About The Wheel

The Wheel is Ireland’s national association of community and voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises. We are a registered charity in Ireland and are unique in our role as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for anything related to the charity and non-profit sector.

‘Our Vision is a thriving community and voluntary sector at the heart of a fair, just and inclusive Ireland.’

We are an authoritative and trusted voice for the sector, and we are enthusiastically committed to transparency, accountability, and the highest standards of practice and governance. Together, we work to ensure that the sector is recognised and respected, adequately resourced and appropriately regulated.

Learn more about who we are here https://www.wheel.ie/

The Opportunity

The Wheel is looking for a dynamic and driven leader to join its senior management team. The ideal candidate will be highly experienced in developing and implementing financial and operational strategies. They will be comfortable using their expertise as the basis for engaging with members, regulators and public policy-makers to advance The Wheel’s strategic objectives.

By joining The Wheel as one of our team, you will become part of a movement of people and organisations who believe that by working together we can shape Ireland’s future.

The Role:

Position: Director of Skills

Location: The Wheel office is based in Dublin 2. The Wheel is a hybrid, remote first, work environment, with a blend of remote and in-person work. Note that only candidates based in Ireland will be considered. For this role, candidates must be available for meetings and events in Dublin on a regular basis.

Reports To: Chief Executive Officer

Line Manager For: Skills Team

Role Purpose:

Reporting to the CEO, the Director of Skills provides strategic leadership and direction to The Wheel’s largest function within the organisation, our National Training Fund supported Sector Skills Programme. The focus of this role is to ensure organisations in the community and voluntary sector have the skills and capabilities to deliver effectively on their objectives. This involves a range of activities including:

• A research programme looking at the skills and training needs in the sector.
•  Advocating with policymakers and the wider skills infrastructure for these needs to be met.
• Improving the capacity of the sector to more proactively engage with the relevant state agencies, like SOLAS and the Education Training Boards.
• Supporting a range of training and development solutions for the sector, including a training calendar, The Leadership Academy, collaborative programmes and the Training Links Fund.

The post holder will be required to use their skills, experience and initiative to maximise the impact of the National Training Fund funding for The Wheel and for the community & voluntary sector. They will be responsible for the National Training Fund programme within The Wheel and the team that drives this.

Working Relationship:

The Director of Skills will work alongside the CEO, and other Directors and managers contributing to the general direction and management of the work of The Wheel.

The post holder will maintain positive professional relationships with colleagues, a wide range of non-profit organisations/community and voluntary organisations as well as regulators, professional advisors and other subject matter experts.

They will develop and maintain valuable relationships with a range of statutory agencies and commercial organisations in pursuit of the interests of The Wheel. They will work in The Wheel in such a way as to encourage the best from, and support the efforts of, others.

As The Wheel is a membership organisation all post-holders are expected to provide leadership and support to members.

Main Responsibilities and Duties:

The primary focus of the work will be to ensure The Wheel is at the centre of the skills building agenda for the community & voluntary sector, and to ensure the relevant stakeholders are fully engaged with this.

This will include: 

•  Provide leadership and direction for the NTF-supported Sector Skills programme of activities.
• Lead and support staff in the Skills Team.
• Bring the knowledge, understanding and connection with relevant statutory training bodies (eg: SOLAS and the Education Training Boards, Skillnet, RSFs, HEA etc) to The Wheel to ensure the community & voluntary sector training & development is a key element of the national skills building agenda.
• Lead on and keep abreast of developments in national skills policy.
• Oversee the planning and roll-out of the annual skills training and development programmes, including:
  • The Wheel's in-house training and events calendar.
  • Training Links networks funding scheme.
  • Training/Skills Development programmes delivered by partners.
  • The Leadership Academy and related work.
• Represent and deputise as required for The Wheel on external advisory groups and bodies.
• Ensure The Wheel provides clear, detailed, and quality data and evidence of the current skills building/training & development we provide to our members and the wider CV sector.
• Service the Board’s Human Capital and Skills Development subcommittee and relevant external subcommittees.
• Ensure trainee numbers have increased by 10% over 2019 numbers.
• Develop and implement impact and outcome frameworks to demonstrate the value of investment in skills development.
•  A quality assessment framework will have been developed that accounts for trainee progression and other metrics.
• Establish a network of employers focused on innovation and learning.
• Adaptation of existing frameworks and methodologies for sector-specific analysis, tracking, and reporting of productivity and innovation.
•  Proactive and structured engagement with the ETBs/SOLAS and other elements of the existing upskilling architecture to optimise engagement and usage of existing programmes.
• Establish an appropriate evaluation mechanism and process to measure and track progress. 

