Learning and Development Partner (Census)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime and migration.

This role will sit in the Central Learning team within ONS who are responsible for building the skills needed to deliver our organisational priorities, aligned with Government Skills policies and relevant learning frameworks. Working with senior leaders and partners across the organisation, the team ensure compliance with learning processes, develop ONS learning, facilitate appropriate engagements to build capability and act as the central point of contact for all L&D activity.

This role will lead stakeholder engagement with the Census team and build relationships with relevant partners internally and externally to ensure quality learning interventions are developing the skills we need for the delivery of the census programme. The aim of this role is to drive a high-performing, engaged and future-ready ONS through learning and skills development aligned with delivering organisational priorities.

This role will be responsible for partnering with the Census team to understand learning needs, working with learning and technical training teams to curate, design and procure learning solutions and design appropriate learning pathways. The postholder will also lead various L&D activities as the landscape dictates.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with stakeholders to understand learning needs and build effective learning solutions
• Lead and coordinate engagement with Census colleagues to ensure effective delivery of L&D activities throughout the year, including some delivery and reporting and evaluation using feedback data
• Conduct learning needs analyses and performance-gap assessments to identify skill and knowledge gaps
• Manage the full life cycle of learning projects for census colleagues, including budgeting, resource allocation, and stakeholder communication
• Regularly engage with Civil Service Learning, cultivating a successful dialogue to ensure key ONS learning developments are compliant
• Review, refresh and further develop policies, processes, guidance and learning content, and understand how this supports our wider skills-led approach to deploying talent

CIPD Level 5 or willingness to work towards.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

ONS is unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants must have a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are currently in the UK on a time-limited visa, it must have at least 18 months remaining at the point of application.

To work at ONS, applicants must meet the Civil Service nationality requirements, satisfy UK right to work requirements and, where applicable, meet the relevant security clearance requirements.

If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application (2 steps)

Application Step 1: Online Civil Service Judgement Test.

Upon submission of Part 1 of your application form you will be sent an invitation to complete an online Civil Service Judgement test. There will be full instructions on how to complete the test including an opportunity to practice before undertaking the actual test. The test is not time limited. If you fail the test your application will not proceed to the next stage.

Application Step 2 – Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, CV, skills, experience, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum word-count allowed is 1000, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours, and essential skills.

When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert.

Interviews will be held online via Microsoft Teams.

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Sift will be conducted w/c 19th October.

Interviews will be conducted w/c 26th October

Dates are subject to change.

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment. Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.