Careers, Alumni & Industry Engagement Manager - Dubai Campus

at  Heriot Watt University

Job Posting Title: Careers Alumni and Industry Engagement Manager (Dubai)
Grade and Salary: Grade 8
FTE and working pattern: 1 FTE
Organisation Name: Registry and Academic Support (RAS)
About our School/Directorate and Team :
The Global Registry and Academic Support Directorate supports our students and staff across the full student life-cycle from enrolment to graduation.  
  The Directorate has responsibility as the definitive record-keeper of all student information, programme and course details, as well as leading services that help students settle and stay at the University. This includes providing professional help and advice through a range of support and wellbeing services.  
  The Directorate supports academic and professional services staff across the University in a number of areas including: academic, institutional and student related Regulations and Policies, and global, national and institutional quality matters.  

  It delivers these services through four Divisions, each managed by a Global Head, and two Heads of Campus Registry and Student Services:  

• Student Life  
• Online Students  
• Academic Operations  
• Academic Quality  Head of Registry & Student Services 
• : Dubai Campus  
• Head of Registry & Student Services - Malaysia Campus  

 
The Student Life Division in Dubai is made up of five areas: 

  Student Service Centre:  A single point of access for students that delivers a consistent student experience, including face-to-face and virtual services (egs.- enrolment, student account payments, student records, etc.) 

• Student Records : Responsible for the management of back-office functions to support the Student Service Centre, acts as the definitive record-keeper of the student record, and manages standard/consistent processes for all student transactions (eg, transfer, Temporary Suspension of Studies, etc.). 
• Wellbeing : Provides a range of services to support the student journey including support for people of determination, mental health, and retention activities.   
• Student Engagement:  Supports the Student Council, and coordinates activities and events for students to facilitate their extra-curricular development and build community.  
• Alumni Engagement : Responsible for the alumni engagement strategy in Dubai. Maintains strong relations with alumni and facilitates opportunities between the University and its alumni network.
• Careers and G raduate F utures : Delivers career and employability advice to students and recent alumni, working closely with local and global employers, and with Heriot-Watt’s Schools supporting the employability strands. 

EDUCATION, QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:

Essential

• Educated to first degree level or equivalent and/or equivalent practical experience in the workplace
• Ability to network, influence and establish and build sound industry partnerships and linkages
• Ability to innovate and market graduate employment as a distinctive feature and differentiator for the university
• Demonstrate strong commercial acumen in growing a business
• Excellent internal/ external stakeholder management skills
• Ability to persuade, motivate and lead a team, including setting objectives and managing workload
• Competent in the use of relevant IT packages and lead the increased use of technology in managing internships, placements and employment
• Demonstrable alumni engagement experience
• Well-developed understanding of relevant legal, statutory and governance applications and turning them into good practice (employment law and practices/ statutory requirements,)
• Excellent interpersonal, influencing and presentation skills, able to understand and communicate complex issues effectively
• Demonstrable excellence in customer service
• Demonstrable ability to work quickly, flexibly and accurately in a dynamic, changing and pressured environment
• Ability to research, analyse and present complex information effectively with good attention to detail
• High level planning and organisational skills with the ability to prioritise major developments and to function effectively in a pressured environment
• Demonstrable professional and proactive approach to problem solving

Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team
-

Desirable

• Significant experience of working within the higher education sector .
• Experience in CRM Management , e.g. Salesforce

