Cafe Manager - Margate Digital

Do you have a passion for hospitality and leadership? Become our next Café Manager

We’re looking for an experienced and proactive Café Manager at our Margate Digital campus to lead the day-to-day operation of our busy student and staff café. In this role, you will oversee all aspects of the café’s running, including planning, organisation, and ensuring a welcoming, efficient environment for all customers.

A key part of the role will be supporting and supervising students with learning disabilities and difficulties during their work placements within the café. You will provide guidance, structure, and encouragement to help them develop practical skills, confidence, and independence in a real working environment, ensuring their experience is both positive and meaningful.

Alongside our priority of excellent student experience, we also focus on our employees. Here are just some of our benefits when working for the East Kent Colleges Group:

• Generous Annual Leave - 24 days FTE per annum + 5 days after 5 years service
• Learning and Development Opportunities - 3-4 annual paid group development days and strong internal progression-1 in 3 roles are filled internally
• Exclusive Discounts & Perks - Inc. restaurant, grocery, retail and holidays discounts as well as car leasing and tech purchasing schemes
• Flexible Personal Leave - Time off for your child's first day at nursery or school, moving homes and for interviews
• Wellbeing and Health Support - Generous sick pay, counselling services, discounted gym membership at Canterbury College
• Culture and Recognition - Being part of Community Days, an annual Staff Celebration Day, and an eco-friendly organisation dedicated to reaching net-zero by 2030
• Competitive Pension Scheme - 18% employer contribution

We are seeking to appoint an enthusiastic and innovative individual who will provide Margate Digital café with its own identity and make it a real point of difference within the group.

You will have good administrative and organisation skills in order to maintain business ethos and regulation required of storage of food and a minimum of 2 years’ experience of working in a café and or catering environment which has involved cooking meals as well as snack foods.

You will possess good communication and interpersonal skills both verbal and written e.g. customer service and have achieved a Health & Safety qualification related to relevant area of work or equivalent e.g. Basic Food Hygiene.

Outstanding Ofsted Provider

East Kent Colleges Group is an Ofsted Outstanding rated provider. It is proud to be the first General Further Education college organisation in the country to have received the Outstanding grade against each of the strands under the new Ofsted inspection framework. An inclusive provider, our colleagues place our students and the communities we serve at the heart of everything they do across EKC Group and this is illustrated in our ‘Strong’ skills grading by Ofsted.

Commitment to Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and we ensure that all staff are aware of their responsibilities for upholding these principles.

As a designated establishment, we are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore have an obligation to carry out checks to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. These checks include conviction/caution self-declaration, Enhanced DBS check and obtaining sufficient referencing.

It is a criminal offence to apply for a post which involves engaging in regulated activity relevant to children if you are barred from doing so.

If you are successful in being shortlisted to interview, your suitability to work with children and vulnerable adults will be explored as part of the interview process.

Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

East Kent Colleges Group is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all members of our communities. We are particularly keen to increase the diversity of our staff body and encourage applications from candidates where there is underrepresentation in our workforce.

We are proud to hold the Positive About Disability Award and are a Disability Confident Employer. This confirms our commitment to interviewing all applicants who declare that they have a disability and who meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification. With any successful candidate, we will explore any reasonable adjustments to a role due to a health needs or disability.

Similarly, we have a commitment to Care Leavers (Care Covenant Pledge) and to current or previous Armed Forces personnel (Armed Forces Covenant Pledge) with a commitment to interview applicants who meet the positions essential criteria and who have declared this on their application. 

We welcome applications from anyone wishing to work flexibly and those considering a return to work from a career break.

We do not engage with agencies for permanent staff and have an in-house recruitment team.