People  

• Develop and maintain excellent working relationships with all colleagues in The Wheel. 
• Provide human resource planning and allocation and personal development opportunities for staff within the function.

Other 

• Work closely with the other members of the management team in their work 
• Undertake any other duties as may reasonably be assigned by the CEO from time to time. 

Person Specification

Desirable Experience

• Knowledge of the national skills agenda and in particular expertise on skills within the nonprofit sector.
• Track record of managing multiple streams of work with strong planning and organisational skills.
• Track record of engaging effectively in relevant policy spaces.
• Experienced people manager.
• Experience within a nonprofit environment would be advantageous.
• Political acumen, sound judgement and a strategic mind-set and a good understanding of the importance of The Wheel’s role in the sector

Education, Qualifications & Training

• Relevant third level qualification

Behavioural Competencies

The Wheel uses a Behavioural Competency Framework as a key cornerstone of its performance management processes. The priority behavioural competences identified for this role are:

Leadership: Seek and find new approaches and options to reach organisational goals and motivate others towards those goals. Communicates ‘where to’ with clarity and zest. Creates an inspiring vision of the future and stirs others to join in.  

Adaptability: Communicates clearly about changes, helps others to understand and to cope, anticipates and handles resistance appropriately. Involves others early, creates shared view and reasons for the changes, balances timing to suit organisational and personal needs. Open, direct embracing of changes and leads by example

Resource Minding: Leads others by example in reducing costs, identifying income generation possibilities, and suggesting other ways to gain access to resources. Fosters an environment where the organisation can acquire, allocate and use resources more efficiently. Builds alliances to enable sharing of resources.

Problem Solving: Encourages creative thinking and discussion and supports appropriate risk-taking. Brings a ‘can do’ approach to problem solving. Foresees the need for action and goes beyond responding to requests, raises issues clearly and provides suggestions for solving the problem. Sees beyond the obvious and uses creativity, logic and models to generate new approaches. 

Collaborative Working: Leads formal and informal teams in a way which values the diversity of experience and opinions and builds a sense of ‘team’. Provides encouragement to colleagues after setbacks. Helps others to work collaboratively. Creates a friendly work environment where any conflicts can be resolved amicably, sets up opportunities to work across teams, and speaks positively about working together

Quality: Acting as a role model drives commitment to high quality work and ensures this through quality review processes. Accesses external feedback and disseminates internally. Engages in root cause analysis.

Key information about this role

• This is a full-time permanent position with The Wheel. The Wheel’s offices are located in Dublin 2.  This contract is for a 36-hour week and the salary is payable monthly in arrears.
• The Wheel both offers and expects flexibility in terms of hours and location of work for a role such as this and the remuneration and benefits package offered reflects this.
• This role requires the post holder to attend in-person meetings in Dublin and elsewhere on a regular basis.
• Additionally, the role may require participation in meetings which can occur in the evenings and on weekends. Travel outside of the office is reimbursed according to our expenses policy.
• The annual gross salary for this role is between €70,000 and €80,000, depending on the knowledge and experience of the person who occupies it, and will be decided accordingly. This contract is for a 36-hour week and salary is payable monthly in arrears.
• Room to grow within the role: while The Wheel does not operate salary scales, the salary band for Director level within The Wheel reaches a maximum of €85,222, subject to service.

The Wheel offers the following benefits in addition to salary

• A 6% employers' contribution to a company contributory pension scheme (subject to a 4% employee contribution)
• Annual Leave of 25 days
• Closure of the office on Good Friday, Christmas Eve and the entire Christmas / New Year period which comes additional to annual leave entitlement
• Death in Service benefit of four times salary
• Further Education / Training and learning investment programme
• Professional subscriptions (as applicable)
• Travel (bike-to-work schemes/tax saver commuter tickets)

A complete list of all the terms and conditions will be made available to the candidate offered the role through The Wheel’s Staff Handbook.

The Wheel is an equal opportunities employer. Shortlisting will apply.