Volunteer Chair of Trustees

What will you be doing?

Devoid of access to adequate support and weighed down by low societal expectations, Black-heritage students experience sub-optimal educational and employment outcomes.   At With Insight Education, our social mission is to address this inequality.   We are determined to remove the perceptual and structural barriers that Black-heritage students face.  Since 2018 we have offered impactful mentoring and skill development programmes to over 1,300 students, helping them to gain the confidence, knowledge and soft skills to secure a brighter future.  A future with greater opportunities for social mobility. We have the hugely ambitious goal of supporting 1000 students per year by 2027 and seek a new Chair of Trustees who will provide outstanding leadership to the board as we scale.  Although we are a charity, the majority of our finance comes from traded income so the incoming Chair needs to demonstrate effective business acumen and financial literacy.  The ideal candidate will be agile-minded and possess influential communication skills.  A strong understanding of governance best practice is also essential, although prior experience of being a board Chair is not required.  Given the nature of our work, we particularly welcome candidates who have lived experience of the inequalities that we seek to address and/or have experience of working closely with the community that With Insight Education serves.  

What are we looking for?

It is essential is that you care about the issue of tackling the disparity in the educational and professional progression of Black-heritage students. The successful candidate will be expected to demonstrate evidence of the following skills, capabilities, and experience:

A strong personal commitment to diversity and inclusion. Excellent chairing skills, including the ability to facilitate discussion, drawinh out a range of views in a way that values diversity of experience to reach collective decisions on the best way forward. Strong understanding of governance best practice. The ability to build a supportive, motivational and coaching relationship with the CEO in which constructive challenge is used to facilitate positive outcomes. Formulation of a strategic vision, informed by good independent judgment.  Strong influencing, relationship building and advocacy skills. The ability to lead an organisation through change. Ability to objectively analyse information to arrive at creative solutions. Effective business acumen Practical experience of engaging with strategy and leadership, and of helping to develop and grow an organisation towards high performance. Solid financial literacy A proven track record in one or more of these areas:

Working within the social mobility sector Working within or selling to the higher educational sector Working within the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion field Scaling an organisation

Prior experience of being on a Board is essential, although it is not a requirement that you have chaired a board before.   

What difference will you make?

This is an exciting opportunity for someone to shape the board and strategic direction of the Charity as we look to increase our impact.