Valenture Institute partners with the world’s leading education institutions to transform physical limitations into digital opportunities. We create new opportunities for learners to choose an aspirational online learning experience by offering fully-supported online high school programmes.

As a social enterprise, Valenture Institute is also committed to levelling the playing field and increasing access for all learners through free curriculum offerings, extensive scholarship programs, and blended learning micro-schools in underprivileged communities. The UCT Online High School Academic Manager oversees the academic implementation team and faculty support team working at UCT Online High School. The Academic Manager owns the delivery and support model for UCT Online High School, focusing on content maintenance, assessment development, presentation for all UCT Online High School content and learner-facing interventions. They translate the support vision as directed by the Head of Academics into clear priorities and goals for their team. They are responsible for leading their team, providing day-to-day operational support, monitoring KPIs, and monitoring the quality of the product as well as the teaching and resources that the team provides. The UCT Online High Academic Manager role is focused on people management and development and the holistic learner experience for UCT Online High School as we seek to serve thousands of learners across the globe.

DAY-TO-DAY RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:

Leadership and Culture

• Work with the Head of Academics, to build a culture of learner experience, collaboration, and innovation.
• Provide direction and leadership to direct reports in line with the Academic Division team’s priorities.
• Focus on the overall health and wellness of the team through coaching and development plans.
• Actively shape the culture of the team to provide high-quality education, product and pastoral care at scale.
• Monitor and report on KPIs and SLAs.
• Ensure the alignment and consistent application of policy and procedure across their allocated direct reports.
• Recruit and retain exceptional staff, ensuring that Valenture Institute is known for the quality of its academic staff and leaders.
• Oversee the academic and support quality
• Champion a culture of learning among the academic implementation and faculty teams by coordinating and facilitating capacity planning- and development workshops.
• Create a culture of collaboration and upskilling, where team members understand each other's roles and can work together.
• Work with the Head of Academics to write and maintain all academic and support policies, including Teaching and Learning, Assessment and Reporting, Curriculum and the relevant sections of Student Handbooks.

Operations

• Ensure good collaboration and communication with the Academic Division on all matters relating to timetabling, scheduling, capacity planning and process mapping.
• Support process development and improvement, remove operational blockers and ensure that Student Experience Leads, Support Coaches and Subject Specialists are enabled to provide efficient and effective support to learners.
• Overseeing redundancy in the team and ensuring effective workforce management and capacity planning, both day-to-day and at established planning intervals.
• Serve as the primary point of contact and information for Leads in your portfolio.
• Initiate planning processes for new course development.
  • Liaise with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders to ensure the effective and collaborative design and delivery of the product.
• Develop guidance documents and policies, and contribute to departmental process development and improvement.
• Consistently stay up-to-date with curriculum updates across our portfolio of subjects as well as new regulatory requirements.
• Identify appropriate tools and software to improve the delivery of qualifications on the online learning campus.
• Develop innovative pedagogical and blended online learning approaches.
• Manage quality assurance processes in conjunction with and work on evaluation strategies to review the effectiveness of the design strategy.
• Take a proactive approach to ensure that the Online Campus is fully prepared, in good time, for each academic year.
• Maintain the integrity of assessment data through ongoing quality assurance, moderation, and data validation exercises.
• Take a proactive approach to understanding the regulatory environment in which we operate.
• Work closely with the Head of Academics to ensure compliance with our external examination body.

Strategic

• Contribute to the strategic focus of the Academic Division by taking ownership of key academic sub-goals as defined by Senior Leadership.
• Take a proactive approach to identifying academic opportunities for the organisation and bringing these forward.
• Take a proactive approach is identifying and managing any academic/educational risks to the organisation.

Competencies:

Competency

Definition

Building Teams -

The ability to recruit, guide and develop a team in line with the organisation’s long-term strategic objectives.

Business Knowledge -

Executing Valenture Institute’s business strategy with sound knowledge and understanding of the industry and market trends.

Coaching -

Encouraging and guiding employees to make their performance more effective, and to enhance their self-perception and problem-solving skills.

Decisiveness -

The ability to make active decisions or to commit oneself by speaking one’s mind and taking a position in a timely manner.

Delegation -

The ability to assign responsibilities, authority and tasks to the right employees, taking into account their interests, ambitions, development, capacity and competency.

Facilitating Change -

The ability to assist individuals and teams to understand, participate in and accept a desired change.

Flexible Thinking -

Being able to change or adjust one's own thinking, opinion, behaviour or approach to achieve a certain objective.

Financial Planning and Organisational Skills

Identifies, obtains and manages resources (people, material, information, budget, time) effectively to accomplish operational and financial business goals.

Influence -

The ability to win over other people with one’s views and ideas, and to generate support while working towards a mutually beneficial outcome.

Benefits:

• Family member discount to Valenture Institute

• Remote working
• Voluntary savings programme
• Half-day birthday leave

Equal opportunity employer:

Valenture Institute is committed to transformation and the company's Employment Equity plan will be considered during the selection process. Valenture Institute considers itself an Equal Opportunity Employer and thus aims to eliminate all forms of unfair discrimination in the recruitment and selection of staff.