Future Talent & Careers Lead

Future Talent & Careers Lead

Permanent

37.5 Hours Per Week

Salary: £45,000 plus £4,800 car allowance

Remote with nationwide travel (Regular travel to head office in Denton, M34)

A BIT ABOUT US

In June 2021, Just Childcare was acquired by the Partou group of companies, followed by their acquisition of All About Children in September 2022. The merger of both organisations will establish Partou UK as one of the largest childcare providers in the UK. Through organic growth and targeted acquisition, plans are in place to significantly grow the UK estate, making it an exciting and rewarding time to be part of the journey ahead.

We will continue to invest significantly in the quality of care that we provide as our offering and the optimisation of our early years learning experience that each one of our parent’s children can rightly expect to rely on through its curriculum delivery. We are on a clear growth trajectory whereby continuous further professionalisation and quality improvement go hand in hand with expansion, through the development of new locations, acquisitions, automation, and processes over time.

A BIT ABOUT YOU

You are a relationship builder and strategic thinker who knows how to create sustainable talent pipelines from the ground up. You thrive working upstream of live recruitment — forging meaningful partnerships with schools, colleges, training providers and community organisations, and turning those connections into real, measurable routes into childcare.

You understand the full candidate and learner journey, and you're just as comfortable presenting to a group of school leavers as you are presenting data to senior stakeholders. You bring commercial thinking to everything you do, using insight to prioritise your activity and demonstrate impact.

You may have a background in early careers, apprenticeships, employability or community recruitment — what matters most is that you know how to build something from scratch, keep it moving, and connect people to the right opportunities at the right time.

Above all, you care about people. You're excited by the idea of opening doors into a sector that makes a real difference, and you want to help Partou grow its own talent in a way that's inclusive, sustainable and built to last.

WHY IS THIS ROLE IMPORTANT TO US?

Childcare is facing a real and growing talent challenge. Attracting people into the sector, and keeping them, requires more than just posting vacancies — it requires building genuine routes in, long before a role becomes urgent.

That's exactly what this role is here to do.

As our Future Talent & Careers Lead, you'll work upstream of day-to-day recruitment, focused entirely on building the pipelines that feed our future. Whether that's partnering with local colleges to develop the next generation of practitioners, strengthening our apprenticeship programme, or creating pathways for career changers and returners — your work will directly shape Partou's ability to grow its own talent for years to come.

This role sits deliberately outside of Talent Acquisition, so that longer-term pipeline activity is always protected from the pressures of immediate vacancy delivery. Instead, you'll work hand in hand with our Learning & Development team to connect people to the career pathways and qualifications available through Partou Academy — helping future and existing team members see the real opportunities that exist within our organisation.

In short, this role is about building something that lasts. And the impact will be felt across every nursery we run.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Building Pipelines & Partnerships

• Develop and deliver Partou's future talent plan, with a clear focus on priority roles, hard-to-recruit locations and the regions where we need it most.
• Build and maintain partnerships with schools, colleges, universities, training providers, community groups and employability organisations that generate real, sustained candidate flow.
• Create accessible routes into childcare for apprentices, newly qualified practitioners, career changers, returners and people who are completely new to the sector

Apprenticeships & Early Careers

• Own the end-to-end apprenticeship journey — from attraction and onboarding through to progression, completion, retention and conversion into permanent roles.
• Work closely with training providers to ensure our apprenticeship offer is competitive, well-supported and delivering results.

Working With Internal Teams

• Partner with Talent Acquisition to convert pipelines into live candidate flow, without taking ownership of day-to-day vacancy delivery.
• Work with Learning & Development to raise awareness of qualification routes, career pathways and learning opportunities available through Partou Academy.
• Support succession pipelines for Room Leaders, Deputy Managers and Nursery Managers by connecting future talent to the right development routes.
• Support agency-to-permanent and internal progression routes in partnership with Operations, People Operations, Talent Acquisition and L&D.

Data, Insight & Impact

• Use vacancy data, turnover trends, labour market insight and conversion rates to build targeted local plans.
• Track pipeline volume, quality, conversion, retention and progression — and tell a clear story about impact.

Standards & Values

• Ensure all activity reflects Partou's commitment to safer recruitment, inclusion, and the best outcomes for children and families.

WHAT WE`RE LOOKING FOR

Experience & Background

• A track record in early careers, apprenticeships, employability, community recruitment or talent pipeline development — you've built something before and you know what works.
• Experience developing external partnerships and turning those relationships into measurable outcomes, not just warm conversations.
• Knowledge of apprenticeship funding, training providers and qualification routes is desirable but not essential — a willingness to learn it quickly is.

Skills & Approach

• Strong organisation and project management skills, with the ability to keep multiple initiatives moving at the same time without dropping the ball.
• Confident using data to target your activity, measure effectiveness and make the case for where to invest time and resource.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder skills — you're equally comfortable with a group of school leavers, a college partnership manager or a senior leader at Partou.

Values & Mindset

• A genuine commitment to safer recruitment, inclusion and creating a positive experience for every candidate you work with.
• A proactive, self-starting approach — this role has real autonomy and you'll need to be comfortable shaping your own priorities.
• Excited by the idea of opening doors into childcare for people who might never have considered it before.
• Willingness to travel nationally, including occasional overnight stays.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

In this role, success isn't just about filling vacancies — it's about building something that genuinely changes how Partou attracts and grows its talent for the long term.

After your first year, we'd expect to see:

Pipelines & Partnerships