Education

Our Education Practice provides executive search and interim management solutions for a range of clients across the sector, including:

• Universities and Higher Education Institutions;
• Further Education and organisations concerned with skills;
• Schools and academies;
• Government departments, NDPBs, and agencies.

Higher Education

Quality and performance within Higher Education begins with academic leadership.

The drivers for the sector – student experience, research excellence and entrepreneurialism – depend upon the capability of academic leaders, and we see our role as developing that capacity across the sector.

This may require extensive international search, such as we conducted to recruit the Director of the Institute of Effective Education, York University. This unique organisation required a leader with a global reputation, and our search took in four continents before the appointment of leading educational psychologist Professor Robert Slavin, formerly of John Hopkins University, Maryland.

Sometimes, it means a targeted assignment, for example to recruit Non-Executive Directors with highly-specific skills – as we recently recruited for City University from creative industries, commercial and healthcare backgrounds.

We specialise in search and selection for the most senior leaders. Across its practices, Veredus appoints a Chief Executive every two weeks on average.

We are also proud of the broad range of academic roles to which we have recruited. We understand the depth of knowledge required to find inspirational leaders in an academic discipline. We have succeeded in the more difficult search assignments too, such as in specialist subjects, like defence management, or to faculties turning around poor reputations.

We also recruit to the growing number of new operations roles, through which universities are developing a more business-like, entrepreneurial approach. We are particularly strong on roles in Finance, Operations, Estates and IT.

One of the hallmarks of Veredus is our tendency to look beyond the obvious candidates, to bring people from one sector into another, and we have a strong track record of attracting candidates with commercial-sector skills into universities. This was the reason we were recently asked to recruit two Business School Directors for Nottingham University: one for its Business School in Malaysia and the other for its Business School in China.

Another hallmark is our instinct to participate in the sectors in which we operate. We are regular contributors to the Top Management Programme of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, and we frequently engage on developmental issues – for example running workshops on talent management at the Universities HR conference and the Academic Registrars Council.

Further Education and Skills

The Further Education and Skills sector is characterised by unprecedented change, with challenging demands placed upon leaders, in particular college Principals.

We have supported the need for more a more outward-facing mindset and new organisational forms. For example, we recruited the new Principal of Sheffield College, one of the largest in the country, following the merger of three institutions into a ‘federal college’ model.

We bring a strong track record in the recruitment of senior leaders, including Chief Executives of Sector Skills Councils, awarding bodies, and other agencies. We are also active in supporting leadership development, for example through our work with the Network for Black Professionals in FE, which aims to increase cultural diversity among college leaders.

A further Veredus hallmark is our ability to aid transformational change, which we are already supporting through our work both with emerging agencies and with established organisations taking on new roles. A good example is the Learning and Skills Network (LSN). We have recruited thirteen senior roles to help shape the organisation as it defines a new and innovative role for itself, and a mission to transform the skills sector – within FE and beyond – and the wider public services.

Schools and academies

We have significant experience working with schools and academies to appoint talented leaders, often to schools and academies in challenging circumstances where it has traditionally been difficult to attract the best leadership talent.

We are able to take a fresh perspective on the recruitment of leaders in secondary education, and by working collaboratively with colleagues in our Local Government and Not-for-Profit Practices can source talent from a broad range of organisations working to deliver services to children and young people.

Government departments, NDPBs and agencies

Similarly, we have supported recruitment into a host of specialist roles, such as those concerned with safeguarding children, or the Special Educational Needs agenda.

A good example is the search and selection for a Communication Champion, with a brief to work nationally to develop services for children with speech and language difficulties, working jointly within the educationalists and the Department of Health. Our team to deliver the project was similarly ‘joined up’, involving colleagues from our Health, Local Government and Not-for-Profit Practices.

We have also supported the recruitment of senior leaders responsible for the policy direction of the broader education agenda, such as the Director General for Learning and Skills in Wales and the Chief Inspector of Estyn.