Operations Jobs in Leeds

The vacancy

We help young people to build life-long belief in themselves, supporting them to take on their own challenges, follow their own passions and discover talents they never knew they had. Because when you prove yourself that you’re ready for anything nothing can hold you back.

Do you want to be part of that?

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) is a world leading youth charity which gives young people the chance to develop skills for work and life.

Our structured programmes of volunteering, physical and skills-based challenges inspire, guide, and encourage young people to widen their experiences and learn new skills.

Through a licensing process, we partner with youth organisations and support them in their delivery of our programmes to their young people. These organisations range from schools and colleges to local authorities, charities, secure units, and community organisations.

Through our current five-year strategy Youth Without Limits, we are working to ensure the DofE is open to all young people aged 14-24 across the UK, and that our participants reflect the most diverse generation of young people ever.

What is the role?

This a 12 Month Maternity contract.

Working within our values and behavioural framework, the role involves closely managing the relationships of our partner organisations (known as Licensed Organisations – LOs) and ensuring those within your portfolio offer quality and inclusive DofE programmes to young people.

While managing these relationships across your portfolio area in Newcastle, Northumberland and South Tyneside, you will also identify and develop new relationships with appropriate educational and community organisations to widen the access of the DofE to young people, particularly those who experience marginalisation.

You will be undertaking regular meetings, in person and virtually, engaging with a wide variety of stakeholders at different levels within different organisations across your portfolio area. When not out at meetings, you will be working from home.

Whilst you won’t be working directly with young people, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are having a positive impact on their future opportunities.

What are we looking for?

We are looking for a team player who has a passion for the development of young people and who will be enthusiastic, who can engage and influence a variety of stakeholders and who will be an authentic ambassador for the DofE.

You will need to have good communication and interpersonal skills to engage with internal and external stakeholders and have the skills to inspire and influence them to enable young people to participate in DofE.

To undertake the role, you’ll need to be exceptionally organised, have the ability to prioritise your workload, meet deadlines and have excellent administrative skills, being both computer literate and competent in MS Office applications.

We are looking for someone who has a positive outlook and who will actively contribute to our team.

The role will be mixture of home based and field based. The successful application should live within, or very close to, the portfolio area of Newcastle, Northumberland and South Tyneside with a full driving/motorbike licence and access to a vehicle.

What will you get in return?

The opportunity to work for a successful and dynamic charity that has the development of young people at its heart and the wellbeing and development of its people constantly in focus.

You will be joining a team of empowered colleagues working together.

We offer excellent staff benefits including a generous pension contribution, an employee assistance programme, healthcare cash plan, life assurance and volunteer leave. Also, 25 days holiday, plus Bank Holidays and an additional 3 days paid leave between Christmas and the New Year with the opportunity to buy additional annual leave, and access to many additional benefits.

How to apply

If you feel excited by this role and believe you have the necessary skills and experience to become a valued team member, please go to our website and apply.

The deadline for applying for this role is Midnight on Sunday 29th September 2024.

Successful applicants will be invited to attend an interview during the week commencing 7th October 2024.  Interviews will be held in person, venue TBC.

If you would like to access the application form in a different format or if would like any assistance that might help improve your experience while completing the application, please contact us.

The DofE are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people.   All successful applicants will be required to undergo an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check. (e.g. DBS/PVG or similar), including references covering any gaps of employment/education, confirm eligibility to work in the UK and complete a health check.

We are seeking an entusiastic and caring Operations Officer who will be responsible for the day-to-day operational activitites of the organisation focused on patient support and project delivery. The role will involve a close working relationship with our Fundraising and Events Officer, and our Board of Trustees, and will be a pivotal role within our small but mighty organisation. This is an exciting role working directly with multiple stakeholders including our beneficiaries, NHS and scientific collaborators and funders to deliver our values and benefit. You will be a driving force for the organisations mission and making a big difference!

We're looking for values-led, content-minded database-loving, marketplace enthusiast to join us at We Are In Beta as our School Service Provider Directory Manager.

Your role will be to build, manage and promote a community driven database of school service providers and organisations members of our 18,000+ community recommend to each other.

Why?

Finding and quality assuring providers on a limited budget in schools is hard. The database will help school leaders do just that so they can spend more time delivering the best education possible to their students.

About We Are In Beta.

