Intl Development Jobs
We are seeking for a Programme Officer in the Leaders in Innovation Fellowships (LIF) team.
The role
As Programme Officer, you will provide operational and administrative support across the entire portfolio of LIF activities, focusing on the LIF Global programme and the LIF Community. This role will involve some international travel.
Precisely, you will support the programme by organising training and mentoring, local and international events for a global network of engineering and technology entrepreneurs; and building and maintaining a sustainable international network of LIF alumni.
LIF empowers entrepreneurs who are making a positive impact in their communities with novel technologies. LIF Global is the flagship, entry-point programme that supports innovators with a technology prototype to create an entrepreneurial mindset, and the LIF Community ensures a sustained mutually beneficial relationship with the Academy beyond the initial programme period.
Who are we looking for?
A highly organised individual with excellent problem solving skills and the ability to work across multiple projects, managing delivery according to priority and deadline. You are an effective communicator, both orally and in writing, and have the ability to adapt to a wide array of cultural contexts.
You understand the contribution of engineering and technology entrepreneurship and innovation to international development; and have·some knowledge/demonstrable interest in good practice in supporting entrepreneur development, including training, coaching and mentoring. You also have knowledge/demonstrable interest of good practice in managing suppliers of training and communications services.
Who are we?
Engineering matters. It shapes our everyday lives, from our ability to turn the lights on, have a hot shower and commute into work, to the mobile phones we rely on to keep connected. It also plays a vital role in addressing some of the biggest challenges facing society today, from climate change, to global health pandemics and cyber threats.
The Royal Academy of Engineering is a charity that harnesses the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone. In collaboration with our Fellows and partners, we’re growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation, and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public. Together we’re working to tackle the greatest challenges of our age.
With a diverse workforce and an inclusive and supportive culture, we look to attract candidates from wide and different backgrounds who have a passion for the role engineering plays in society. Our aim is to make the Academy the best place to work for the staff we have and those we seek to attract.
Why work for the Royal Academy of Engineering?
We’re looking for people who are driven to make the world a better place. If you’re passionate about what you do and want to work collaboratively with talented colleagues to make change happen now and for future generations, we want you to get in touch.
This is the perfect time to join us. We have a dynamic, visionary CEO, a strong leadership team and an ambitious and exciting strategy. The value we bring as experts in our field and change agents is highly recognised and makes the Academy a motivating place to be. Our work today builds on a long, proud history with a focused and ambitious future which we’d love you to be part of.
We are looking for talented people who want to make a difference, to join our team – is this you?
Company Benefits
The Academy offers a fantastic package of additional benefits including:
- BUPA cash plan
- Private medical insurance
- Access to Employee Assistance Programme
- Independent Financial Advice
- Non-contributory pension scheme with 10% employer contribution
- Life Assurance, 4x annual salary
- Health and wellbeing programmes
- Generous holiday allowance
- Wellbeing days and office wide Christmas leave
- Significant investment into your personal and professional development
- Regular social activities
- Subsidised restaurant
Location
Our light, spacious head office is based in a fantastic location in central London with views over St James’s Park and close to the West End. We operate hybrid, flexible working practices with a baseline for office-based working of a mandatory weekly team day plus further days each week as required for the role and the Academy.
How to apply/Interview process
To find out more and to apply, please visit our website. As part of your application, you will be asked to upload a CV and a supporting statement explaining your interest in this role and how you fit the experience, knowledge, and skills profile.
Closing date: 13 May 2024.
Interview date: 23 May 2024.
The Academy is committed to making reasonable adjustments to remove barriers that hinder applicants from applying or staff from working effectively and comfortably.
Using Anonymous Recruitment
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Actively Interviewing
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Job Description: Fellowship Programme Assistant – Active Fellows
Line Manager: Team Leader (Active Fellows)
Objective: The programme assistant provides individualised support to Fellows and facilitates placements/extensions.
Experience: Bachelors’ degree or comparable experience
Duration: For an initial period of 12 months, subject to review.
Hours: Full-time. Eight hours each day Monday – Friday, with flexible working by arrangement around core hours of 10am – 4pm.
Location: Hybrid working - in London office in Elephant and Castle SE1 (2/3 set days per week) and working from home on the remaining days.
Start: 1 May 2024 or shortly thereafter.
Salary: £29,160.
Number of posts: One.
