Employment Consultant

Location: Birmingham
Salary: £30K – £34K per annum
Contract: Permanent, full-time (37.5 hours/week)
Deadline to apply: 22^nd September 2025

Who we are

Established in 2014, Beating Time is an award-winning charity operating across the UK, from two offices in London and Birmingham. We help people survive a prison sentence and thrive after release, ultimately reducing their chances of reoffending. We run two continuous programmes: Choirs Beating Time, which delivers weekly prison choirs and songwriting groups, and Inside Job, which uses a peer-led employment model to help people through release and into paid work. We have sung with thousands of people, directly supported 700+ people into employment, influenced policy and partnered with many high-profile organisations.

About Inside Job

Forget everything you think you know about employment services. We do things differently – really differently. Dreamt up by Jon Floyd while he was serving at HMP Birmingham, and developed with our founder Heather Phillips, Inside Job flips the script when it comes to helping people with convictions rebuild their lives.

Here’s how:

1. We train prisoners as Recruitment Consultants. Yep, real skills, real opportunities.
2. We bring employers inside prisons to meet, interview, and sometimes hire talent on the spot.
3. We work closely in the community, breaking down barriers and helping people find meaningful employment after release. Our support is available for as long as necessary.

The role

As a Community Employment Consultant, you’ll join the team that bridges the gap between prisons, employers, and the community. You will work closely with candidates both before and after release, identity and cultivate employer partnerships, and support our central team. It’s essential you are happy to work from our office in Digbeth at least three days a week. You will also need to be able to drive so you can visit one of our prisons once a week (our West Midlands prisons are HMPs Birmingham, Hewell, Swinfen Hall and Stoke Heath), you can expense petrol for this.

Your responsibilities

• Work with peer-recruiters to identify candidates approaching release who are interested in work.
• Build close relationships with candidates in prison to anticipate any immediate barriers to work (e.g. ID and banking, family contacts, areas of interest)
• Accompany candidates through release and into the community, with frequent check-ins, to support their route into work.
• Build strong, collaborative relationships with prison staff.
• Work alongside the Head of Inside Job to organise monthly job surgeries in prison and in the community
• Connect with local and national employers, championing our candidates and collaborating with our London team.
• Build vital relationships with Probation, DWP, Local Authorities, and third-sector organisations.
• Log candidate progress on our custom CRM portal.

Who we’re looking for

We’re not big on box-ticking, but here’s the sort of person who thrives in this role:

• Comfortable and confident working in prisons (you’ll need to pass security vetting)
• Empathetic, non-judgemental, and a brilliant listener
• Aware of the barriers facing people with convictions, and ready to help overcome them
• Curious about the world of work, local industries and employment trends
• A natural relationship-builder who can talk to anyone, from CEOs to candidates
• Organised and IT-savvy
• Strong writing skills, with the ability to put together CVs, disclosure letters, etc.

Bonus points if you’ve got recruitment or case management experience – but not essential.

What we offer

This isn’t just another job. It’s an opportunity to be part of something genuinely groundbreaking. Inside Job is the UK’s first employment programme designed and run by and for prison leavers.

Our team is proudly diverse. Many of us, including our Community Consultants, have been through the criminal justice system. Your background and story matter to us.

You’ll get:

• A salary that recognises your skills (£30-34K).
• Real impact: you’ll change lives every day, and see it on a personal level.
• Supportive, inspiring colleagues who care about what they do, with decades of experience between them.
• Flexibility: interviews can be online or face-to-face, with 2 days a week remote working.

 

How to Apply:

1. Send us a CV and a 1-page cover letter.
   Tell us:
   • What skills, experiences and interests you have that fit this role
   • Why you want to work with people leaving prison

   Email it to: patrickrobert@beatingtime.org by 5pm on 22^nd September 2025.

2. If shortlisted, we’ll invite you for a formal interview (online or in-person) + a short task to show us how you think.
3. Finally, pop by our Birmingham office for coffee with the team