About us

Warwickshire is famous the world over as Shakespeare's Country - but that's only half the story. We remain a creative and innovative place in other ways too.

Warwickshire is home to many UK and international brands, with key strengths in automotive, future mobility and digital creative industries. The area is a major global centre for vehicle electrification, autonomous technologies and video game development. Our local universities include Top 10 University of Warwick and Modern University of the Year Coventry University. There’s a lot happening here.

We’re home to one of the strongest business bases in the UK and confident that even through challenging times, our economy will emerge strongly, and our organisation has an important role to play in this.

Within Warwickshire County Council, the Economy and Skills Team commissions services and provides direct support to businesses, including access to finance, skills and training, business centres and inward investment. Recently we have launched a number of new economic recovery programmes to support our businesses, schools and residents. We are also developing a range of new activities in support of the Council’s Covid-19 Recovery Plan, including the newly launched £140 million Warwickshire Recovery and Investment Fund (WRIF) which all together, are expected to create over 3,000 new jobs and safeguard many thousands more.

An exciting opportunity has become available to work with Warwickshire businesses to develop their growth plans, identifying how Warwickshire County Council can help support them on their post-pandemic journey. The post will play a key role in enabling Warwickshire to be seen as a business- friendly location with the best environment to help businesses access the support they need to grow.

The role will provide specialist support to businesses to help them grow and prosper within Warwickshire, assisting businesses to access local and national support programmes and finance provision, including the Warwickshire Recovery and Investment Fund (WRIF). The WRIF is a new £140m fund to stimulate the county’s economy and is designed to specifically address a gap that has been identified in the market for access to finance.

You will develop and maintain excellent working relationships with a range of key stakeholders including statutory partners and service providers to provide and promote an integrated and co-ordinated approach to access business support and funding for Warwickshire businesses.

The post is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Skills and Experience

We are looking for a dynamic and enthusiastic individual who is motivated by contributing to the economic development of Warwickshire.

The successful candidate will likely have significant experience in business management with knowledge across the business support and access to finance landscape, alongside the proven ability and know-how to advise businesses on the range of options available.  

Strong interpersonal and communication skills are a must including working effectively with a wide range of stakeholders including senior business leaders and strategic partners. You will be expected to work on your own initiative, manage competing priorities and meet deadlines.

What we offer

As a local authority, we pride ourselves in being collaborative and barrier breaking, whilst demonstrating strong team cultures by encouraging creative thinking, personal development and embracing new ways of working.

We are proudly an award-winning team recognised for its culture and employee engagement, we operate an agile working staff policy, whilst also offering enhanced wellbeing and staff benefit programmes such as cycle to work schemes, childcare vouchers, pension and health care schemes.

This is an exciting time to join the Economy & Skills Service as the economy recovers and we work with partners to deliver a range of existing and new services to support business activity and sustainable growth in the local and regional economy.

The post is based in Warwick, an attractive town with excellent road and rail connections to Birmingham, the Midlands, Oxfordshire and the South East.

For further information please see the Job Description and Person Specification.

Additional Information

For further information about the role please contact Alison Robinson – alisonrobinson@Warwickshire.gov.uk

Closing date: 30^th September 2021

To apply for this vacancy please click on the 'Apply' button.
 
Our method of application is online, please note, CV’s should not been submitted unless asked to do so. 

 
If you are unable to apply using the 'Apply' button please contact the Recruitment Centre on hrandpayroll@warwickshire.gov.uk including your contact details and any relevant screenshots.
 
You will be notified of our shortlisting decision via email, so please check your email on a regular basis after submitting your application. 

As part of being a Disability Confident employer we guarantee to interview anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post. By ‘minimum criteria’ we mean that you must provide us with evidence in your application form which demonstrates that you generally meet the level of competence required for each competence, as well as meeting any of the qualifications, skills or experience defined as essential in the person specification. 

Should you require application forms in an alternative format / language or any adjustments to be made throughout the application process or upon appointment, please contact hrandpayroll@warwickshire.gov.uk  and we will make every effort to meet your specific requirements. 

Warwickshire County Council (WCC) is committed to equality of opportunity for all employees and is keen to address areas of under representation in its workforce, this is because we really understand the importance of different voices, experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds within our workforce. Therefore, we strongly encourage applications from members of underrepresented groups. WCC has a number of staff network groups which provide peer support and safe spaces for employees who hold these and other identities. See more.