideally including those studying on ESOL and vocational education pathways. You should be able to evidence experience of working with traumatised young people, who may need significant support to engage with education. Experience of working with young people from a variety of backgrounds is highly desirable, ideally including those who would be considered vulnerable and/or care experienced. Qualifications and/or significant professional experience in post-16 Education, Careers Information, Advice and Guidance or fields related to working with vulnerable young people would be a distinct advantage.