Job Vacancies

Thank you for your interest in working for York College. Please read the following guidance, which is intended to assist you when applying for positions at York College.

It is essential you complete your application accurately, with as much relevant information as possible. Please read all the information provided to you before completing your application.

When you start your application you will receive an email with a link to go back and edit your application. When you have submitted your application you will not be able to edit it any further.

If you require further explanation about any part of this guidance or the application process, or if you need information about submitting your application in a different format, then please contact us by phone or email (details provided at the end of this guidance).

1. Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults

York College is committed to equality of opportunity and safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment.

All successful candidates will be required to undertake an enhanced DBS Disclosure check.

2. Job Description and Person Specification

The job description which is attached to the job advert outlines the duties and responsibilities of the post. You should read this carefully to ensure you understand what the job entails.

The Person Specification describes the range of skills, experience, knowledge and personal attributes that are required of the post holder. The essential requirements indicate the minimum requirements which an individual must have in order to carry out the duties of the post effectively.

The desirable requirements indicate additional criteria that would assist the post holder in performing the duties and responsibilities of the post, but are not regarded as essential at the appointment stage.

3. Completing Your Application

Applications for posts at York College are only accepted if completed through the College’s online application process.

The application form is divided into a number of parts:-

Qualifications & Membership of Professional Bodies

Please provide the details of your qualifications, relevant to the post, listing your most recent qualifications first. If the course did not lead to a qualification you should still include this information.

If specified in the person specification, you will be required to provide proof of qualifications on appointment.

You should also give details of any formal or practical training courses you have attended that are relevant to the post you are applying for.

Please provide details of your memberships of any professional bodies.

Employment History

You should provide details of each job that you have been employed in or volunteering work that you have undertaken.

Please provide details of the responsibilities you held in the role as well as dates you were employed, listing your most recent employment first and then working your way back from there.

You should also provide details of any gaps in your employment history in the box provided.

Experience, Skills and Knowledge

When completing this section you should ensure the information you provide clearly matches the criteria outlined in the person specification.

You may describe any experience (paid or unpaid), skills, knowledge, achievements etc. you believe are relevant to the post applied for. These may have been gained in previous roles, at school, college or university or from voluntary work.

References

You should provide reference details that will cover the last three years of your employment and / or education. We will write to all current and previous employers or educational providers where you have worked or studied in the last three years. Please ensure you have the permission of the referee before submitting your application as we may take up references prior to interview.

A minimum of two referees is required.

Referees must not be personal friends or members of your family.

Please ensure that you have the full contact details for the referees that you supply, including an email address and a contact number.

Equal Opportunities and Recruitment Monitoring

This information is only seen by the Human Resources Department.

Living and Working Overseas

Depending on the post you have applied for you may be asked to obtain an overseas police check.

4. Receipt of your Application

You will receive an email confirming your application has been submitted to us, and attached to this email will be a copy of your application form.

5. Equality and Diversity

York College is committed to promoting fairness and equality of opportunity in employment, ensuring that individuals are selected, promoted and otherwise treated on the basis of their relative merits, abilities and potential. We collect equality monitoring information to assess the effectiveness of our equality and diversity policy and to enable us to eliminate any unlawful discrimination on the grounds of age; disability; family responsibility; marital status and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; colour; ethnicity; nationality; religion or belief; gender; sexual orientation; trade union activity; unrelated criminal convictions; other irrelevant criteria.

The information you provide is confidential and is not be made available to individuals involved in the selection process.

We also use this information to analyse and report on our staff profile.

We encourage applications from people in under-represented groups who are looking for new and challenging career opportunities.

6. Disability

York College is committed to ensuring disabled people are not disadvantaged either during the recruitment and selection process or at work.

What is a disability?

The Equality Act 2010 defines a disabled person as a person with a disability. A person has a disability for the purposes of the Act if he or she has a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

This means, in general:

• the person must have an impairment that is either physical or mental
• the impairment must have adverse effects which are substantial i.e. not minor or trivial
• the substantial adverse effects must be long-term. Long-term means the effect has lasted or is likely to last for at least 12 months
• the long-term substantial adverse effects must be effects on normal day-to-day activities e.g. normal day to day activities must be affected by one of the following: mobility, manual dexterity, speech, hearing, vision, memory. In general, day-to-day activities are things people do on a regular or daily basis, and examples include shopping, reading and writing, having a conversation or using the telephone, watching television, getting washed and dressed, preparing and eating food, carrying out household tasks, walking and travelling by various forms of transport, and taking part in social activities.

