Want to level the playing field in the South West? We are a social mobility organisation, working towards a day where no young person’s background determines their future.

As an award-winning, fast-growing social enterprise our mission is to support young people from disadvantaged communities to identify and fulfil their potential. Working in partnership with schools, we deliver academic tutoring/coaching programmes that improve a pupil’s grades, confidence and independence so they can win places at top universities and high level apprenticeships.

Having turned six years old in February 2020, we’re at an exciting stage of growth and have ambitious plans to scale our impact and reach. Currently working across London, West Midlands, South West, we are looking to thoughtfully scale our aca- demic programmes into hard to reach deprivation areas. Over the next 3 years, we are aiming to support over 10,000 young people. 

Role Description

The South West has been one of our key emerging hubs. Since 2015, we have developed partnerships and relationships across the region with schools, universities and collaborators. We are now looking for a leader to realise the region’s full potential. We need an outgoing self-starter to drive our work in the South West (Exeter, Plymouth, Bristol and surrounding areas) forward, making it a financially sustainable hub that delivers real social impact.

As the public face of the organisation, you will be responsible for partnership development, profile raising and managing our programmes from volunteer recruitment all the way through to evaluation. This is an “in-at-the-deep-end” role, you will work independently across the region and you will flourish in a small dynamic team with real influence in decision making.

Key Areas of Responsibility

Growing the South West as a sustainable region:

• Generating new school leads and securing programmes
• Generating income outside of school programmes.
• Growing a strong and supportive network of schools, Multi Academy Trusts, universities, corporate partners and others.
• Feeding into key discussions on organisational direction and collaboration on various organisational workstreams (impact, sales, programmes).

Overseeing our tutoring programmes in the region from start to finish:

• Acting as the regional safeguarding lead (training provided)
• Meeting weekly KPI’s on attendance and quality management of sessions

Create a thriving community of social mobility advocates among university students:

• Recruiting volunteer tutors for the programmes
• Retaining volunteers term by term
• Training volunteers in tutoring/coaching and our pedagogy

Oversee multiple in-school and online programmes (university student led and peer led across the South West)

• Setting the timelines for the start and end of programmes
• Communicating with school staff weekly to provide feedback
• Visiting schools to oversee quality
• Managing and running online sessions

Programme Design and Delivery

• Contributing to the design of current workshops and creating new workshop when needed
• Running in-school workshops for groups of pupils (KS3-5) and facilitating university trips at the start and end of the programme.

Managing partnerships with South West universities:

• Maintaining regular contact with relevant staff members in outreach and/or volunteering teams at each university
• Managing room bookings for events at university campuses. Line managing a team of Head Coaches • Delivering training for Head Coaches in the South West
• Holding 1-1 appraisals to monitor performance and set actions

Embodying our values (humility, high expectations, service, responsibility and resilience) and demonstrating commitment to our mission.

Person Specification

Essential characteristics and experience:

• Passion for social mobility: we have big aims and are looking for those who share our desire to make education fairer in the UK.
• Relationship building and facilitating: this a public-facing role so you will love communicating our mission to a wide range of stakeholders (schools, universities, businesses) and bring people with you.
• Organisation: working in a fast paced young organisation you’ll be able to work between different workstreams.
• Independence: this role requires you to work independently/alone in the office and/or from home frequently where you will need to manage your own workload.
• Resourcefulness: we’re a small, dedicated team - you must be a self-starter prepared for practical roles with lots of responsibility. A willingness to stay solution-focused with last minute challenges is a must!
• Young People: experience in a school or youth organisation as a facilitator.
• Flexibility: the role will occassionally involve working evenings and weekends.
• Full, clean driving licence: the role will involve substantial travel across the region visiting our partners across Exeter, Plymouth and Bristol so you will need to have access to a car and be able and willing to drive your own vehicle across the South West.

Desirable knowledge/experience

• 2-3 years frontline experience working in a school or social sector for example as a teacher or workshop facilitator.
• Experience of partnership development in the social or public sectors.
• Knowledge of programme design, pedagogy or coaching.

This is an exciting time in our diocese, with the launch of the vision of Transforming Church, Transforming Lives in 2016 leading to significant new missional energy in many of our churches, chaplaincies and schools. It’s been especially encouraging to witness the development of around 80 new worshipping communities since the launch, including four major projects in areas of new housing.

Over the past two years we have moved our diocesan teams into new, attractive, open-plan offices on the University of Surrey Research Park; and more recently we have embarked on a major review of the services we offer, seeking to ensure that our diocesan strategy gets well embedded, that our resources are efficiently managed, and that Church House Guildford is genuinely scratching where the parishes are itching. Note that due to the covid pandemic, our teams are currently working remotely from the safety of their homes.

We are looking for a proven practitioner and skilled technical and digital professional who can help us shape, plan and deliver the migration of our processes, systems and information to web-based services. In doing so you will help us to further streamline and improve our workflows at Church House whilst also making it easier for our parishes to access information.

We want someone with the right mix of experiences who can challenge, inspire and deliver in this area of specialism, but also a colleague who shares the passion and heart to reach and serve communities in this place.

The role is for 14 hours per week (work pattern negotiable) on a fixed term contract for 12 months. Our salaries are competitive within the charity sector with a generous non-contributory pension provision. Due to the Covid pandemic, we are currently able to work remotely from the safety of our own homes.

If you have the experience we are looking for and a passion to join us in our journey, we welcome an application from you. Your application should consist of a completed application form and supporting statement (no more than two sides of A4) detailing your reasons for applying, what you can bring to the post and how you meet its requirements. The closing date for receipt of applications has been extended and is now 12 noon on Wednesday 15 July 2020.

We look forward to hearing from you!