We Are In Beta is an online community of 18,800+ school leaders and teachers which helps them share and learn how they get the best outcomes for their students.

We believe most of the solutions to schools’ problems are in schools already. Or at least, in the minds of the brilliant people who work in them.

Our job is to find them and share them widely, so nobody has to figure it out on their own.

Imagine a day when you can find someone - or something  - that can help solve any problem you’re facing, whenever you need it.

A day when every student has leaders and teachers who are equipped with the most successful strategies and networks to improve their education.

Join us to help us build that future for our schools.

We - schools - Are In Beta - always learning.
 

What do we do?

To work towards that future:

1. We research great practice so our members can discover it and be inspired by it.

2. We produce and share practical content with great schools through events, webinars, podcasts and resources - so they can learn from others’ successes (and the failures too).

3. We build communities of practice so colleagues can meet and grow together

Some stats we’re really proud of:

In just 4 years we’ve grown the online community to over 18,800 school leaders and teachers.

• 3,400 - MATs and schools we are connected to

• 2500+ resources have been shared by our members - if each one on average takes two hours produce - in reality it's probably more - that’s more than… 

• 3.1 years' worth of others’ work each and every one of our members can access just by being a part of the community

• 3,710 policies and resources from successful schools and MATs we have curated, analysed and shared.

• £1,500 - the amount we save a school each time they access the research they ask us to do for them.

• 870,000 hours - the number of hours it would have taken members to discover the insights we've shared with them had they done the research on their own in silos.

• £25 million - the amount it would have cost schools had they funded those research hours themselves 

• 1.5 million - the number of miles our members would have had to have travelled to meet our expert presenters in case study schools had our community not existed online.

• 8,500 people came to the National INSET Day in Dec 2020 when the government left schools with almost no time at all to plan an end of term INSET. 

We are just getting started. Join us to write the next chapter

What's the role?

Your role will be to design, build, grow and promote a database of organisations, who offer products and services to schools, which have been recommended to by our members.

How you’ll be driving our mission forward

• Research and map the education marketplace

  • Understand the challenges schools buy in services to solve

  • Learn about the different providers who exist to solve them

• Design, build and manage the database school service providers

  • Define and codify the data architecture which governs the database

  • Categorise the providers by type, objectives, buyers, beneficiaries and more

  • Use no code tools to build and operate the directory

• Produce top of funnel content to promote the database, which attracts schools and providers sign up and contribute to it

  • Set and manage schedules of promotional content

  • Write valuable, practical, sharable and engaging posts on LinkedIn and Twitter about the providers and the database

• Design and build the user experience and information flows

  • Map out users journeys (both schools and providers) through the directory experience

  • Design and write sign up forms so schools and providers can access the database

  • Design and write submission forms so schools can nominate organisations and organisations can request to join the database

• Automate processes to improve user experience and your administration workload

  • Design information flow processes which manage engagement on both school and provider side

  • Use tools like Zapier, Aitable, Email and HubSpot to automate information flow and email notifications

• Cultivate a community driven approach to building the database

  • Encourage school leaders to make nominations of organisations who should be included

  • Encourage providers to request they be included and contribute testimonials

• Research and design quality assurance mechanisms

  • Design ways to gather quality assurance information from schools

  • Design ways for providers to demonstrate their impact

Who are you?

• You believe in the power of education and social justice

• You believe the answers to most of education's problems are in schools already (but understand some need some external help).

• You believe schools should be able to access quality assured provision at an affordable price without spending weeks researching.

• You value diversity in all respects.

• You love researching and discovering new solutions, organisations and marketplaces.

• You have a keen interest in marketplaces and review platforms like Uber, Airbnb, Checkatrade, Trip Advisor, Trustpilot

• You are a project manager who plans, tracks and delivers on objectives across several workflows on time, every time.

• You are comfortable managing different audiences who maybe at different stages of their customer life journey

• You have a spreadsheet (with pivot tables) for pretty much everything and like to design systems and processes to make things more efficient

• You're happiest when you are classifying complex systems into simple categories

• You get huge satisfaction from designing systems that create smooth information flow

• You relish using new technologies

• You enjoy planning and writing valuable top of funnel content on social media eg Twitter and Linkedin

• You get a kick out of designing lead magnets and getting sign ups

• You enjoy developing relationships from scratch often by email or social media

What experience do you have?

