Job Summary

Do you believe in helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds get to university, and want to get people interested in life-changing research into cancer, environmental protection, COVID-19, mental health and more? 

An excellent communications professional with experience developing social media campaigns and writing for print, web and social media, the Communications Officer (Digital) will work as part of the Development and Alumni Relations (DARO) Communications Team to deliver our overall strategy, and to champion our digital activity.  You will be expected to follow a brief and produce high quality impact-driven copy, video, email newsletters and digital content, appropriate for target audiences, for print and online publication, email newsletters and individual communication and will creatively and effectively use social media platforms and the DARO web presence. In addition to the core alumni audience, you will be responsible for the student and young alumni audiences. Experience in producing content for young people and in fundraising communications would be highly desirable.

We are an ambitious and successful research-intensive University (one of the top 100 research-led universities globally) and have produced 11 Nobel Prize winners, including three who received their awards in 2016.  Academics here are tackling some of the world’s most pressing global challenges such as antibody testing and Covid-19, the impact of climate change on our woodlands and forests, issues caused by migration and displacement, the rise in youth mental health issues, and the prevention of needless maternal deaths in the developing world. Our students come from nearly 150 countries and our flagship outreach programmes mean that almost 25% of our student population come from disadvantaged backgrounds, one of the highest proportions in the UK. Philanthropy has always played an important role in shaping the University, most recently in 2015 when we closed the Circles of Influence Campaign, which raised £193 million, making it the largest HE fundraising campaign outside Oxbridge and London. Through ‘Birmingham In Action’, philanthropy will continue to play a vital role in delivering projects to change lives locally, nationally, and internationally. 

Main Duties

•  Working as part of the DARO Communications Team to deliver our overall Communications programme for our global alumni community and friends of the University, including annual printed and digital magazines and social media campaigns.
•  Championing our digital activity by planning, creating, promoting and evaluating content for social media channels and the website. Acting as an expert within DARO in this area, providing advice and creative input and ensuring we use the opportunities presented by new technologies and communication channels.
•  Managing our communications around key dates throughout the year, including religious festivals and awareness days (e.g. International Women’s Day, Black History Month and Christmas).
•  Working with colleagues to support the delivery of graduation activities that help students transition from study to becoming alumni.
•  Within the overall DARO Communications programme, taking responsibility for the planning and delivery of communications to student and young alumni audiences.
•  Supporting key DARO objectives including increasing participation rates, building greater warmth and affinity to the University, generating leads and charitable income by continually reinforcing giving messages, especially in relation to our fundraising and volunteering campaign Birmingham In Action.
•  Identifying opportunities to appropriately share newsworthy stories with alumni, students, staff, international and other key audiences, and the ability to translate academic information into an understandable format for a lay audience.
•  Actively contributing to the annual communications review suggesting areas for improvement and development.  This will include, but not be limited to:
o  Monitoring other University and commercially successful magazines and websites for ideas which could be applied to the University.
o  Reviewing click-through and open rates of electronic communications and hit rates of the DARO website.  Identifying patterns, suggesting and making improvements to effectiveness of electronic communications where appropriate.
o  Reviewing uptake and usage of digital communications and channels.

Leading people

•  Building relationships with colleagues in DARO, the University’s Marketing and Communications team and professional services colleagues across the University.
o  Through these relationships identifying opportunities for DARO messages to be communicated to appropriate audiences.
o  Identifying and gathering story leads on an ongoing basis, using editorial expertise to maximise the value of all content.
o  Representing DARO at University-wide editorial and content meetings.
•  Modelling and acting consistently with the purpose and values of DARO and the University
•  Managing student staff and volunteers ensuring workload is planned and output is delivered on time and to the standards required. 
•  Providing expertise to colleagues across the office to ensure that all outward communications are effective and consistent.
•  Promoting equality and valuing diversity, acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.

Organisational understanding

•  Understanding key areas of University research strength and innovation and identifying opportunities to highlight these areas through DARO communications by
o  Reading internal staff communications including Buzz, press releases and staff newsletters. 
o  Attending key University events.
o  Monitoring University stories in the local, national and international press.
o  Keeping abreast of issues and developments in the higher education sector.
o  Attending University-wide marketing and communications network meetings.

