Primary Futures Regional Coordinator – South West Region

Job Description

Job Title:

Primary Futures Regional Coordinator – South West Region

Reports to:

Head of Schools Engagement

Location:

Home based in or around the upper South West area (including Swindon, Wiltshire, Bristol, Bath and Somerset) with regular travel in and around the region.

Purpose:

A fantastic opportunity to take on the role of Primary Futures Regional Coordinator for Education and Employers across the internationally recognised Primary Futures and Inspiring the Future programme. The Charity aims to ensure that all young people have the inspiration, motivation, knowledge, skills and opportunities they need to help them achieve their potential.

This key post is part of the Schools Engagement Team with responsibility for working closely with school teachers, leaders and stakeholders focusing on primary schools to help them engage with Primary Futures (Primary Futures) and support schools in effectively using the system and bringing in volunteers from the world of work. This will include supporting delivery of funded projects aimed at these audiences.

Remuneration:

£25-27k per annum (depending upon experience)

Additional Terms:

30 days paid holiday, exclusive of Statutory Holiday plus competitive pension scheme and a volunteering allowance of up to 5 days – pro rata in accordance with the length of contract. Additional family friendly benefits including enhancements to Statutory Payments.

Appointment Terms:

Permanent

 

The role:

The successful candidate will be responsible for working closely with school teachers and leaders focusing on primary schools in promoting Primary Futures and related services as well as driving up engagement from volunteers and employers within the designated regions. This includes supporting schools to access and effectively use the system to run activities across the academic year; developing resources and guidance to support with this; and delivering funded projects aimed at these audiences.

Working with The Head of Schools Engagement, the Primary Futures Regional Coordinator must understand the current employer engagement landscape for Primary Schools and be able to identify key trends and best practice, helping to develop guidance and resources that optimises usage of Primary Futures platform among Primary Schools as well as working closely with local employers and volunteers to increase the pool of volunteers available to schools.

Exact brief to be finalised with the successful candidate but the role will be expected to:

  • Meeting with local schools and stakeholders to raise awareness of the programme and increase the number of schools registered and active on the online platform including organising cluster meetings.
  • Working with primary schools which have registered for Primary Futures via face to face meetings, email and phone to encourage greater use of system and drive up engagement with the programme across the country.
  • Working with clusters of schools in local areas to host ‘showcase events’. It is anticipated that activities will generate local media interest and that the Regional Coordinator will work with schools, local councils and/or other key stakeholders and local companies in delivering the activities.
  • Supporting delivery of any funded projects with a focus on primary schools, understanding the key targets of these projects and delivering to KPIs
  • Tracking and reporting back to Head of Schools Engagement on delivery against agreed targets.  Provide basic planning documents and reporting in a format to be agreed and attend termly meetings with the Central team to share updates, good practice and appropriate local training.
  • Ensuring appropriate feedback is gathered from schools and local stakeholders that can further inform the programme.
  • Contributing to the development of marketing materials, presentations for local stakeholders, guides and resources for Primary Futures working with the Central team.
  • Hosting and supporting delivery of CPD sessions, webinars and occasional face to face meetings with schools directly to help them use PF and delivering presentations at group meetings and conferences.
  • Attending occasional Primary Futures events to support the running of special events and to undertake brand ambassadorial activities events
  • Using salesforce CRM to manage relationships with teachers and school leaders, maintaining up to date records and supporting data cleansing as needed
  • Developing relationships with new schools, promoting the full range of the charity’s programmes and services and assisting them with registering for PF
  • Keeping on top of key trends and topics in employer engagement and careers related learning for primary schools
  • Attending local networking and employer events to promote Primary Futures
  • Provide general support to the schools team on school engagement, events coordination, project delivery as needed
  • Other ad hoc administrative tasks to support the team as needed

We are looking for an agile worker, capable of absorbing key information quickly, as well as handle a voluminous work load in order to meet the high demand from schools keen to engage further with the Primary Futures service. The successful candidate will be passionate about supporting young people to realise their potential and understand the power of volunteering. Education and Employers is a small charity working at a rapid pace to bring about change and the ideal candidate will be a self-starter with strong communication skills, able to absorb key information quickly and work well with a small team in a dynamic working environment.

This is a very exciting period to be with the charity as we celebrate our 10th anniversary in October 2019 with a series of activities, promotion and events focusing on young people as well as deliver on several high profile and exciting programmes and projects.