Application deadline: 25/04/2024.
Organisational Background
The Council for At-Risk Academics is a UK-registered charity founded in 1933 under the leadership of William Beveridge, to rescue academics suffering persecution under the rise of Nazism and facilitate their continued work in safety. Sixteen Cara Fellows from the 1930s and 1940s became Nobel Laureates, and many more innovators in their fields, including, Nikolaus Pevsner, Lise Meitner and Karl Popper. A number of Cara’s founders and Council members also personally provided places and/or funds to help individual academics; and Cara, known in the 1930s as the AAC, later the SPSL, was closely involved in the successful effort in 1933 to bring to London the Warburg Institute art library, which had been prohibited by the Nazis, and six of its staff. The Fellowship Programme is the continuation of the rescue mission operation started in 1933.
Cara has been a lifeline to academics at risk for just over 90 years, as and when world events have placed them in the line of fire: Hungarian Uprising, Cold War, Apartheid South Africa, Iran, Latin American Juntas, Vietnam, Kosovo, DRC, Rwanda, Sudan, Zimbabwe etc. and, more recently Iraq, Turkey, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine. Cara support is typically framed as temporary sanctuary offered at times of heightened risk.
Cara Objectives ‘To assist academics who have been, or are, or are at risk of being, subject to discrimination, persecution, suffering or violence on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, to relieve needs among them and their dependants and ensure that their specialist knowledge and abilities can continue to be used for the benefit of the public.’
‘To advance education by supporting academics and their educational institutions in countries where their continuing work is at risk or compromised, to ensure that such academics and institutions can continue to fulfil their critical role as educators for the public benefit.’
This is a critical time to join our dedicated and friendly Fellowship Programme team as we expand our capacity to support at-risk academics from the Middle East, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Russia and many other countries.
Fellowship Programme Officer Role & Responsibilities
Casework
- Provide support for a caseload of at-risk academics (Cara Fellows) carrying out research placements at UK or international universities
- Assess Fellows’ suitability for academic placements/extensions
- Assess, arrange or signpost additional support for Fellows
- Develop relationships with universities and other partner organisations
- Secure fee waivers, bursaries & in-kind support from universities, research institutes and other funding bodies.
- Provide logistical support for visa processes, travel, etc.
- Write and send official documents to Fellows
- Request relevant invoices and produce documentation needed to make payments
- Attend weekly case meetings with the team
Administration
- Provide support to the drafting of reports to funders
- Present and collect data
- Ensure Fellows have submitted their quarterly reports
- Ensure safekeeping of confidential information
- Maintain excellent detailed records of correspondence, documents, and activities
Managerial Support
- Contributing to Fellowship Programme policy changes and decision-making
- Provide advice and guidance to colleagues
Responsibilities also include related activities that might arise in relation to the Fellowship Programme
as required by the Executive Director or Deputy Director/Fellowship Programme Manager.
Benefits of Role
· Challenging but rewarding work, always life-changing, sometimes life-saving
· Competitive salary
· Team and individual training opportunities
· Weekly case review meetings with line manager, plus quarterly 1-1 sessions with manager to discuss role and to plan individual professional development
· Hybrid working, home and office (usually 2 days each week in the office)
· Eight hours each day Monday – Friday, with flexible working by arrangement around core hours of 10am – 4pm
· 25 days plus Bank Holidays annual leave entitlement
· 8% employer pension contribution
· Convenient office location at Elephant and Castle, close to Tube (Bakerloo and Northern lines) and bus routes
Person Specification
Essential
- Bachelor's degree
- Proactive with a willingness to learn
- Great communication skills – internal and external stakeholders
- Ability to manage workload in a fast-paced environment
- Excellent record keeping and attention to detail
- Keen team player who is ready to support and help colleagues
- Ability to work independently and in a team
- Good time management with ability to prioritise and independently work to deadlines, and shift priorities when required
- Understanding of issues of confidentiality
- Interest in and commitment to the work of Cara
- Confident user of Microsoft package
- Ability to have difficult conversations
Desirable
- Confident user of Salesforce
- Experience in a supporting role with people with lived experience of forced migration
-Arabic language skills are desirable. Other foreign languages (such as Farsi/Dari, Pashto, Ukrainian and Russian) will also be considered.
Cara provides help to academics in immediate danger, those forced into exile, and those who remain and work in their home countries despite the risks.