View Vacancy - KL - Head of Diplomatic Academy Regional Team, APAC and South Asia, D6 (L) - Also open in Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and India
The Diplomatic Academy Regional Team (DART) Head is the strategic L&D lead for HMG staff at British Overseas Missions (Posts) across Asia Pacific and South Asia. Reporting to the Deputy Director of the Diplomatic Academy and delivering through a team of (DART) advisers, the role of the Head is to offer Posts expertise in Organisational Development (OD) and L&D advice and support to meet organisational needs, aligned with UK government priorities. The DART Head will lead on the delivery of the global L&D Strategy in Asia Pacific and South Asia and:
- Manage the regional team providing leadership and management support and ensure delivery of the regional priorities
- Set direction and provide strategic OD advice to stakeholders within the region
- Help partners and teams identify performance needs, work based learning (informal and formal learning) and L&D interventions to support needs
- Deliver high quality, value for money, appropriate OD and L&D initiatives, making good use of virtual technology and innovative new delivery methods
- Evaluate effectiveness of initiatives to build capability and develop a learning culture at Posts
Roles and responsibilities:
Leadership & Management:
Set strategic direction, engage with team and stakeholders and deliver results against the Diplomatic Academy business plan
Play an active part in the global leadership team; help to set strategy and operational priorities, take ownership of themes as required, challenge colleagues to help promote excellence
Provide overall strategic direction for the regional team in line with London and Network priorities to support senior management in the region.
Be innovative and creative; share new ideas on L&D to promote the development of skills, knowledge and competence to build capability in the region.
Support the team through transition to meet new requirements and adapt to change.
Promote One HMG “Who We Are” values of: respect, expertise, resilience, creativity, courage, public service
Line manage DART Advisers; provide strategic guidance, feedback on performance and effective delegation of work. Counter-sign other staff in the Network as appropriate.
Oversight of resourcing in the region, in consultation with the DA’s Business Manager, ensuring the right skills and budgets are in place and ensure value for money.
Ensure effective 2 way communication between DART teams and Diplomatic Academy (UK)
Stakeholder management:
Oversight of DART account management in the region, ensuring effective prioritisation, development of performance consultancy skills in the team and innovative offers for smaller Posts.
Support primary account managers by relationship building with priority Posts, and offer trouble-shooting as needed, with the purpose of developing a learning culture and building capability
Act as a source of best practice, advising managers and leaders at all levels across the region and wider Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including on Organisational Development.
Outreach to FCO and OneHMG key stakeholders in region and in UK (including Diplomatic Academy UK team) to ensure the DART offer reflects their needs and to influence their policy development
Design and Quality Control of L&D initiatives:
Overview of delivery in the region, ensuring right mix of L&D interventions (70:20:10), that priority programmes are delivered in line with Diplomatic Academy and HMG requirements, and that other interventions meet identified need.
Collaborate with the Diplomatic Academy (UK) team (including Faculties) to support Foundation and Practitioner Level programmes at Post.
Design and deliver L&D initiatives to develop teams and leadership skills and/or provide essential cover.
Deliver informal interventions based on need and prioritisation, including coaching and mentoring.
Ensure L&D initiatives support Global Britain, Diplomacy 2020 and International Capability and are high quality, appropriate and value for money.
Work closely with other Diplomatic Academy team members to ensure consistency and sharing of best practice.
Keep professional knowledge up to date, following trends, ideas and innovations occurring in L&D to ensure DART methods and materials are as effective as possible
Account Management:
Business Partner with Senior Management at Posts and thematic leads in the region to ensure delivery of key corporate messages
Support and advise Posts with identifying appropriate learning interventions through:
- Providing Posts with L&D/Mgt consultancy support/advice
- Supporting the development of L&D strategies that align to Country Business Plans/ organisational objectives
- Encouraging robust Learning Needs Analyses are undertaken to support the L&D strategy
- Supporting Posts in establishing L&D plans based on 70/20/10 and blended learning solutions
- Supporting Posts in evaluating L&D interventions for return on investment against expected outcomesing Needs Analyses are undertaken to support the L&D strategy
- Excellent written and spoken English
- Min 10 years in a L&D environment either public or private sector
- Min 5 years leadership and management experience
- Professional qualifications in L&D, OD or equivalent and membership of internationally recognised HR professional body (eg CIPD)
- Strong consultancy and stakeholder engagement skills
- Experience of working in a multi-cultural environment
- Strong communicator and facilitator
- Able to travel frequently across Asia Pacific/South Asia and occasionally other regions
- A passion and enthusiasm for developing people
- A second frequently spoken Asian language
- Experience of working in a global organisation
The British High Commission offers a competitive remuneration package, benefits, leave entitlement of 20 days per annum (calculated on pro rata basis). The British High Commission works hard to provide L&D opportunities to staff. There are a wide range of options available for personal development including training courses, coaching and mentoring, job-shadowing, presentations and learning sets. Staff have access to a wide variety of online resources through the Diplomatic Academy and Civil Service Learning. The job-holder will be required to take some specific training courses related to their role – including project management and financial management. All new staff undertake a workplace induction and there are a number of mandatory e-learning courses covering areas such as diversity, health and safety, and information management.
Employment offers are subject to successful clearance of pre-employment checks. All applicants must be able to achieve an official-sensitive security clearance required by the role.
No accommodation or relocation expenses are payable in connection with this position. You must have or be able to obtain local work permit in Malaysia in order to apply.
Staff recruited locally by the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur is subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local employment law.
Please note that your application must be submitted before 23:55 on the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”.
Incomplete application forms will not be taken into consideration, so please ensure you provide the information requested. We regret to advise that we will only be contacting short-listed candidates. Applicants called for an interview will be assessed on the core competencies listed above.
Adverstised start date is provisional and subject to successful completion of reference and security checks.
Kindly check your application centre/email regularly for any updates.
This opportunity is closed to applications.
