Join us as a Café (Engagement) Supervisor and help shape a vibrant, welcoming space at the heart of our community. You’ll oversee the daily running of our café, ensuring great service, affordable food and a positive experience for everyone who walks through the door. As the face of the centre, you’ll support learners, volunteers and customers, helping people build confidence, skills and connections. From managing stock, preparing food and maintaining high standards to developing menus, coordinating activities and supporting learners through their training, you’ll play a key role in making the café a thriving hub of wellbeing and opportunity. If you’re motivated, community‑minded and ready to make an impact, this role gives you the chance to lead with purpose.
Please be aware this is 18 hours per week over 3 days (mon-wed) and is a 9 month fixed term maternity cover role
As a Café (Engagement) Supervisor, a typical day might include:
1. Managing the day to day running of the café and its services, offering a great service, affordable products, and a space for people to enjoy.
2. Managing processes end to end, from sourcing and buying affordable and compliant supply chain, preparing food, promotion, sales and customer service, cash handling, through to cashing up, banking, stock checks, end of day clean, and reconciliation and sales reporting.
3. Ensuring the café is appropriately resourced with suitably qualified people, volunteers and learners at all times.
4. Being the face of the centre, welcoming learners and customers to our centre.
5. As part of the engagement team, you will provide support and advise to those using the building, upselling our courses and groups were appropriate.
6. Ensuring the café meets our sales and recruitment targets for income, volunteers, learners and attendees.
7. Exploring new ideas to grow the café provision, ensuring it is commercially viable and meets the needs of the local community.
8. Alongside other supervisors, leading the development of the menu with a focus on affordable, fresh and healthy eating, activities with a focus on wellness and engagement plans for the café, ensuring it maximises attendance and links with the wider programme offer in the wider team.
9. Preparing food and drinks in line with all regulations and standards, including Barista coffee, always delivering to excellent levels of food and hygiene standards, ensuring all workers, volunteers and learners understand the standards expected .
10. Support the café workers (paid, voluntary and students) to develop their skills across café management.
11. Recruit and support volunteers and learners into the café to develop confidence, skills and qualifications to help them reach their potential.
12. Leading and motivating, the café team to continuously improve and increase their capability to deliver against quality and performance targets.
13. Deliver café-based learning to people who want to gain further skills and experience in a café, hospitality or retail environment, owning your learners end to end, monitoring, marking and assessing learners’ work, monitoring their progress to ensure our learners are prepared for exams and/or course accreditation.
14. Preparing plans, schemes of work and learning materials for each session, making them available for monitoring or lesson observation visits and maintaining them.
15. Coordinating and organising events, workshops, drop-ins and activities in the café to increase opportunities to cross-sell our services, attract income through sales in the café and sign ups to activities and learning. Targeting activities that serve our customer groups on other programmes across our wider learning hub.
The must haves:
16. Experience of catering, hospitality or retail at a management level
17. Basic cooking skills, with qualifications within this area
18. Qualified in a relevant subject or occupational area to at least Level 2
19. Food Safety to at least L2, or willing to gain quickly
20. Awareness of the processes and procedures required to maintain a high level of food safety and hygiene
21. Awareness of education course types and purpose, and why some learners have struggled with learning in the past
22. Ability to work as a team, under pressure and in a fast-paced environment
23. A genuine commitment to the personal and occupational success of the long term unemployed
24. You’re a positive, energised and enthusiastic person, with a real zest for helping others
25. Proven ability at developing great working relationships with others.
26. A good understanding of Health and Safety alongside a wider commercial acumen
27. A working knowledge of how volunteering, work experience and placements can enhance the skills and opportunities for people
28. Strong written and verbal communication skills are a must – including maths skills to deal with simple budgeting and cash banking processes.
29. Motivating, coaching and supporting people to be a success is what you really enjoy, developing people, growing networks and facilitating change.
30. You’re a people person who is great at developing relationships with people and organisations
31. Resilience. Working in the education, support and employment sectors is a challenging but rewarding career. You’ll be helping to bring real change to peoples’ lives.
The added extras:
32. A background in sales, a target driven environment or running small business is essential to understand the commercial aspects of the role
33. A minimum L3 Award in Education and Training (or PTLLS equivalent)
34. Level Three in Information, Advice and Guidance
35. You may have worked on government or charitable funded projects before so know the ropes for gathering evidence and monitoring your performance.
36. You’ll love to work in front line services – and have loads of experience evidencing this
37. You’re a dab hand at baking, cooking and can get the ingredients at a value for money price too with your negotiation skills!
38. You have financial or budgeting experience, including understanding cash processes
39. You’ll be adept at change, having got hands-on experience living and breathing new ways of working and knowing how to bring your colleagues along for the experience.
40. Training and development knowledge and skills aren’t essential but are advantageous.
41. You’ll be adept at change, having got hands-on experience living and breathing new ways of working and knowing how to bring your colleagues along for the experience.
Being part of the Acis team, you’ll get:
42. Generous holiday entitlement – 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays (pro rata)
43. enhanced pension contributions
44. The opportunity to undertake professional training, funded by us.
45. One days paid leave a year for volunteering work (in addition to your Annual leave entitlement)
46. Staff benefits with Paycare – A health and benefits scheme giving you support and contributions towards various health benefits such as counselling, eye tests, vaccinations and much more
47. Benefits with Acis Perkz – a discount scheme giving you savings off hundreds of schemes including discounts on your coffee, weekly shop, days out and much more!
48. Employee recognition scheme, where we celebrate and award our Stars within Acis, including gift vouchers
49. Long service awards for our loyal employees
50. Cycle to work scheme
51. Employee Assistance Programme to give you confidential advice and support, when you need it
52. Professional membership subscription to support your continuous professional development
53. Death in service benefit as part of our pension scheme
As soon as a suitable candidate is found for this role we reserve the right to close the job advert ahead of the closing date, so please do not delay in submitting your application.
As part of our commitment to safeguarding there will be numerous safeguarding checks that form part of the recruitment process including an Enhanced DBS check and you will be required to complete a self declaration form at interview stage. Please note this role is also exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and it is an offence to apply for the role if you are barred from regulated activity.
Acis are committed to equality and diversity, are a proud member of disability confident and welcome applications from any applicant who feel they hold the essential skills to fulfil the role. We recognise that people need flexibility in their role and we’re happy to discuss flexible working options with the successful candidate in addition to any aid with interviewing that you might need