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Welcome

Thank you for your interest in joining the CoachBright team as our new Programme Manager. We are a social mobility charity on a mission to support pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds become confident, independent, and resilient, so they can lead the lives they want.

There is an attainment and outcomes gap in the UK between disadvantaged pupils and their wealthier peers. This is exacerbated when pupils have lower confidence in their own abilities and potential. Upward social mobility is made even harder when pupils lack relatable role models. We want to change this!

Now, more than ever, it is essential that young people from disadvantaged back- grounds get the support they need to achieve their goals. That’s why we’re playing our part to narrow the gap and support a generation of pupils to be their best.

We are ambitious, and are looking for someone as passionate as we are about creating a socially just world. If you’re motivated by improving social mobility and transforming the life chances of young people we would love to hear from you.

Many thanks,

Who we are

Vision: a world in which every young person’s destination is based on their choice, ambitions and talents, rather than their background.

Mission: coaching young people to be confident, independent and resilient so they can lead the lives they want.

What we do: we partner with schools, universities and businesses to run face-to-face and virtual coaching programmes for disadvantaged young people with relatable role models who are just a few years ahead in their life journey, we help raise their confidence, independence, resiliance and attainment. Our coahes are typically undergraduate volunteers or senior pupils in schools who we train and support to become effective coaches. 

The Challenge

By the age of 5, 43% of disadvantaged young people have not reached a good level of literacy and numeracy.

57% of children from disadvantaged backgrounds leave primary schools without reaching the expected standard in reading and maths.

A disadvantaged child is 50% less likely to achieve passes in GCSE English and Maths.

Only 16% of Free School Meal eligible young people attend university, compared to more than 75% of those who attend an independent school.

1 in 3 young people frpm disadvantaged backgrounds are not in any form of sustained education, apprenticship or employment five years after their GCSEs.

1 in 5 undergraduates from disadvantaged backgrounds don't complete their degree, double the rate for the most advantaged.

Those in elite occupations from disadvantaged backgrounds earn £6,400 per year less in the same role, and take 25% longer to gain a promotion.

Our Impact

We have been delivering coaching programmes across England since 2014, supporting over 15,000 young people in that time. We have a small but growing number of programmes directly coaching undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds (our Lifecycle programme). However, the majority of our work and impact takes place in schools, involving us training undergraduates (our Core programme) or senior pupils (our Peer to Peer programme) to be coaches to younger pupils.

We are proud that our programmes demonstrate consistently strong impact on the outcomes most closely associated with improving social mobility: attainment, social & emotional development, and school attendance.

Our most recent independent evaluation found:

Increases in maths (11.1%) and English (5.1%) attainment.

Significant improvements (min 8%) in metacognition, self-efficacy, and motivation.

Persistently absent pupils’ school attendance increased by 11%!

Our Values

We have four core values at CoachBright that we use to guide us and help our decision making. These values remind us at all times who we help, how we help them, and how we should act as both a charity and as individuals.

1. We understand the complexities of disadvantage. We prioritise supporting young people from low-income households but understand that disadvantage is context-dependent and that the drivers of disadvantage regularly shift.

2. We believe coaching is transformative. All of our work, from primaryphase programmes to our Lifecycle work with young adults, is grounded in a belief that high-quality coaching can transform a young persons life.

3. We strive for clarity. We are open and honest with our beneficiaries, our partners, and each other. We hold each other to high standards and provide transparency and clarity with the deisions and work we do.

4. We are a team not just colleagues. We are committed to helping others, and this commitment extends beyond our beneficiaries to each other in the workplace. We strive to make CoachBright a place where regardless of role, level of seniority, or length of time at the organisation, we all want to roll our sleeves up to support each other and share in each other's successes and challenges.

Our Team

We are a small but mighty team, with a mixture of experiences including youth work, teaching, music, finance, social work and many others. Although our backgrounds and skills may be different, what we have in common is a commitment to our core values, and a belief that our work can - and does - change young people’s lives.

And whilst we may be located in different parts of the country, we work extremely hard to ensure we live up to our fourth core value - ‘we are a team, not just colleagues’.

I've never worked in such a wonderful team before. It's been great to join such a supportive environment where everyone just wants the very best for each other and are all so passionate about our shared mission.

Role description

In the 25/26 academic year, we will be expanding our work significantly, supporting close to 3,000 young people from Cornwall to Northumberland. The majority of this growth will be through a one-year project we are running in partnership with the Education Endowment Foundation.

This project is a randomised control trial (RCT) of our Peer to Peer coaching programme, where we will be working with an additional 50 new secondary schools. We have seen consistently strong impact from this programme on the attainment, social & emotional development, and school attendance of disadvantaged young people for many years. This EEF supported RCT now gives us the opportunity to test this impact at significant scale, specifically on the maths attainment, maths self-efficacy, and school attendance of disadvantaged Y10 and Y7 pupils (see here for more details). 