Communication

•  Communicating clearly and openly with others.
o  Efficiently responding to alumni enquiries and comments as part of monitoring our social media channels and Communications Inbox.
o  Being able to create an accurate and concise brief, and follow a brief, to/from colleagues on collaborative projects.
•  Expressing ideas coherently through printed and electronic media.
o  Identifying and using the appropriate communication channel based on a sophisticated understanding of the audience and objectives.
o  Ability to translate complex messages to be understandable and engaging to a diverse and multicultural audience, considering issues such as widely varying levels of expertise, political sensitivities and language barriers.
•  Giving and seeking both structured and informal feedback in a clear, open and constructive manner.
o  Inviting, under the guidance of senior colleagues, internal and external feedback on individual projects or communication channels to increase the impact of DARO communications.

Performance and resource management

•  Prioritisation and management of own workload to ensure output is completed to a high standard and meets necessary deadlines.
o  Producing a weekly schedule of social media content and a report on how the previous week’s content performed.
o  Contributing to the ongoing schedule for all DARO communications to ensure timeliness of messages and the most effective use of all channels available.
•  Demonstrating an understanding of the fundraising priorities within DARO for students and research, and being able to work to a budget for projects. 
•  Undertaking research, providing creative content and design proposals and identifying subjects of interest (or of other value within the DARO strategy) to feature in different communications channels.

Marketing Manager

Full Time 37.5 hours per week 

Birmingham, London or Manchester

£28,000 per annum (plus £3,000 London Weighting if applicable) 

Who we are looking for

We are looking for a motivated and talented professional to join our Marketing and Communication’s team as Marketing Manager. The role is responsible for planning, implementing and evaluating campaigns that promote the benefits of partnering with Ambition on school improvement and attract teachers and school leaders to our professional development programmes.

This role is also responsible for developing, creating and commission content that will generate leads and support School Partnerships to make sales. This is a fantastic opportunity to be the departmental expert on the programmes in your market.

Based in either our Birmingham, London or Manchester office, and reporting to the Associate Dean of Marketing Director of Marketing and Digital, you will support them with the daily management and long-term development of our external digital communications platforms, including Ambition’s website, social media channels, e-communications, search engine optimisation and Google Ad campaigns.

In this role you will foster strong relationships with the Programme Leads and the Programme Specialist in School Partnerships, in order to contribute to the wider sales strategy and participant communications plan for these programmes.

This exciting role is varied and complex, and will someone who is entrepreneurial, flexible and creative. It is essential that you have experience of successfully developing and delivering marketing strategies and tactics that generate high-quality leads. You must have experience of using email tools and databases and excellent copy writing skills, with the ability to adapt and adhere to the Ambition tone of voice and style guide.

Who are Ambition Institute?

Ambition Institute has one purpose: to help educators serving children from disadvantaged backgrounds to keep getting better. With our new organisation, and more than ten years of collective experience in working with educators at all levels, we believe that exciting opportunities lie ahead. We are a graduate school for educators, and we apply academic rigour to our learning design, drawing on frontline insights from schools into what works in practice. Our programmes leverage the latest evidence from international experts, which means we think carefully about what is taught, how, and in what sequence. We work collaboratively to enable school improvement for the benefit of pupils, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

Our offer

We are happy to announce that we will be able to offer you: 

• Agile working culture, so you can control how you work.
• Staff affinity networks that help keep equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our work.
• Enhanced maternity pay after a year’s service.
• Shared parental leave package.
• Access to free, confidential 24/7 wellbeing and support line.
• Professional development offer for all staff.
• 25 days’ annual leave + bank holidays.
• Employer pension contribution of 11% (10% pension plus 1% national insurance rebate).
• Interest free season ticket / bike loans

How to apply 

All applications must be received by the closing date, 9am on 12th July 2021. First stage interviews are expected to take place on 15th July and second stage interviews 20th July 2021.

To apply for this role, or any of our other vacancies or for any questions or queries please visit our website. 

Equality and diversity matter to us. If you think you’d be suited to one of our roles we’d love to hear from you regardless of age, disability status, ethnicity, gender, religion or sexuality. 

Internal Communications Manager

Deadline for applications: Friday, 7th May

The position:

Our highly regarded international charity client is recruiting an Internal Communications Manager.  This role is responsible for designing and implementing the day-to-day flow of timely updates, news and organisational communications across the organisation; between in-country offices, partners and the international head office.  You will be responsible for developing and delivering the organisation’s internal communication strategy, planning the calendar of activity, increasing employee engagement and leading the development and delivery of internal communication plans and materials for large change programmes fundamental to the organisation’s operating model and external delivery. You will also oversee the internal communications channels (intranet, employee newsletters) and measure internal communications & engagement activity.