It’s not essential you tick every box. But the more boxes you can tick the better. It goes without saying, we can help you gain and learn from the experiences you haven’t had yet.

• Ideally, you are/were an experienced teacher and/or school leader with experience of working with 3rd party service providers

• You've had experience buying from (or at least working with) external organisations in schools and evaluating the impact of their work OR you've worked for an organisation that sells into schools in their marketing and sales departments

• You have a strong understanding of the types of problems service providers work to solve, which organisations exist in the education marketplace, the different types and their approaches and who the key buyers, users and beneficiaries of their work might be in schools.

• You've managed a school budget (or at least understand how tight they are) OR you've managed/fed into a marketing/sales budget at a school service provider OR worked in their sales/marketing department

• You’ve designed, built and managed databases/directories with low/no-code tools like Airtable, Webflow, etc

• You have experience of integrating platforms and building automations with tools like Zapier, Airtable, Hubspot, Gmail etc

• You’ve designed, produced and promoted effective lead magnets and sign up mechanisms

• You've designed slick user experiences and information flows using forms, databases and email

• You’ve crowdsourced content from audiences to leverage their collective knowledge using things like Google docs

• You’ve used social media to research and.promote your work consistently and effectively

• You’ve written top of funnel content on Twitter / LinkedIn that gets a lots of likes, comments and shares

What are the benefits?

• Exposure to the most inspirational and impactful school leaders and education organisations in the country

• Opportunity to work within an early-stage, mission-driven organisation and shape its direction

• Flexible working culture/flexible working hours

• Pro rata £28,000-£33,000 dependent on experience

• Project-based and/or part-time contract based on performance milestones for the right candidate available

• Free membership to all of our premium spaces across the community worth up to £1,197+VAT

We are an equal opportunity employer and consider all qualified applicants equally without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status or disability status.

Location:

• We are a fully remote team.
• We checkin daily online.
• We meet monthly face to face in London. 

Role Scope and Time Commitment?

• This role is initially 1 day week role for 52 weeks a year.
• Early success could grow this to into 2-3 day a week role within 6 months.
• There is huge scope for it to grow into a full time Partnerships Manager, Head of Partnerships and eventually a Director of Operations role depending on success.

Timeline:

• Applications open: 28th August 2024

• Deadline for applications: midnight Sunday 15th September

• Invitations to complete assessment task: weeks beginning 9th September and 16th September

• First round interviews: weeks beginning 16th and 23rd September

• Second round interviews: weeks beginning 23rd and 30th September

• Notification of decision /appointment : week beginning 7th October.

• Start date: mid October

We expect this to be a popular role.

We will be inviting people to interview on a rolling basis.

We advise submitting an application early.

How do you apply?

   To apply for the role please

1. register your interest here no later than midday on Thursday 12th September AND/OR
2. complete the application form we'll send you by the deadline above

  For the application form you’ll need:

1. CV - max 2 sides

2. Covering letter - outlining

   1. why you want to apply

   2. how your values, knowledge, skills and experience make you the best person for the role.

   3. a PS section at the bottom with confirmation of where you saw the job role; confirmation of your current salary and notice period; whether you have the right to work in the UK and a valid criminal check with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS); any links to any portfolios/bodies of work you have completed in the past to demonstrate what you are capable of (this could be reports, writing, performance figures, social media campaigns, articles, videos); and indication of whether your availability will be limited during the recruitment period.

3. Contact details of references

For an informal and confidential discussion about the role prior to application, please contact the Founder  @niallalcock on X/Twitter or DM Niall Alcock on LinkedIn

Are you ready to lead and develop this pioneering new project in partnership with the Office of Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner (OSPCC). Do you thrive on building trust and engagement with young people, school communities and families?

As the Breck Foundation's new Project Coordinator (Pan Sussex), with the support of the CEO, you will lead the initial project set up, the recruitment of schools and young people, followed by all training and coordination of the delivery.

The post holder will need to be based in Sussex, required to work from home permanently but willing and able to easily travel regularly to various locations across East and West Sussex, occasionally farther as necessary to fulfil the requirements of the role, to deliver aspects of the programme and to engage with other stakeholders and colleagues.

