We're looking for an IT Trainer!
We currently need a new trainer to join our small team. Here's what we're looking for:
| What | Notes |
|---|---|
| Training ability | You must be a confident and likeable trainer, with a good sense of humour and the ability to make courses fun! If you have a background in teaching, training or drama you're more likely to be the sort of person we're looking for. |
| Technical ability | Ideally you will already know aspects of Microsoft Office, SQL Server and/or Power BI, but it's vital that you have the ability to learn new information quickly. If you struggled at GCSE maths you're unlikely to enjoy being a Wise Owl. The successful candidate should expect to be teaching programming courses within at most 3-6 months of joining. |
| Proximity to Manchester | Our office is in Hadfield, near Glossop (between Manchester and the Peak District). Although you're welcome to work from home some of the time that you're not training, our IT set-up means that you will need to deliver online courses from our office. |
| Willingness to travel | We try our hardest to share out travel fairly, but inevitably you will have to travel as part of your job (particularly as classroom training resumes after the pandemic). Typically when you're away it will be for two (usually) or three days at a time. |
If you're still interested, read on ...
About Wise Owl Training
We are a small computer training company with our admin offices based in Hadfield (near Manchester) on the edge of the Peak District (Hadfield's chief claim to fame is being the location for the TV series The League of Gentlemen). We celebrate 30 years in business this year ago and take great pride in not only the quality of our courses, but our reliability and integrity too.
We run two types of training:
| Type | Notes |
|---|---|
| Online | Delegates on our online courses log in using Teams and Remote Desktop, which means that you can see not only people's faces (when they choose to let you) but also exactly what they are doing on screen. You can see more details of how our online courses work here. |
| Classroom | Our classroom courses take place either at the training venues we use in Manchester or (less frequently) London, or onsite at our clients' premises anywhere in the UK. For courses at our venue we take our delegates out for lunch at a local restaurant each day. |
To maintain our high standards, we keep our class sizes small - up to 6 people on scheduled courses and a maximum of 8 for tailored company courses. We don't use freelance trainers.
About You
We are looking for a reliable, hard-working trainer who is keen to learn and has the ability to appear in front of a group of people (whether in person or online) with confidence. You will need to be patient and have good social skills. We can teach you better presentation skills and help you gain the necessary software knowledge, but we can't teach you to have a logical mind, the skill of being able to explain clearly and concisely, and how to have the patience of a saint when dealing with difficult delegates!
A good knowledge of Microsoft software (in particular SQL, Excel and especially Power BI) is preferred, but is absolutely NOT essential; what is vital is that you have the ability to gain this knowledge quickly with our help.
If you can prove you have the necessary technical and presentation skills, we do not expect you to have graduated in sciences (although excellent GCSE passes in Maths and science subjects are essential). You will need a full driving licence, along with the willingness to be flexible in your work hours to meet the demands of the position.
The Position
The initial salary is negotiable according to experience (payable monthly, one month in arrears). As an example, we would expect the starting salary for a 25-year-old who is applying for their second job after University to be about £25-30,000 per year, rising to £35-40,000 within a couple of years. We will revise your salary after you pass our initial three-month probationary period, and thereafter your salary will be subject to a generous yearly performance review (pandemics allowing!).
There will be opportunities to branch out into other areas away from training (such as consultancy or management) as the company grows. There could also be opportunities to set up other UK-based training centres in the future.
The Application Process
The application process will comprise of up to 3 stages:
| Stage | What it involves |
|---|---|
| 1 - Apply | In the first instance please send an email letter of application stating why you feel you would make a good IT Trainer along with your CV to the email address shown at the foot of this table. Please also include in this email a short recording of yourself giving a training course, following these guidelines. |
| 2 - Give an online course | Successful applicants will be invited to give a short online training session to one or more Wise Owls (at this point you'll also have the opportunity to ask any questions). |
| 3 - Attend an interview | Finally, successful applicants will be invited to an interview and presentation in (or near) Manchester. At this you will be asked to give a 15-minute "course" in basic Excel. Here's what this involves. |
The email address to use:
Please send your applications in the first instance to this address.
After each stage you will be contacted by email to inform you if you are invited to the next stage of the process. If at any stage you wish to withdraw from the process, please do let us know.
We thank you for your interest in joining the Wise Owl team!
Job Description
Here are some of the tasks you'll be expected to do as part of the owly team:
- Successfully complete our three month trainee programme.
- Develop, attain and maintain a high standard for all the skills necessary to deliver a Wise Owl IT training course.
- Learn to deliver online training courses using our remote desktop systems.
- Deliver scheduled and tailored IT training courses at our training centres in Manchester and London and various UK-wide locations following the procedures for each venue.
- Run pre-course tests for delegates on online courses, to check that they will be able to connect successfully on the day.
- Liaise with clients for tailored training courses.
- Make your own travel and accommodation arrangements for classroom courses, and enter all expenses into our in-house expenses system.
- Write after-course reports as required.
- Keep up to date with new software releases.
- Learn/develop/prepare new courses as and when required.
- Optionally, develop skills as a technical documentation author to eventually help write company software training manuals and exercises.
- Optionally, write training blogs and/or create videos/shorts for our website.
- Deliver other training and consultancy services as may be required from time to time.
- Occasionally answer telephone and email enquiries from clients and enter the details into our internal system WOMBAT.
This isn't necessarily a comprehensive list, but does give an idea of what the role will involve.
Finally, if you are a recruitment agency, please go to someone else's website. We don't use agencies, and never will. Not even yours. In fact, especially not yours!