A disability can arise from a wide range of impairments which can be:

• sensory impairments, such as those affecting sight or hearing;
• impairments with fluctuating or recurring effects such as rheumatoid arthritis, myalgic encephalitis (ME)/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, depression and epilepsy;
• progressive, such as motor neurone disease, muscular dystrophy, forms of dementia and lupus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis, HIV infection or multiple sclerosis (MS) ,
• organ specific, including respiratory conditions, such as asthma, and cardiovascular diseases, including thrombosis, stroke and heart disease;
• developmental, such as autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), dyslexia and dyspraxia;
• learning difficulties;
• mental health conditions and mental illnesses, such as depression, schizophrenia, eating disorders, bipolar affective disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, as well as personality disorders and some self-harming behaviour;
• produced by injury to the body or brain.

Certain conditions are not regarded as impairments for the purposes of the Act. These are:

• addiction to, or dependency on, alcohol, nicotine, or any other substance (other than in consequence of the substance being medically prescribed);
• the condition known as seasonal allergic rhinitis (e.g. hayfever), except where it aggravates the effect of another condition.

York College works closely with its recognised Trades Unions to promote equality. The Trades Unions endorse the integrity of York College in their approach to Equality issues and encourage all applicants to declare on their application form if they have a disability, or any specific difficulties, for which they might need support to attend the interview and to carry out the role applied for. Staff may talk discreetly and confidentially with their representatives regarding personal issues. Trade Union representatives work with the College to support staff in all positions so each individual can be, if required, supported to work effectively and be a valued team member.

Further details about the College’s recognised Trades Unions are available from the Human Resources department.

7. Relationships with Governors or College Managers

Applicants must declare if they are related to, or have a close personal relationship with, a member of staff or Governor within the College.

8. Canvassing

Canvassing directly or indirectly will automatically result in disqualification of the candidate concerned.

9. Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 enables criminal convictions to become ‘spent’ after a certain period of time. After this period, with certain exemptions, a person is not legally obliged to mention it when applying for a job.

Please ensure you read and correctly complete this section, as any deliberate attempt to withhold information could result in your application being withdrawn and if appointed lead to your dismissal.

10. Data Protection and Declaration

Your application will only be used to inform the recruitment process unless you are successful, in which case it will form the basis of your personal record with the College, which may be stored in manual and/or electronic files.

Information provided in the Equal Opportunities & Recruitment Monitoring section will be included in a general database for statistical and monitoring purposes enabling the College to monitor the effectiveness of its Equality Policy.

Please make sure you check your details and the information provided are correct prior to submitting your application. If you provide any false information or fail to supply details, this may result in your application not being pursued or may invalidate any offer of employment or lead to termination of employment and possible referral to the police.

11. Availability for Interview

In the Personal Details section there is space for you to provide details of any dates that you are unavailable to attend an interview. We will try to take this into account when scheduling the interviews.

Please note if the interview date is stated in the job advert, it may not be possible to offer an alternative date to suit your circumstances.

12. Offers of Employment

Once a recruitment decision has been made we will issue a conditional offer of employment. All offers of employment are subject to the following checks being satisfactorily completed prior to confirmation of the employment start date:

Satisfactory References (see guidance above)

Health Assessment:

You will be required to complete a medical questionnaire which will be screened by occupational health to assess your suitability for the post. You will also be required to complete a health declaration form which will be checked by the Human Resources team to identify any support or adjustments to the proposed role. In some cases, a medical examination may be required.

DBS Disclosure clearance:

Under the Police Act 1997 the College is authorised to gain access to criminal records information from the Disclosure Barring Service (DBS). You will be asked to complete an enhanced Disclosure Application form and for those applicants who have lived or work overseas a certificate of good conduct should also be obtained from the country of residence.

Proof of qualifications:

You will be required to provide your original certificates of relevant qualifications.

Evidence of eligibility to work in the UK:

In accordance with the requirements of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 you will be required to produce evidence of your identity and eligibility to work in the UK.

Probationary period:

Your appointment is subject to the satisfactory completion of a probation period, as follows:

Business Support / Management staff – 6 months

Academic staff – 10 months

13. What happens next?

You will receive an email confirming your application has been submitted to us, and attached to this email will be a copy of your application form.

The recruiting manager will shortlist all applicants after the advertised closing date and you will be informed via email whether or not your application has been successful.

If you have not heard from us within four weeks of the closing date please assume that your application, on this occasion, has been unsuccessful.

We regret that we are unable to provide unsuccessful applicants with feedback.

14. Further Advice

If you would like information on the progress of your application, or advice on any aspect of the selection process generally, or the terms and conditions of employment, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Telephone: 01904 770382 during the hours of 8.30am and 5pm Monday to Thursday and 8.30am to 4.30pm on Friday.

Email: recruitment@yorkcollege.ac.uk

• The College has always been caring, compassionate and supportive towards me

• I received care and support from my manager and access to counselling which helped me through difficult times

• The College has supported me in a number of ways which I have found to be very helpful

• York College is the first employer where I have felt ‘safe’ to mention that I had mental health issues

• The College is a caring employer that understands the impact that caring for someone with a mental health condition can have.