Requirements:

• Experience of managing the implementation of internal communications in a complex corporation or INGO.
• Experience of internal communications tools including intranet systems, email marketing software and face-to-face events.
• Proven experience of writing copy for a variety of audiences across a range of media, including print and digital.
• Strong ability to deliver complex information with clarity in a wide range of situations.

One Million Mentors’ aim is to ensure that every young person in the country has access to a trained mentor as they transition into adulthood. We believe that facilitating and investing in mentors will help to address the skills gap agenda and improve social cohesion.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone looking to work in a small startup and be part of an exciting transformation to a digital first approach at 1MM. Our work is underpinned by technology and we are looking for someone to drive this forward working across the organisation to improve our systems and scale up our offer. The person joining 1MM will need to be passionate about our work and equally, about how we can use technology to positively impact the lives of many young people and volunteers alike.

The Low Code Developer will be the lead person to maintain current systems and design, implement and run new solutions.

This is a full time role offered in either London, Greater Manchester, West Midlands or Cardiff, on a one year fixed-term contract, continuing subject to funding.

For full information about the role (including complete job description; frequency of work and rate of pay), please see our job pack attached.

Application is made by submitting a CV and personalised Cover Letter: - CV should be tailored to demonstrate how you meet the competencies - Cover Letter should refer to two competencies where you are particularly strong. The Cover Letter should also detail why you are interested in the role, why you want to work for One Million Mentors, and how your values match those of our own. The Cover letter should be no more than 2 pages of A4. We will not be accepting applications without a Cover Letter.

Location: You can be based from any of our UK hubs.

The Prince’s Trust is excited to be recruiting passionate people across the UK, to help young people make the most of their Kickstart placement and build the skills and confidence to sustain employment beyond.

Please note: We will begin reviewing applications prior to the closing date so we advise you to submit something sooner rather than later. If you have already applied, you do not need to reapply.

What will I do?

As a Prince’s Trust Executive, you will be delivering a combination of group workshops, webinars and 1-to-1 support in employability and personal and social development. You will also provide ‘buddy training’ for employers to help them support young people during their placements.

You must be comfortable delivering programmes on virtual platforms, as all sessions will be delivered virtually. You may at some point, be asked to occasionally deliver face-to-face, but there are no plans for this anytime soon.

Requirements:

We are particularly interested in receiving applications from individuals with the following:

• You engage in challenges with optimism and resilience.
• You are adaptive and flexible, ready to embrace change and innovation.
• You are experienced in Employment training in both a 1-to-1 setting and in group sessions.
• You have experience in partnership management to engage with employers effectively.
• You deliver high-quality learning & development sessions to young people.
• You are a natural and effective communicator, delivering excellent customer service.
• You are passionate about making the right decision for young people.

For a full list of essential and desirable requirements, please click here for the job description. You can also head to our ‘Working with young people’ page for more information. (These will open in a new window, however, if you're viewing from an external job board, please click apply to be directed to our website.)

We work with young people from every background, so we’re passionate about building a diverse workforce that represents the young people we support. We, therefore, welcome applications from everyone who meets the essential criteria for the role. If you think you could do the role, but don’t have all the desirable experience, we would still love for you to apply, as you’ll have the chance to complete a supporting statement to let us know what you would bring to the table, that will help young people on the Kickstart scheme.

Why we need Prince's Trust Executives:

Last year, we helped more than 70,000 young people, with three in four young people on our programmes, move into work, education or training. 

The young people we help face a range of challenges, such as unemployment, mental health issues or some who have been in trouble with the law. Our job is to inspire and support young people, to help them reach their potential so that they can thrive and society can prosper.

We believe all young people should have the chance to succeed, and that young people are the key to a positive and prosperous future for all of us.

Perks for working at The Trust:

• Great holiday package! 30 days annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays. Office closure the days between Christmas and New Year
• Fantastic Family leave! Receive 13 weeks full pay and 13 weeks half pay for maternity and adoption leave. Receive 8 weeks full pay for paternity leave.
• Flexible working! Where operationally possible, you can work hours to fit in with, school hours or care arrangements for example and you can also work from home.
• Interest-free season ticket loans
• Benefits platform! Everything from health and financial wellbeing support to discounts on your favourite restaurants, shops and cinemas
• In-house learning platform! Develop your skills for your career and your role
• The Trust will contribute 5% of your salary to the Trust Pension Scheme
• You can volunteer for and/or attend events – music festivals, The Prince’s Trust Awards, active events etc.
• Generous life assurance cover (4 x annual salary)