 

Person specification:

Skills/ Knowledge/ Expertise

Essential
  • Experience in successful relationship management – ability to engage confidently and sensitively with schools/colleges and at a range of levels of seniority up to and including head teacher level
  • Strong organisational and administrative skills including close attention to detail and effective time management
  • An articulate and confident communicator who is influential, and effective in presenting a concept both face to face and on the phone.
  • Good level of education, demonstrating capability in producing written content to a high standard. Comfort and confidence in working with data.
  • Demonstrable experience of managing a diverse workload; being able to prioritise work and working under pressure.
  • Good working knowledge and practical application of Microsoft office tools
Desirable
  • A passion for supporting young people in realising their potential through harnessing skilled volunteers to engage in education;
  • A successful track record in delivering tangible outcomes through engagement with employers and professional networks;
  • Experience of client relationships management databases in particular Salesforce
  • Experience of working to deliver significant national Key Performance Metrics using resources (human and financial) efficiently and effectively;
  • Experience of working in a small team
  • Experience of working with schools and volunteers
  • Experience of working as part of a remote team
  • Understanding of risk management and data protection.

Personal Attributes

  • Good level of education, demonstrating strong client facing aptitude and communication skills both written and verbal. Comfort and confidence in working with a variety of external stakeholders, having an entrepreneurial and enterprising approach to their work.
  • Good working knowledge and practical application of Microsoft office tools and customer relationships software
  • A “doer”- ability to anticipate requirements and act to provide workable solutions
  • Creative and solutions orientated, perceiving processes as the means rather than the end and as an aid to effective delivery
  • Influencer – demonstrates personal ‘presence’ and gains the confidence of others through temperament, capability and calibre
  • Demonstrates sensitivity and possesses the ability to manage effectively the organisational tensions that sometimes develop between all stakeholders involved in the organisation and delivery of the event.
  • Team Player: working collaboratively and flexibly to achieve outcomes and is keen to add value to the organisation’s culture and ethos
  • Able to undertake some occasional work in the evenings and at weekends
  • Able to travel in the UK if required

 

Application process

The Education and Employers charity values having a diverse workforce.  We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from all individuals from all backgrounds.

The closing date for applications is 10am on Monday 29th July. Successfully shortlisted candidates will be notified no later than 5th August. Interviews will be arranged with successful candidates and will take place at the Education and Employers’ offices in Fleet Street, London.

Please send your CV and covering letter setting out your interest and suitability for the role to jobs@educationandemployers.org.

Applications will only be accepted from those with the right to work in the UK with a valid passport/visa.

 

About the Education and Employers charity:

Education and Employers is an independent UK based charity launched in 2009 with the vision of “providing children and young people with the inspiration, motivation, knowledge, skills and opportunities they need to help them achieve their potential”. It aims to achieve this by working with schools, employers, the national bodies that represent them and a wide range of other partners including the government and third sector organisations. The charity also works with partners internationally – more details here.

The charity runs Inspiring the Future, a free service which uses innovative match-making technology to connect volunteers with state schools and colleges, quickly, simply and at scale. Schools can very easily search a massive database of willing volunteers, filter against a wide range of criteria – e.g. subject, sector, career route and send them a message. It enables young people, wherever they live, whichever school they attend, the opportunity to meet people from a wide range of backgrounds doing jobs from across the whole world of work.

Nearly 50,000 people have already volunteered in the UK – people from all levels: apprentices to CEOs and all sectors: apps designers to zoologists and over 80% of English secondary schools have registered. People can volunteer from an hour a year in a local primary or secondary school to chat informally about their job and career route, take part in career speed networking session, give careers insights, provide mock interviews or feedback on CVs through to serving as a governor or trustee.  There is also the opportunity to link up with schools for workplace visits, job shadowing and mentoring.

Inspiring the Future operates on a technology platform kindly developed in partnership with Deloitte, Salesforce and Ordnance Survey. It allows the charity to run national campaigns such as Inspiring Women and others focused on specific geographic areas or economic sectors such as engineering, science, health and arts and culture. The campaigns have secured high profile support across government, business and teacher associations and ongoing corporate partnerships including our lead corporate partner Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

In partnership with the National Association of Head Teachers the charity has developed a version for primary schools called Primary Futures and over 4,500 primaries have already signed up. To see a short clip on how it works please click here.  All campaigns run through Inspiring the Future share a common objective: to broaden young people’s horizons, raise their aspirations and show them the range of opportunities and careers routes e.g. apprenticeships and university open to them. Over 1.8 million interactions between young people and volunteers from the world of work have already taken place.

In partnership with the National Governance Association the charity runs Inspiring Governance the free governor recruitment and support service. This Department for Education funded service aims to get highly skilled volunteers to serve as governors in some of the most disadvantaged schools in England and in so doing help raise educational achievement.

Since the Charity’s launch it has sought to understand what difference employer engagement in education makes to young people and the economy. It works with academics and researchers from around the world and its own research is regularly cited by government and international organisations like the OECD. The research, which has informed and influenced a range of government policies, shows that employer engagement helps improve social mobility, reduces the likelihood of young people becoming NEET (not in education, employment of training), increases the amount they earn in adult life, helps them make better informed career choices and leads to improvements in educational attainment.