Regional Finance Apprentice - South London

This is a regional position to support Ark secondary academies in South London.   This regional role will involve travel within the South London region where we have schools based in Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth, Croydon and Greenwich. 

As Regional Finance Apprentice, your role is an integral part of the schools in the region, responsible for ensuring high standards of financial integrity. Depending upon which school you are supporting, you will manage the daily and monthly financial processes in the school, ensuring compliance with the requirements of the Academies Financial Handbook.  Your duties in each school may vary slightly as you may be required to support the current Finance team(s) in place.

The Regional Finance Apprentice will report into Senior Finance Manager. This role is located covering our South London region schools on a permanent basis working full time.

Interviews will be held w/c 13^th January 2025.

Key Responsibilities:

• Working closely with the Senior Finance Manager and Officer and Operations leads to ensure the continuing financial stability of the school
• Ensuring accurate and timely processing of purchase invoices and other documents using Concur and PS Financials accounting software, reconciling supplier statements, and preparing payment runs for authorisation
• Reconciling school bank accounts, credit card statements, and financial ledgers
• Operating petty cash; receiving, recording, and banking monies paid into the school, ensuring all monies outstanding are collected
• Working with the Operations leads to ensure goods and services are processed in compliance with current and relevant procurement legislation, ensuring best value is achieved
• Support the Senior Finance Manager in driving forward change and initiatives which promote regularity, propriety, value for money, and best standards
• Completion of the Level 2 Finance Assistant apprenticeship programme with West London College.  You will be expected to attend the college campus in Ealing for one day per week during term time to complete the required classroom-based training
• To be willing to undertake appropriate training in line with contractual duties
• Support other schools in the region as necessary

Key Requirements:

• English and Maths GCSE grade A-C, or equivalent
• Right to work in the UK
• Willingness to undertake training and other professional development e.g. AAT, ACCA
• High level of proficiency with Microsoft Office, especially Excel.  Experience with finance or other databases desirable
• Confidence and interest in learning new technologies and systems
• Strong organisational and time-management skills and the ability to delegate appropriately
• Ability to skilfully manage and maintain effective working relationships with colleagues and other stakeholders
• Ability to manage own time to enable multi-school regional working
• Works productively in a high-pressure environment
• High standards and a keen eye for detail
• Exercises sound judgment, especially relating to confidentiality and discretion

• 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays, rising with each year of service up to 30 days after 3-years’ service. This entitlement is pro rata for part time employees. This entitlement excludes bank holidays
• Full office closure between Christmas and New Year
• As an Ark employee, you will have the opportunity to be part of the TPT (The Pension Trust) scheme, our workplace pension scheme where we make an 11% contribution; you are not required to contribute towards this scheme unless you choose to. Depending on your role you may also be entitled to LGPS which is a defined benefit scheme where you contribute a percentage based on how much you earn (as do we) in exchange for a guaranteed amount in your pension pot every year
• Access to high-quality professional learning throughout your career, offering both face-to-face sessions and a bespoke online learning platform
• Access to Ark Rewards scheme offering savings from over 3,000 major retailers, interest-free loans available for season tickets or a bike, gym discounts offering up to 40% off your local gym and free eye tests

We’re an international charity, transforming lives through education. We exist to give every young person, regardless of their background, a great education and real choices in life. In the UK, we’re a network of 39 schools, educating around 30,000 pupils in areas where we can make the biggest difference and we’re recognised as one of the highest achieving academy groups in the country. We want to change the lives of children everywhere, not just in our own schools. So, we create and incubate Ventures designed not only to help pupils in Ark schools, but also to improve education systems.

You’ll be joining a group of like-minded, ambitious individuals who work collaboratively and are all committed to our core mission, that every child has the potential to succeed. Having just celebrated our 20^th anniversary, we are shaping our goals for the next 20 and there has never been a more exciting time to join us.