Candidate Pack - City Lit Executive Director

City Lit
Executive Director of External Engagement
Candidate Pack – August 2016
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
City Lit is Britain’s leading adult education college. It provides over 5,000 courses to 35,000
students aged 18-90+ and operates seven days a week, 46 weeks of the year. Impressively, 54% of
its revenue is derived from fee paying students, making it the first publicly-funded FE college to
generate the majority of its income from non-Government sources. City Lit has over 1,000
specialist tutors and support staff (equivalent to 300 FTE), although 85% of its teaching is
delivered by non-salaried, part-time tutors. Its educational provision is rated as ‘Outstanding’ by
Ofsted.
The newly created role of Executive Director of External Engagement will report to City Lit's
Principal and Chief Executive and be a central part of its senior team. This individual will lead on
all areas of external relations and hold overall responsibility for delivering City Lit's strategic
objective to strengthen stakeholder engagement and to increase revenue generation through both
fundraising and the cultivation of closer business links.
City Lit is seeking a heavyweight candidate with a proven track record of building and nurturing
productive and enduring relationships and exerting influence over external stakeholders. Prior
experience of the education sector is not essential.
Applications should consist of a CV and covering letter and can be made online via the college's
recruitment partners Society. The deadline for receipt of applications is midday (GMT) on
Thursday 25 th August 2016.
ABOUT CITY LIT
City Lit is where marketers learn a new language; people in recovery learn skills vital for
employment; barristers come to learn the piano; pensioners learn how to get onto the internet and
connect through social media; counsellors and fitness professionals improve their skills; and
young adults learn a craft with which to start their own business.
Whereas many colleges create a niche and focus on attracting a particular sector of the market,
City Lit has embraced the diversity of London and caters for the needs of everyone, whatever their
background, whatever their ambition. This has been its mission for nearly 100 years.
City Lit plays a particularly central role in the UK’s creative sector. Over 40% of its curriculum is
focused on developing creative skills, and nearly 75% of its students are enrolled on creative
courses. City Lit Fellows include the world-renowned artist Grayson Perry CBE, author,
scriptwriter and Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman OBE, and award-winning author Andrea
Levy. They all cite adult education as the starting point and motivation for their careers.
For more information about City Lit and the transformative impact its work has on people’s lives,
please visit www.citylit.ac.uk

Business Model
City Lit is unique in its offering and operates within a business model that is moving the
organisation towards financial sustainability through a successful balance of fees and funding.
Core to the City Lit difference is the college’s commitment to providing learning opportunities for
those who have been disadvantaged or simply cannot afford course fees.
The model is very simple. City Lit offers a diverse programme with wide appeal to attract a broad
demographic, including people who can afford to pay fees. Together with funding, this enables
them to invest the surplus, subsidising various community programmes and a wide array of
support services - ensuring those who have less money can benefit fully. The fees also subsidise
socially-vital courses such as speech therapy and deaf education.
In 2014-15 over £1.7 million of profit from student fees was reinvested in this way.
However; public funding has remained flat for years and has recently begun to reduce. City Lit has
had to increase fees and tightly control its costs. It has also had to review its range of provision and
the amount of internal subsidies they can provide. But the college believes that there are other
ways to enhance and secure its long-term financial security.
Strategic Plan
City Lit recently published its Strategic Plan for 2016-2019. The plan centres around three goals.
The third of these is as follows:
GOAL 3: “Strengthen stakeholder engagement”
We will work with all of our stakeholders to have the greatest influence and financial
security to continue to deliver our purpose
This is an all encompassing group of different stakeholders, the most important being government.
We need to be more strategic in our approach to stakeholders, so that we can achieve the greatest
influence in areas of policy and coverage for our activities and to strengthen adult education in the UK.
At the same time, we need to ensure our continued financial viability by working with individual
stakeholders and groups of stakeholders to maximise the funds raised from them.
The plan goes on to spell out who some of City Lit’s major stakeholders are, as well as to set
several key deliverables. The newly created role of Executive Director of External Engagement will
help to take this agenda forward.

