Regional Rail Academy Lead

Birmingham

The key elements to the role are Strategy and Planning, Implementation and Operational Management.

• Through good business partnership, stakeholder engagement and collaboration, agree a prioritized plan for Academy focus in your region.
• Put together a comprehensive resource and budget plan for approval and sign-off by the Academy board.
• Work with Rail practice leadership to identify and engage the right subject matter experts and mentors / coaches to enable the agreed plan
• Collaborate with other learning specialists to agree the learning approach most appropriate to meet needs (using both resources and courses to meet these needs).
• Identify and build targeted external relationships in your region as required for the continued success of the Academy (for example clients to partner with, certifying bodies and educational establishments)
• Define and achieve KPIs and targets in application adoption to meet IT goals and objectives

Development & deployment of Academy solutions

• Have overall responsibility for the development and deployment of technical and non-technical learning content
• Engage with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and other regional academy leads to define specific learning and performance outcomes required to meet the needs of the Academy
• Provide support to SMEs and co-design blended learning solutions that meet the learning outcomes effectively.
• Collaborate with wider L&D teams to embed digital resources and tools to optimize the impact of the learning developed
• Provide appropriate train the trainer and coaching / mentoring skills support to enable SMEs to effectively facilitate and support Academy participants
• Use a blend of learning, communications and engagement strategies across multiple traditional and social channels to maximise reach and adoption

Operational Management

• Own the development and communication of the schedule of activities to meet the Academy needs.
• Implement a measurement and evaluation strategy to monitor effectiveness of solutions and embed a continuous improvement cycle into the solutions deployed
• Make sure appropriate reporting is scoped and executed to effectively monitor and communicate progress and activity within the Academy.
• Provide regular business updates on Academy activities, priorities and actions being undertaken

What we are looking for in you.

• Degree or relevant qualification and experience.
• Chartered with membership/fellowship of relevant professional institution (CIPD or CMI)
• Psychometric profiling qualifications, BPS Level A and B or similar would be advantageous

Knowledge and Experience

• A strong L&D background, combining modern, blended, learning methods with achievement of business outcomes
• Experience of leading a comprehensive ‘Academy’ approach to employee role and career development
• Good domain knowledge working within the railways (or related transport) sector.
• Strong stakeholder management and internal consulting skills combined with good commercial and financial acumen
• Proven experience of leading, influencing and collaborating in a decentralized, multi-national organization
• Confident communicator, verbally and in writing with the ability to craft content for a variety of audiences and roles related to the Academy

More about this position

In the role as Rail Academy Lead you are the Regional face of the Rail & Rail Systems Academy.
Working with a number of key stakeholders; including Subject Matter Experts, Other Regional Academy Leads and Learning and Development, you lead and manage the operational success of the Academy in your region.

This includes:

• Development of technical and non-technical content including a range of formal and informal, online and off line solutions.
• Managing participants through the formal parts of the programme.
• Running and co-facilitating live events.
• You will be curating, contributing and driving usage of a range of on-demand guidance and resources held on the Rail & Systems Practice site.

An important part is to collaborate with the other Regional leads, Academy Board and sector leadership, to agree the strategic priorities and associated yearly plan for the Academy.
You will also be managing, growing and nurturing internal and external relationships as needed.