Vacancy -- Appointment of Member (Finance) - Qualifications Wales

Vacancy details

Qualifications Wales
Qualifications Wales, Q2 Building, Pencarn Lane, Imperial Park, Coedkernew, Newport, NP10 8AR
£282 per day based on a maximum time commitment of 36 days per year plus travel and other reasonable expenses within reasonable limits.
36
year

Function of body

Overview

In September 2015, Qualifications Wales became responsible for the regulation of awarding bodies and the quality assurance of non-degree qualifications delivered in Wales. Qualifications Wales, as an independent statutory body, is well placed to ensure that qualifications offered in Wales meet the needs of learners, employers and the economy. 

 

Qualifications Wales is the principal authority on qualifications in Wales and provides professional advice to the Welsh Ministers on relevant matters as well as information, advice and support to a wide range of stakeholders. It communicates the value of qualifications offered in Wales to stakeholders inside and outside of Wales.

 

Qualifications Wales is independent from the Welsh Government. It takes professional and autonomous decisions on qualifications. It leads on aspects of qualifications policy development. It reports to the National Assembly for Wales on how it has fulfilled and how it plans to fulfil its functions.                      

 

Governance

The body is a Welsh Government Sponsored Body and as such is accountable for the governance of public funds.  However, Qualifications Wales has a degree of independence for its qualifications functions, for which it is accountable to the National Assembly for Wales. The Board of Qualifications Wales has an independent Chair and between 8 and 10 non-executive members.

 

The appointment process for the non-executive members is made in accordance with the Commissioner’s Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies.

 

Board’s Role

The role of the Board is to provide strong governance and effective leadership, to develop the strategic plan for Qualifications Wales and set challenging objectives.  The board promotes high standards of public accountability and upholds the principles of regularity, propriety and value for money.  It ensures that Qualifications Wales’ activities are conducted efficiently and effectively and it monitors performance to ensure that the body fully meets its aims, objectives and performance targets.


The Board has overarching governance arrangements and delegates its functions to officers through a scheme of delegation covering both financial and non-financial matters.

Role description

Responsibilities:

  1. Provide strategic direction and leadership, driving performance and hold the Body to account against its strategic and corporate plans.

  2. Ensure propriety, regularity, economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the operation of the body and adherence to the seven principles of public life (the Nolan principles).

  3. Together with other Board members, ensure that the Body fulfils its statutory aims and objectives.

  4. Be a champion for the organisation and its aims and objectives. Be a role model for both staff and stakeholders.

  5. Work co-operatively to build relationships with all stakeholders including key Welsh Government Departments, particularly the Department for Education and Skills.

Key Tasks

 

Members will assist the Chair in discharging the responsibilities of the Board for: -

 

  • determining the Body’s strategic direction and policies;

 

  • ensuring that the Body discharges its statutory duties;

 

  • ensuring that the Body is properly and effectively managed, to safeguard propriety, economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its operation; and

 

  • Providing stewardship for the public funds entrusted to the organisation.

 

Members will also assist the Chair in his / her representative role. Members will be expected to:

 

  • build an effective Board, by encouraging Board members to actively participate in collective decision-making, and Chair, or participate, where required in one or more committees of the Board;

 

  • ensure collective responsibility for decisions of the Board;

 

  • promote effective relationships and open communication, between Board members, the executive team and staff within the body; and

 

  • work with all other interested parties and organisations and fully represent them in an honest and positive way.

 

Welsh language skills

The Welsh Government acknowledges the importance of developing and growing bilingual capabilities in public appointments in Wales, and welcomes applications from candidates who demonstrate their capability to work in both English and Welsh.  The following list of language requirements represents an objective assessment by the recruiting body of the Welsh language skills required to undertake the duties of this particular post.
Desirable

Person specification

Qualifications Wales are looking to recruit a member with financial expertise in the following areas: 


Essential Criteria


  • Experience of providing expert and strategic financial oversight, preferably with a good understand of public sector finance (1 post).

 

  • The successful candidate will hold a recognised accountancy qualification (preferably ACCA) and have experience of working at Board or Committee level providing expert and strategic financial oversight. You will be comfortable to provide the Board with guidance and able to work with Board and executive colleagues to consider the financial issues for the organisation both short and longer term. 

 

You must also be able to demonstrate:

   

  • the ability to represent Qualifications Wales in public and communicate effectively at a senior level and with key stakeholders;

 

  • the ability and experience to scrutinise our work to ensure that any reforms to qualifications are manageable, engaging designed to meet the intended vision;

 

  • the ability to bring fresh ideas to discussions on both strategic and practical issues outside of your area of expertise;

 

  • a good understanding of the work of Qualifications Wales and its work with stakeholders;

 

  • the ability to oversee, direct and/or make decisions in the face of political or financial uncertainty;

 

  • a wide understanding of education issues in Wales.  This knowledge may have been gained in any walk of life, including community involvement, voluntary work or professional background. You will have a strong appreciation of the needs of learners in modern day Wales.

 

Desirable Criteria

 

  • The ability to speak Welsh is desirable but not essential.   

Interview dates

18 February 2018
22 February 2018

Closing date

25/01/2019, 16:00

Additional information

Contacts:

For further information regarding the selection process, please contact:

 

The Corporate Shared Service Centre

Tel: 029 2082 5454

Email: publicappointments@gov.wales

 

For further information regarding the role of the Qualifications Wales Board and the role of the Member(s) please contact either:

 

Rebecca Olney in the Qualifications Wales Sponsorship Branch at:

Tel: 03000 256959

Email: Rebecca.Olney@gov.wales

 

 

Helen Bushell, Head of Corporate Governance at Qualifications Wales at:

Tel: 07711 819665

Email: Helen.Bushell@qualificationswales.org

 

If you need any further assistance in applying for this role, please contact the Welsh Government’s Corporate Shared Service Centre Helpdesk on 029 2082 5454 or .   


For further information about Public Appointments in Wales, please visit www.gov.wales/publicappointments.

How to apply

To apply for this role, click on the ‘Apply’ button below. The first time you apply for a post, you will need to complete a registration form for the Welsh Government’s online application system.  You will only need to register once, and you will be able to keep yourself updated on the progress of your application, and any other applications you make, via your registered account.

Once you’ve registered, you’ll be able to access the application form.  To apply you will need to submit two supporting documents. The first, a document outlining how your knowledge, skills and experiences meet the criteria for the role as outlined in the information for candidates.  This document should be no more than 2 sides of A4.  Your application may be rejected if you exceed this limit.  The second document is a full, up to date CV.  The two documents should be uploaded to the ‘Reasons for applying’ section of the online application form.

In your application, you will also be asked to provide details of any activities which have helped you to develop skills that would be useful in a public appointment role, and list the organisations for which you undertook these activities.  We also need to know about any political activity that you’ve undertaken over the last 5 years. 

It is recommended that you register for an account and access the application form as soon as possible so that you see how the application form is structured, before starting to prepare your evidence.  You don’t have to complete the application form all in one go.  You can save your responses, and log in and out as required, until you’re ready to submit – just follow the guidance in the application form.

If you’d like to apply for this opportunity in Welsh, please use the ‘Newid Iaith / Change Language’ link at the top of this page, to take you to the Welsh version of this advert, from which you can apply in Welsh.

If you need any further assistance in applying for this role, please contact the Welsh Government’s Public Appointments Unit on 03000 616095 or PublicAppointments@gov.wales.

For further information about Public Appointments in Wales, please visit www.gov.wales/publicappointments

Commissioner for Public Appointments logo

This vacancy is closed to applications.