Experience in harnessing the power of social media
-

Special Factors

• Requirement to work at weekends or out of hours

Requirement to travel nationally/internationally as and when required
-

HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY VALUES

With a history dating back to 1821, Heriot-Watt University has established a reputation for world-class teaching and professionally relevant, leading-edge research, which has made it one of the top UK universities for business and industry.
We are a vibrant, forward-looking university, well known for the quality of our degrees with employers actively seeking out our graduates. Heriot-Watt is also Scotland’s international university with an unsurpassed international in-country presence. We deliver degree programmes to circa 30,000 students in 143 countries around the world, have a further overseas campus in Dubai and boast the largest international student cohort in Scotland.
At Heriot-Watt we’ve created an environment that nurtures innovation and leadership - where our researchers, staff and students can realise their potential and develop their ambitions.
We are proud of our collegiate atmosphere and integrated teaching and research approach which has helped to build a community of committed academics and highly motivated students. Our focus on careers delivers results and we’ve an excellent reputation for graduate employability.
In addition to the Edinburgh campus, we currently have campuses in the Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai and Malaysia. For all of our campuses we aim to provide stimulating, supportive environments conducive to effective learning and research, where staff and students can excel. At Heriot-Watt, we have an established set of values that help us to nurture innovation and leadership, and show our commitment to continuous improvement and development in all our activities.
Our values describe our deeply held beliefs and our community spirit. They characterise not only how we are as a higher education institution but also frame how we want to be.

Our values are:

• Belong
• Collaborate
• Inspire
• Celebrate

As learning, living and working institution, we use our values as the building blocks of how we go about doing our work and how we each conduct ourselves as members of Heriot-Watt University. They represent what binds us together as a University community and help us to become the best at what we do.
For full details on our University, please view our website https://www.hw.ac.uk/about.htm

Careers, Alumni and Industry Engagement manager will lead the Careers and Graduate Futures team and the Alumni Engagement team in Dubai and serve as a member of the External Relations Group. They will capitalize on recent growth and advancements in these areas to enhance graduate employability and the student experience. This will entail evolving standard service delivery to engage and develop students from the point of induction to align their career objectives with the workforce plans of employers in the UAE and the region more broadly. The post-holder will maximise the benefits of synergising and working with industry in tandem with alumni relations, external engagement and careers services.

Summary of Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Design and drive the Graduate Employment Strategy by working with relevant stakeholders, eg Schools/academics, External Engagement Group, marketing, recruitment, alumni, careers, public and private industry, government entities, etc, to increase graduate employment rates 
• Develop a local engagement plan in line with the Alumni Strategy to enhance the alumni experience and maximise alumni engagement to support the broader Graduate Employment Strategy/objectives
• Lead and manage the Careers and Graduate Futures team and the Alumni Engagement team in Dubai to ensure appropriate workloads and that objectives are met  
• Establish, develop and maintain strong relationships with employers and alumni to maximise the opportunities available to our students (internships, placements, graduate jobs, curriculum enhancing workshops, mentoring programme, etc) to increase their employability outcomes
• Expand corporate and industry reach measured against current baseline figures Stay apprised of labour market trends and the needs of students and academics to enable regular review of the department
• ‘s objectives and deliver industry-leading services and programming
• Enhancement of careers and employability skills programming through innovative ideas, the use of data and technology to improve student engagement Maximise the functionality and promote the use of Heriot-Watt
• ‘s employment platform to students and employers in conjunction with the Heads of Careers and Graduate Futures in Edinburgh
• Create a holding platform (subject to local visa requirements and internships) for industry to recruit graduates both local and international
• Possess expert knowledge of career development, employment services and engage in continuous professional development to support Career Advisors and counsel student
• Match student career aspirations from point of entry in undergraduate studies with potential employers through partnerships with the latter in full understanding of the HR/workforce plans of employers 
• Develop experiential education programs that include student employment, cooperative education, workâ€�based learning, apprenticeships, internships, volunteer jobs, service learning, and shadowing experiences  
• Work closely with the Business Development Manager HWUD and counterparts on our other campuses to leverage and support the Graduate Employment Strategy
• Collaborate with Business development on the creation and implementation of a campus-wide policy for the use of CRM (Salesforce) to capitalise on existing contacts and maximise engagement opportunities with employers 
• Effectively utilise alumni data and relationships to leverage connections and create opportunities for students, alumni and the University
• Support fundraising activities in conjunction and in alignment with the Alumni and Development Office in Edinburgh
• Represent the Careers and Alumni teams on designated campus-level and University-level committees 

• Oversight of the budgets for Careers and Alumni activitiesAdditional functions and initiatives as required