York College works closely with its recognised Trades Unions to promote equality. The Trades Unions endorse the integrity of York College in their approach to Equality issues and encourage all applicants to declare on their application form if they have a disability, or any specific difficulties, for which they might need support to attend the interview and to carry out the role applied for. Staff may talk discreetly and confidentially with their representatives regarding personal issues. Trade Union representatives work with the College to support staff in all positions so each individual can be, if required, supported to work effectively and be a valued team member.

New to the teaching profession? Want to find out how we can support you to obtain a teaching qualification?

At York College we feel it is important for all teaching staff to obtain a professional teaching qualification, which is why we require all unqualified teachers to obtain a teaching qualification.

Salaried teaching staff must obtain either a Certificate in Education, PGCE or Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training (or equivalent) within two years of their appointment. The two year deadline commences from the 1st September after the date of appointment to the teaching role. In some situations, for example where you have no teaching qualification whatsoever, you may also be required to obtain a Level 3 Award in Education and Training. This must be achieved within 1 year of appointment.

Salaried staff undertaking a Certificate in Education/PGCE or equivalent are entitled to 35 hours annual teaching remission (pro rata for proportionate staff).

Part-time variable hour staff must obtain a Level 4 Certificate in Education and Training (formerly CTLLS) within two years of their appointment.

Financial Support

We know that qualifications are expensive which is why we will subsidise the cost of your training and if you are working in a shortage subject (Engineering, Construction, Maths, English or Science) we will pay 100% of your teacher training course fees.

To help manage the cost we allow staff to pay for their qualifications through salary sacrifice. This means you can spread the cost of the course over a period (typically 12 months). The net cost is reduced by savings in tax and NI. Alternatively, Adult Loans are available for the Level 5 Diploma (or equivalent).

Additional qualification requirements for Teachers of English and Maths up to Level 2 (Skills for Life, Functional Skills and ESOL)

In addition to the requirement to obtain a teaching qualification detailed above, the College requires Adult Literacy and Numeracy, Functional Skills and ESOL tutors teaching up to Level 2 to obtain a Level 4 Specialist Certificate in teaching Maths or English in their primary specialism. This is an “in house” qualification accredited by NCFE.

The deadline for achievement of the Level 4 Certificate is either:

(a) within one year of completing the relevant teaching qualification in (ii) or (iii) above, or
(b) within one year of appointment if the teacher already possesses the requisite general teaching qualification. The one year deadline commences from the 1st September after the start date.

Similar salary sacrifice arrangements also apply for this qualification

Staff Teaching Functional Skills whose main subject specialism is not English, Maths or ESOL

Teachers delivering Functional Skills must either possess a relevant English or Maths qualification at Level 3, or be able to demonstrate appropriate competence at that level.

Additional qualification requirements for all teaching staff

All Tutors must possess literacy and numeracy skills at Level 2. This may be demonstrated either through an appropriate qualification, or through in-house diagnostic testing.

York College (“the College”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. This notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you during the recruitment process, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (“GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA”).

The College is a data controller responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. Under the GDPR and DPA we are required to let you know the information contained in this privacy notice.

This notice applies to all candidates and applicants, including those to apply to work with the College as employees, workers and contractors. However, the notice does not form part of a contract of employment or contract for services.

We will comply with data protection law such that the personal information we hold about you must be:

• Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way;
• Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes;
• Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes;
• Accurate and kept up to date;
• Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about; and
• Kept securely.

The kind of information we hold about you

During the recruitment process we will collect, store and use the following categories of information about you:

• Personal contact details, such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers and personal email addresses;
• Date of birth;
• Proposed salary, annual leave, pension and benefits information;
• Proposed start date;
• Proposed location of employment or workplace;
• Copy of driving licence if driving forms part of your role; and
• Recruitment information, including copies of right to work documentation, reference and other information contained in a CV, professional or other qualifications, regulatory approvals, criminal records checks, application form, cover letter or other part of the application process.

We may also collect, store and use the following “special categories” of personal data relevant to the recruitment process:

• Information about your health or medical condition;
• Information about criminal convictions and offences.

How do we collect personal information?

We collect personal information about you either directly from you or from an employment agency. We may also collect additional information from third parties including former employers, professional bodies, regulatory authorities or other background check agencies.

How we will use information about you

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

1. Where we need to prepare for, enter into or perform a contract with you;
2. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation; and
3. Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

We may also use your personal information in the rare situations where we need to protect your vital interests (or someone else's vital interests) or where it is needed in the public interest.

