Admissions Manager

Location: Regional Office - Middle East Cluster

In coordination with stakeholders:

• ISP Middle East Team
• School Leadership Teams, Principals, Admissions Teams, and other relevant stakeholders across the regional school network
• Third Party Vendors

Line Manager: Regional Head of Admissions, Middle East

Role context

The Admissions Managers are expected to lead student enrolment functions, advise on maximizing engagement with all stakeholders, pursue excellence in operational efficiency, and deliver exceptional customer service across the ISP schools in their cluster in the Middle East. This role is crucial to the sustained growth of the schools, their promotion as the school of choice in their local area and the effective delivery of the Amazing Learning message that is at the centre of the ISP vision.

The Admissions Managers will report directly to the Regional Head of Admissions and will work closely with the Regional Head of Marketing to ensure maximum recruitment and retention of students. The post holders will be expected to build a close working relationship with colleagues in the ISP regional team, the school admissions team and school leadership to fully perform their duties in the Middle East region.  

Key Responsibilities

1. Admissions, supporting proactive recruitment activities to hit termly and annual student recruitment targets

• Assume line management of school admissions and registrations teams in liaison with the school principal and leaders, to ensure teams are working effectively, continuously developing, and receiving training as required.
• Support and direct the establishment of strong relationships with prospective families.
• Develop strong internal relationships with school staff to best carry out student recruitment activities, including admissions meetings, events and parent communications.
• Ensure an effective event program is in place that will best advertise the school and its offering, including but not limited to open days, stay and play sessions, informational coffee mornings, community engagement events and external student recruitment events. To support and represent schools as required.
• Work with the school leadership to develop appropriate programs and campaigns to fill capacity, such as referral schemes, scholarships, or working with feeder schools and nurseries.
• Regularly reviewing and developing admissions documents, parent communication platforms and templates, and marketing collaterals to ensure accurate information and best practice.
• Contribute to the development of the MIS/CRM systems in use, currently Engage and HubSpot, to ensure robust collation of recruitment data, high levels of customer satisfaction and effective reporting of data.
• Work closely with the Regional Head of Marketing to consult in the selection of the activities, budget allocation and the production of effective advertising and marketing activations and campaigns of schools to promote enrolments.

2. Support maximum student retention

• Advise and support school staff in establishing strong relationships between the school and parents, using channels such as parent apps, newsletters, meetings and in-school displays.
• Work closely with schools and the Head of Marketing to best share Amazing Learning successes and progress with parents and the wider community to influence retention.
• Ensure schools have an effective parent workshop and engagement event program.
• Review and analyse Net Promotor Surveys (NPS) to support school stories.
• Review and Analyse school surveys with SLT and Marketing team to generate school stories.

3. Engagement through brand awareness and external partnerships

• Support schools in creating and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with feeder schools, universities, local businesses, government entities, education agents and other organisations to maximise student recruitment and retention in the school.
• Work with the Head of Marketing to establish relationships with educational platforms and influencers to drive enrolment, for example through sharing content, events, and advertising.
• Support school leaders in establishing mutually beneficial partnerships with external activity providers or academies, to offer more to families and secure additional revenue streams.
• Develop the school’s communication and engagement strategy, based on the strengths and development areas, promoting the same within and beyond the school community.
• Support Principals with participation in relevant national and regional conferences, events and competitions to raise the profile of the school, students and faculty.

4. Customer journey and building positive culture

• Work with parent-facing administrative staff closely, assuming a dotted line management of school receptionists, to ensure the first impressions of the school are excellent leading to positive visitor experience. 
• Lead the relevant staff in each school to pursue excellence in operational efficiency and customer service delivery. Systems should be reviewed regularly, and written and verbal communication are to be customized to maximize engagement.
• Advise on effective continued support and communication to new families after students enrol at the school - ‘after sales care’.
• Conduct mystery shopper calls/visits in line with ISP London – review and analyse results and give the necessary training and guidance as required.

5. Reporting

• Support schools in constant tracking and reporting of the admissions pipeline via HubSpot, ensuring staff understand the data generated, can interpret this to support decision-making, and analyse the conversion at all stages of the process to maximise enrolments.
• Present relevant and appropriate reports and KPI data to ISP ME and ISP Central.
• Report on successful recruitment activity, ensuring it informs the setting of annual budgets.

Other Responsibilities

• Undertake such other reasonable responsibilities and tasks that may be assigned by the Regional Head of Admissions, the Regional Managing Director and the International Schools Partnership.

Candidate Profile

1. Person specification

• Excellent organisation skills
• High proficiency with all Microsoft software packages including Word, PowerPoint and Excel, HubSpot and Engage would be preferable
• Strong customer service ethos and excellent problem-solving ability
• Cultural sensitivity and awareness
• A team player

1. Competencies

• High attention to detail
• Ability to multi-task
• Prioritises tasks and organises own time effectively
• Ability to communicate with all levels of seniority confidently
• Ability to deliver practical solutions to problems
• Reporting and analysing data
• Coaching and training
• Being able to lead a team

1. Qualifications

• Degree educated or relevant work-related experience

1. Experience

• A minimum of 4 years’ experience working within a school as an Admissions Manager

1. Location

• Dubai, UAE

Safeguarding & Safer Recruitment

ISP is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All post holders are subject to appropriate vetting procedures and satisfactory Criminal Background Checks or equivalent covering the previous 10 years employment history.

About ISP

The International Schools Partnership (ISP) is a growing group of committed colleagues, in financially responsible schools around the world, all of which aim to be the school of choice in their local area. Learning is at the heart of everything we do for our students, colleagues, and parents. We are committed to getting better, all the time.

ISP was founded by an experienced team of committed educationalists and operators who have worked together over many years. Our growing group of private schools located in the UK, the USA, Canada, Spain, Italy, Switzerland Costa Rica, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Malaysia, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru educate children and students from 2–18 years of age. We have now expanded to 50 schools that employ over 8,000 staff and deliver multiple curricula to over 46,000 students located across the globe.

We believe that successful schools are the ones that put learning at the heart of everything they do, always aiming to create rounded individuals that can forge successful careers and lives, in a rapidly changing world. Our goal is to enable our schools to be the leading school of choice in their local area. At ISP we continue to engage with schools around the world that are interested in becoming part of our global group of schools and look forward to welcoming more students and staff to the group.