ROLE DESCRIPTION
Location:
Salary:
Hours:
1-10 Keeley Street, London, WC2B 4BA (and other locations as required)
circa £80,000 per annum inclusive of London Weighting
approx 35 hours per week, including evening and occasional weekend work
The new Executive Director of External Engagement will provide senior leadership across all areas
of external relations and hold overall responsibility for delivering City Lit’s strategic objective to
strengthen stakeholder engagement and to increase revenue generation through both fundraising
and the cultivation of closer business links.
Reporting to the Principal and Chief Executive, this post will be a central part of the executive team
that provides strategic direction and leadership for the college:
The Executive Director will in turn be responsible for managing the Director of Stakeholder
Engagement, the Director of Fundraising, the Community Partnerships Development Manager,
and the Events Coordinator, and they will have dotted line responsibility for the Director of Sales
and Commercial Partnerships.
Key deliverables of the role will include:
developing a strategy to deliver strategic goal number three;
leading on engagement with Government and other funders, involving the Principal and Chief Executive
as required;
implementing a strategy for engaging with the Mayor and the London Local Enterprise Partnership;
devising and implementing a stakeholder strategy for appropriate partnerships with other organisations;
completing a strategic overview of institutional events to ensure they support City Lit’s strategic objectives;
ensuring that an effective fundraising capability, strategy and campaign is established and the
relationships which arise from that are effectively managed;
engaging with City Lit Fellows and establishing a clear vision of how they deliver value for City Lit;
developing a strategy for City Lit’s centenary and leading a steering group to deliver it;
identifying new opportunities for external engagement, partnership working, collaboration, attracting new
funds and identifying and diversifying revenue streams;
bringing key market intelligence from stakeholders into City Lit’s planning and the Executive team;

developing a way for senior managers and Governors to assess the overall effectiveness of City Lit’s
external relations strategy;
ensuring that a culture of effective stakeholder engagement and fundraising is consistently embedded
throughout City Lit;
acting as duty manager for City Lit on a rota basis (involving some weekends and evenings) according to
agreed policy;
acting as an advocate for City Lit as necessary;
attending relevant training events and meetings as required;
implementing the Equality and Diversity Strategy and promoting equality and diversity, health and safety,
safeguarding, quality and an outstanding student experience;
promoting City Lit’s purpose, strategic goals, values and our management standards;
promoting the best interests of City Lit, working in accordance with and promoting all appropriate policies
and procedures;
any other duties as appropriate to the post.

PERSON SPECIFICATION
The successful candidate will be expected to demonstrate evidence of the following skills,
capabilities and experience:
substantial experience of external relations at a senior level;
experience of executive responsibilities in a complex organisation;
a track record of building and nurturing productive and enduring relationships and exerting influence
over external stakeholders;
the ability to represent the Principal and Chief Executive outside City Lit, working independently and
unsupervised, taking decisions as appropriate;
an understanding of Westminster and City Hall and good political antennae;
outstanding networking, communication and presentation skills;
the ability to advise and influence the most senior staff in major organisations and to present at Board
level;
the ability to develop and lead a diverse high-performing team;
the ability to use data and analytical methods to support and review the delivery of objectives;
the ability to provide challenge internally by channelling the needs of stakeholders into City Lit;
high attention to detail and the ability to work under pressure on multiple and/or conflicting priorities to
demanding timescales;
the ability to think creatively, to create opportunities, and to solve problems.

APPOINTMENT DETAILS AND HOW TO APPLY
City Lit is being assisted in this appointment process by the executive search firm Society.
Applications should consist of a CV, ideally accompanied by a brief covering letter addressing the
criteria in the Person Specification. These can be submitted online via Society’s website.
The deadline for receipt of applications is midday on midday (GMT) on Thursday
25th August 2016.
Longlisted candidates will be invited to have an initial face-to-face discussion with Society during
early September. A final shortlist of individuals will be taken forward to interview with City Lit on
Thursday 29th September.
An appointment will be made subject to receipt of satisfactory references. The appointed candidate
will be offered a salary that is commensurate with their experience and the seniority of their new
role.