We need the kind of information listed above to allow us to prepare for, enter into or perform and employment or work-related contract with you and to enable us to comply with our legal obligations. The situations in which we will process your personal information as a candidate are:

• Making a decision about your recruitment or appointment;
• Determining the terms on which you work for us;
• Checking you are legally entitled to work in the UK;
• Arranging to administer any contract we enter into with you;
• Business management and planning, including accounting and auditing;
• Assessing your qualifications and/or regulatory approvals for the job or contract you have applied for;
• Education, training and development requirements;
• Dealing with legal disputes involve you or other employees, workers or contractors; and
• Complying with health and safety obligations.

Some of the above grounds for processing may overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal data.

If you fail to provide personal information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to enter into a contract with you or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as ensuring the health and safety of our workers).

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Sensitive personal information

We may process “special categories” of personal information where we have justification to do so in the recruitment process and in line with our normal data protection procedures, including:

1. Where we have your explicit written consent;
2. Where we need to carry out our legal obligations;
3. Where it is needed in the public interest, such as for equal opportunities monitoring;
4. Where it is needed to assess your working capacity on health grounds.

Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your (or someone else’s) interests and you are not capable of giving your consent.

We will use your particularly sensitive personal information in the following ways:

• Information about your physical or mental health, or disability status, to ensure your health and safety in the workplace and to assess your fitness to work in the role you have applied for and to provide appropriate workplace adjustments;
• Information about your race or national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or your sexual life or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting;
• Information about your criminal records to ensure that it is appropriate to engage you in particular types of work.

Circumstances in which we do not envisage using your information

We do not envisage that we will:

1. Make any decisions about candidates using automated means;
2. Share candidate data with any third parties or any entities within the College’s group (unless required by law); or
3. Transfer candidate data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent candidate personal information being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. We also limit access to candidate personal data to those employees and other individuals who have a business need to know and who are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and the relevant regulator of a suspected breach when we are legally required to do so.

Data retention

We will only retain candidate’s personal information for as long as necessary for the recruitment purposes it was collected for. We normally retain candidate details for the following periods, following which it will be securely destroyed:

• Unsuccessful applicants for an advertised role or contract: 12 months following appointment of the successful applicant;
• Speculative applicants: 12 months from receipt of candidate details;
• Successful applicants: retention in line with our usual retention policies.

In some circumstances (such as recruitment statistics and equal opportunities monitoring) we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you.

Your rights and duties

Please inform us if your personal information changes whilst you are a candidate for work with the College.

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request").
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you.
• Request erasure of your personal information.
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to exercise these rights, please contact the Human Resources Manager, or their Deputy, in writing. You may be required to provide specific information to ensure that you are entitled to access the information but you will not normally have to pay a fee to access your personal information.

If you have any questions about this candidate privacy notice please contact the College’s HR department.

York College is a vibrant place to work. Bustling with students, and surrounded by dedicated and hardworking staff, you can just feel the passion for learning when you walk through the front doors of this impressive building.

When you join York College, you will join an organisation that is passionate about supporting and developing its staff. We value our staff and reward our staff in the following ways:

• Incremental rates of pay for most roles
• Access to onsite parking
• Access to a generous company sickness pay scheme, offering six months full pay and six months half pay after five year’s service
• Basic allowance of 30 days annual leave (35 for management and 42 days for teaching staff)
• Additional leave for bank holidays
• Additional leave over the Christmas period
• Workplace pension scheme
• Flexible Working including the flexibility to work from home (role dependent)
• Monthly CPD sessions, plus two annual training weeks offering staff a variety of opportunities to engage in formal training or enrichments activities
• Financial support towards teacher training course fees if you do not have a recognised Level 5 teaching qualification (Cert Ed/PGCE)
• Coaching and mentoring opportunities through the Yorkshire Accord Mentoring Scheme
• Free gym membership onsite at the Athletic Suite, our brand-new state of the art gym
• Access to Employee Wellbeing services such as Counselling and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• The College has teamed up with Westfield Health giving staff the option to pay for a cash health plan through their monthly salary. Cash plans help you to budget for your everyday healthcare costs including the cost of visiting the dentist, optician, physiotherapist and a number of other healthcare professionals.
• TOTUM (formally NUS) membership offering offers and exclusive deals from brands you love. From tech savings at Apple, Garmin and Samsung, to fashion discounts at ASOS and boohoo and money off those every day essentials with 10% off at Co-op. Plus grab loads more at top brands including Myprotein, JD, LOOKFANTASTIC, Schuh, River Island, Fat Face, HelloFresh and Holiday Extras. With TOTUM membership you can also purchase cinema tickets, season tickets (e.g. football), leisure club membership at student rates.
• Discounted rates for Amazon Prime when you register with your College email
• Costco membership (subject to a joining fee)
• Discounted travel on first buses
• Discounted RAC membership payable monthly from your salary