Learning & Development Specialist: Birmingham
About Us
Founded in Bristol in 2019, the Women’s Work Lab CIC is a social enterprise supporting unemployed Mums in receipt of benefits to (re)start their careers. Typically our Mums have faced significant barriers to working which may include domestic abuse, children with disabilities, mental health struggles or English being their second language. Our core 12-week HIVE programme helps to build confidence and employability skills via face-to-face training combined with a volunteer work placement. Mums are then supported for up to a year with personalised career coaching as they continue their journey back towards work.
We exist to facilitate our Mums to become the best versions of themselves, whatever that looks like. Ambition is unique to an individual and we always aim to help someone identify it and then take the necessary steps to achieve it. And we get results! Outcomes for participants include new careers, further training and crucially the creation of a vital support network. 74% of our 2024 graduates are now either working, in formal training or volunteering.
We have a core team in Bristol of 17, running programmes in Bristol, Bath, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset and Somerset. We are now getting ready to launch our first programmes in Birmingham, starting in January 2026.
The role
Due to our geographical expansion, we’re looking to hire our first Birmingham L&D Specialist, who will be responsible for delivering our award-winning training during term time. Between late September and early December you will be required to shadow training being delivered in Bristol, before delivering yourself from January 2026 onwards.
The training for our HIVE programme is made up of cohorts of c.18 women and is structured around 5+2 weeks (separated by school holidays and a block of work experience), delivered over 2 half days days per week (10am - 1pm), during school hours and term time only. Training for specialist programmes may vary in length.
Working with the new Regional Head and Team Administrator, you will own the delivery and evaluation of any training, ensuring that the face-to-face element of our programme is delivered in an engaging, innovative and creative way. You will be heavily supported by the Core Support Team in Bristol, with key people frequently travelling to be with you in Birmingham for quality and monitoring purposes.
You will take the established programme content (you will not need to design any content), and using your skills in facilitation and coaching and your wider business and/or workplace experience, you will make it your own. Your role will be to bring the basic content to life with personal anecdotes, learnings and insight. You will feel comfortable picking up developed and tested content and bringing your own perspective to each component. The peer support network that develops across cohorts creates a vital support network for our Mums and you will need to confidently facilitate the cohesiveness of these groups.
You will also own the end to end evaluation and feedback of each cohort, and proactively use the output to improve the content and delivery as you go along.
You
You will have a proven track record of delivering training or coaching in a proactive and responsive way. Experience and understanding of employment and recruitment practices is also a really important part of the support we give our Mums.
You will have strong empathy and emotional intelligence and be able to read the room effectively, managing (at times) difficult or challenging conversations sensitively and supportively. Our training is a collaborative experience so you will need to be someone who can be flexible with timings and content to get the best out of any session.
We place a huge emphasis on lived experience in our team and half of our current team are previous WWL participants. We want our team to continue to reflect the communities we support and would encourage and welcome applications from under-represented groups who would like to use their lived experience in a positive way. Programme delivery is term time and school hours only.
*Due to the nature of the work carried out in our training, this role is restricted to female applicants only in accordance with the provisions of the occupational requirement (Equality Act 2010, pursuant to Schedule 9, Part 1).
Remuneration
In line with our usual recruitment and on-boarding for Mum-facing roles, you will need to shadow a full programme before delivery begins in January 2026. This initial on-boarding phase will be paid at a rate of £350 p/day for c.2 days/week when programmes are live in Bristol and all travel and accommodation (when needed) will be covered too. We anticipate this to be around 17 days starting TBC w/c 22nd September, with a break during the month of November when Mums will be on placement and training is paused.
The PAYE contract would begin in January 2026 - this will be 15 hours/week, term-time only and run until 31st July 2026. Salary would be £35k pa/pro-rata.
Whilst we are very much hoping to be delivering in the West Midlands beyond 31st July 2026 but until contracts are negotiated this cannot be guaranteed.
Application process
Please email your CV and covering letter to Rachel Mostyn Co-Founder at the Women's Work Lab: rachel@womensworklab.co.uk. As a social enterprise we do not have a budget available to pay recruiters so please don't contact us unless you're happy to refer pro bono.
The Women’s Work Lab is committed to safeguarding and as such, the successful applicant will be required to undergo an enhanced Children & Adults DBS check plus specific Health & Safety, Safeguarding and Prevent training. This will be paid for by the WWL.