Breck Foundation 

Breck Foundation is a unique and dynamic organisation that makes a real difference. The charity was founded in 2014 in memory of Breck Bednar, a 14-year-old boy who was groomed and murdered by someone he met online. We inform, educate and campaign to help young people and the wider UK public reclaim the internet from those who seek to harm others through it. Our educational programmes reach thousands of students, parents and safeguarding professionals each year.

The Project

Over the last few years, the Breck Foundation worked closely with Volunteer Police Cadet Units in Surrey and Tower Hamlets to train cadets as ‘Breck Ambassadors’, equipping them with the training needed to talk in schools to their peers about staying safe online and the key signs of grooming.

We are proud to take this successful project further having secured funding with the Office of Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner (OSPCC) to recruit and train up to 30 ‘Youth Ambassadors’ (for online safety) in schools across Sussex. The Youth Ambassadors will learn how to tell Breck’s story and empower young people with the tools they need to stay safe online. Working closely with schools to enable the students to become Online Safety Ambassadors for their school community, advocate for their peers and to be a voice of expertise and counsel. You will work with schools and community groups to generate impact through Breck’s story (on online grooming) and other important topics related to children’s online safety.

This flagship project for the OSPCC will launch in April 2025 (Coordinator starts in January 2025) and run for at least 12 months, with potential funding up to three years. We hope it will set a precedent for others to follow our lead and develop similar programmes for young people across the UK.

To Apply:

Please attach your CV and personal statement, providing clear examples of how you meet the essential requirements of the job description - his is the section you will be scored. 

Closing date: Monday 7th October at 5:30pm

Interview date: From Tuesday 15th October 

Location: Remote (based in England & Wales with occasional travel for biannual team days and biannual departmental team meetings in various locations)
Salary: £28,665 - £30,865 pro rata (£11,466 - £12,346 actual)
Hours of work: 2 days per week (14 hours)
Contract type: Permanent

Why work for Kids Matter?

• Generous annual leave – 25 days (plus bank holidays) per year pro rata, with time off between Christmas and New Year's additional to this allowance.
• Remote working contribution – receive £26/month pro rata towards the costs of working from home and/or using a co-working space.
• Access to coaching sessions, training opportunities and our Employee Assistance Programme (a confidential support service for staff).
• Flexible working across weekdays to suit your schedule.

About us

Kids Matter is one of the UK’s fastest growing children’s charities.

Our vision is to see every child in need raised in a strong family. Our mission is to reduce the impact of poverty on children through community-based parenting programmes.

Research shows that group-based early intervention parenting groups are the most effective way to support children in need. We train peer facilitators in local churches - the largest voluntary body in the country - to run our affordable, accessible and highly effective parenting programmes, written by Clinical Psychologists. They come alongside parents and carers, building long-lasting community in addition to encouraging confidence and learning positive parenting skills.

We value difference and diversity, and we want our workplace to be built on shared values of equality and mutual trust, with team members representing the wide range of backgrounds and experiences that exist within the UK. We therefore actively encourage applications from people of diverse backgrounds and varied experiences, particularly those who are African, Afro-Caribbean, Asian or part of other minority ethnic communities, who have lived experience of the impact of low-income/low-support circumstances, and who are living with a disability or identify as being neurodivergent.

About the role

The Finance Manager role involves:

• Overseeing day-to-day charity finance functions
• Managing expenses, payments and payroll processes
• Communicating and presenting financial reports and information

About you

Do you have accounting experience and strong numerical skills? Are you looking for an opportunity to use your financial expertise in a charity setting? Are you a Christian with an active faith in Jesus? Do you have a passion for Kids Matter’s vision of seeing every child in need raised in a strong family?

Then we would love to hear from you!

How to apply

You can apply for the Finance Manager position by clicking ‘Apply via Website’ and completing a copy of our online application form.

The deadline for applications is 10am Monday 23 September 2024. All successful and unsuccessful applicants will be notified by email.

We also ask for all applicants to submit an Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form, which will be sent to you to complete following the submission of your application. This form will be used for anonymous analysis to ensure our overall recruitment procedures are fair and transparent. It will never be viewed or used as part of the selection process. It is optional to submit this form.

If you would like any application/interview support or you need any reasonable adjustments throughout the application process, or if you would like an informal phone call to ask questions or discuss the role, please contact Katie Washington (HR & Systems Coordinator).

Please see the job pack for more details on the role and application process.