People & Development Manager

People & Development Manager

Job Title: People & Development Manager

Location: Manchester Central Office, Hybrid role supporting Access Education Group across its 4 divisions (including Access Creative College, dBs Institute, Access Industry and Access Sport)

Reports to: Director of People Services

Package: £40,000- £45,000  and benefits package

Hours: Full-time, 37.5 hours per week (flexibility required to meet the needs of the role)

Overall Role

The People & Development Manager is  responsible for driving colleague development, leadership capability and engagement across Access Education Group (AEG). The role partners closely with managers and leaders across the business to build workforce capability, succession, support professional growth, and drive strong internal communication and performance. 

This role requires a unique blend of strategic design and hands-on execution. The postholder will be responsible for building and scaling robust appraisal processes, ensuring compliance and tracking success through clear KPIs. 

Key Responsibilities & Focus Areas

Training

●       Design, deliver and evaluate  group-wide training  covering statutory, technical and soft-skills

       training

●       Identify learning needs through training needs analysis, performance data and stakeholder feedback

●       Manage relationships with external training providers and the LMS/learning platform

●       Ensure training records are accurate and audit-ready

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

●       Develop and administer a CPD framework aligned to professional/regulatory requirements relevant to the

       education sector

●       Support individual CPD planning and tracking for staff and, where relevant, teaching/assessing colleagues

●       Maintain CPD records to meet Ofsted expectations

Leadership Development

●       Design and deliver leadership and management development programmes for current and aspiring managers

●       Coach and support managers to strengthen people management capability (feedback, delegation, difficult

       conversations, team development)

●       Contribute to succession planning and talent pipelines in partnership with senior leaders

Communications & Engagement

●       In partnership with the People Services team, Lead employee engagement initiatives (surveys, action planning, recognition schemes, forums)

●      Act as a champion for culture, values and colleague voice, feeding insight back to senior leadership

Capability & Performance

•  Design and embed the performance management framework (appraisals, goal-setting, development plans)

• Support managers in addressing underperformance constructively and fairly

• Partner with the wider People Services team on capability processes, ensuring consistency and legal compliance

• Track and report on capability, performance and development metrics to inform strategic decisions

Note

This job description outlines the key responsibilities and duties of the role at the time of writing. Access Education Group reserves the right to make reasonable amendments as the organisation evolves.

Key Competencies & Behaviours

• Accountability & Ownership – Takes clear responsibility for end-to-end payroll and benefits delivery across the Group, providing assurance to senior stakeholders.

• Attention to Detail – Demonstrates a high level of accuracy and rigour in managing compliance, and audit requirements.

• Integrity & Professional Judgement – Handles sensitive and confidential information with discretion, professionalism, and sound judgement.

• Continuous Improvement Mindset – Proactively identifies opportunities to strengthen processes, controls, systems and employee experience.

• Collaborative Leadership – Works effectively with People Services, and operational leaders, supporting and overseeing delivery by others without creating dependency.

• Customer-Centric Approach – Balances technical compliance with a positive, responsive service for employees and managers.

• Resilience & Reliability – Remains calm and dependable during critical periods and under time pressure.

Skill, Qualities and Abilities

• Strong operational HR/ L&D experience

• Ability to build relationships and gain trust quickly.

• Excellent organisational and prioritisation skills, with the ability to manage competing deadlines

• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data for business use

• Confident communicator, able to explain technical requirements clearly to non-specialists

• Strong systems aptitude, and the use of technology to gain efficiencies

• Ability to lead change, implement improvements and embed new ways of working

Knowledge, Qualifications & Experience

Essential

• Significant experience designing and delivering training, CPD, or leadership development programmes, particularly in embedding and evaluating impact, not just delivery

• Strong understanding of performance and capability management practices and the compliance requirements for these

• Demonstrable experience building and maintaining learning, development and performance frameworks and processes

• Strong working knowledge of UK employment law as it relates to performance, capability and development

• Experience working collaboratively with multiple stakeholders simultaneously, including senior leaders

• Proven experience supporting audits and responding to external scrutiny (e.g. Ofsted/ regulators)

• The ability to work in a fast-paced environment autonomously

• Desirable

•  CIPD qualification (or working towards), or a relevant degree in HR/L&D/Organisational Development

• Experience working within the education, training, creative, or multi-entity sector

• Experience supporting business growth, mergers, or complex restructuring from a people development perspective

• amiliarity with LMS implementations, integrations, or data-driven optimisation of learning and development workflows

£40,000- £45,000

• 30 days annual leave plus UK bank holidays
• Hybrid working
• Employee discounts through internal benefits platform
• Health Cash Plan through Westfield Health
• Doctorline GP Service
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity benefits and Sick Pay
• Auto Enrolment Pension Scheme