Placement Services Coordinator
Overview
The Placement Services Coordinator performs a key leadership and systems management role within the Office of the Dean, overseeing the full portfolio of placement operations for all undergraduate programs within the Faculty of Education. This includes leading a team of 5+ Placement Officers across two campuses and four departments, designing and implementing complex systems and process workflows, coordinating with all Program Chairs and Division Coordinators to uphold consistent and professional standards of practice for successful field experiences for over 2000 individual placements each academic year, and liaising closely with school boards, administrators, and educational organizations across the province to build and maintain strong partnerships and field experiences networks.
Responsibilities
- Engage in extensive and ongoing outreach and liaising with the province-wide K-12 education sector, including principals, teachers, placement officers, and administrators across all of Ontario, fostering strong reciprocal relationships to establish and maintain a comprehensive list of active Associate Teacher partnerships.
- Supervise a team of 5+ Placement Officers across two campuses, including assigning tasks and portfolios of work, training and mentoring, quality assurance, liaising between program administrators and the placement team to ensure work is being carried out to a high standard, and providing supportive and effective leadership.
- Develop and implement advanced administrative workflows and processes with a very high degree of organization and data accuracy; this includes reviewing and interpreting hundreds of student records, managing a database portal, composing detailed documents, maintaining extensive and detailed spreadsheets, sorting and filtering, running reports and queries, triaging and responding to high volumes of correspondence.
- Work collaboratively with program management teams, including Chairs, the Office of the Dean, and Division Coordinators, matching appropriate subject-area and grade placements for all students in keeping with university, ministry and OCT regulations to ensure a successful and meaningful placement experience for both the Teacher Candidates and Associate Teachers.
- Maintain an accounting system for stipend payments related to placements and prepare the appropriate financial requisitions for processing.
- Some travel required; at least once per term to either Thunder Bay or Orillia, plus regular and ongoing site visits to schools, conferences, and educational organizations within the regions as needed.
Qualifications
- Post-secondary degree in Business, Education or a closely related field, combined with a minimum of five years of progressive experience in a closely related role.
- Proven leadership skills, including the ability to promote cooperation and commitment within a diverse team to achieve desired outcomes and the ability to build cohesiveness as a group.
- A substantial and comprehensive working knowledge of the Ontario K-12 education sector in the Primary/Junior, Intermediate/Senior divisions, and Technology Education streams, and a familiarity with school administration in the Thunder Bay and/or Orillia catchment areas, including remote communities in either region.
- Progressive management/operations responsibility, including decision-making and overseeing systems of substantial size and complexity.
- Demonstrated success in the development and evaluation of process and protocol with the proven ability to recommend and implement strategic initiatives.
- Experience supervising, guiding, coaching and mentoring staff and fostering constructive team relationships.
- Ability to proactively anticipate potential challenges and take the initiative to rectify situations at the earliest point of intervention.
- Demonstrated independent judgement in areas of time and project management, task prioritization and decision-making.
- Proven ability to manage a large volume of work, conflicting priorities and deadlines within a busy and dynamic environment.
- Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, tact, judgement, professionalism, and diplomacy are essential.
- Extensive interpersonal skills and the ability to effectively interact with a diverse range of senior administration, external stakeholders, faculty, staff, school board administrators, teachers, and community groups.
- Highly proficient in Google Workspace and Drive, including advanced-level skills in creating and managing complex spreadsheets in Google Sheets and collecting and organizing data using Google Forms.
- Familiarity with Ontario College of Teachers policies and accreditation guidelines would be an asset.
Lakehead University is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and welcomes applications from all qualified individuals including women, racialized persons, Indigenous people, persons with disabilities, and other equity-seeking groups. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority. This is in accordance with Canadian immigration requirements.
Lakehead University has a goal to recruit and retain a diverse workforce as measured by increasing representation of underrepresented groups among applicants, candidates, and hires. Experience working with Indigenous or racialized communities, and/or members of other equity-deserving groups, is a strong asset. A lived experience or worked experience of any of these issues is preferred.
We appreciate your interest; Lakehead University is committed to supporting an accessible environment. Applicants requiring accommodation during the interview process should contact the Office of Human Resources at (807) 343-8010 ext. 8334 or human.resources@lakeheadu.ca to make appropriate arrangements.