To support with this delivery, we are looking to recruit additional fixed-term (October 2025 - July 2026) Programme Managers, both full and part time, in the following regions:

1. South West (including Cornwall and Plymouth) Part time, 2-3 days per week

2. South East England (including Greater London, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Berkshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, and Milton Keynes) Full time

3. North West (including Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Cheshire) Part time, 3-4 days per week

4. North East (including Northumberland, Newcastle, Tyneside and Teesside) Part time, 2-3 days per week

You will have end-to-end ownership of your own allocation of programmes, which may involve a mixture of Peer to Peer, Core and Lifecycle programmes. Whilst delivering our programmes you will be required to build excellent relationships with our school and university partners, support with training and developing our undergraduate volunteers, use our evaluation frameworks to assess impact, and lead on conversations related to retention and expansion.

Candidates should be able to cover all locations in the given region they are applying for, so access to a car would be an advantage, but is not essential. At times team members may be asked to travel to a location outside of their region, but this will be rare and sufficient notice and TOIL will be given where appropriate.

All roles are on fixed term contracts starting Monday 6th October 2025 and finishing 31st July 2026. The majority of direct delivery in schools will begin early November. The first few weeks in the role will combine a mixture of induction, training, programme observations, programme set up, and volunteer recruitment for our Core programmes.

Whilst there is the potential for a permanent role beyond the length of this project, this will be based on our levels of school retention and business development, and so cannot be guaranteed. 

You will flourish in this role if you have a genuine passion and ‘knack’ for working with young people and supporting them to succeed, as well as being organised, motivated, and able to think on your feet quickly. If that sounds like you, please get in touch!

Role details

Managing and delivering programmes

• Coordinate and run multiple in-school and online programmes, typically requiring travel to schools most working days.

• Set timelines for programme start and finish dates. 

• Oversee programme quality and communicate with school staff weekly to provide feedback after sessions. 

• Facilitate in-school or digital workshops for groups of pupils (KS1-5). 

• Plan and organise graduation trips to a local university for pupils on the programme.

• Collect data for monitoring and evaluation purposes, such as pre and post programme questionnaires, attendance records, and pupil and coach feedback.

• Report regularly to the Programmes Team Leader on key performance indicators and programme updates.

• Build and maintain high quality relationships with pupils, schools, and universities..

• Collect data and write impact reports and case studies for each programme.

Recruiting and managing undergraduate volunteers (in regions with Core programmes):

• Recruit and retain volunteer undergraduate coaches.

• Coordinate and allocate undergraduate coaches to Core school programmes, communicating with them weekly and when needed arranging transport for them to schools.

• Deliver training to volunteers both in-person and online. 

• Develop and maintain relationships with universities, particularly access, outreach, and widening participation teams.

Expanding our reach and impact:

• Ensure retention of schools and universities within the region by delivering high quality programmes, and leading retention, renewal, and expansion conversations with partners.

• Support the growth of our network of schools, Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs), Local Education Authorities, and universities in your region.

• Contribute to programme design, take part in a working group and whole team meetings.

• Gather and create content for social media and marketing materials. 

• Running pupil and school leader focus groups.

• Carry out other tasks that are within the scope and spirit of the role.

Person Specification

Essential characteristics and experience

Below are the key attributes candidates will need to be confident of demonstrating.

• Passion for social mobility. We have big aims and are looking for those who share our desire to make education fairer in the UK.

• Ability to think on your feet. Delivering programmes with young people can be unpredictable, so you will need to be comfortable working reactively to solve challenges at short notice.

• Programme or project management experience. In particular the ability to be organised, plan ahead, and manage competing priorities and timelines.

• Experience with young people. Comfortable running a session or delivering a workshop with a group of young people from age 8-18. (Please note, the vast majority of our programmes are at secondary phase).

• Relationship building and facilitating. This is a public-facing role so you will be involved in communicating and delivering workshops to groups as well as communicating our mission to a wide range of stakeholders (business leaders, senior members of MATs, universities etc.).

• Excellent communication skills, particularly public speaking. You should be comfortable talking to groups of 5 or 500.

• Ability to make quick and clear decisions.

Desired characteristics and experience

Below are attributes that would be useful in the role. However candidates that have less experience in these areas should not be discouraged from applying.

• Understanding of the specific barriers to social mobility, both nationally and regionally, and the context for the young people we work with. 

• Experience of sales or partnership management/development, particularly with schools or universities.

• Experience of working in education settings.

• Existing network of relevant sector contacts in schools and/or universities, or demonstrable ability to quickly establish new connections independently.

Key details

Benefits

• An opportunity to contribute to an exciting charity with scope to input widely and take on new responsibilities.

• 28 annual leave days (pro rata).

• Fridays off during non-term-time (pro rata).

• Access to a £100 individual annual CPD budget in addition to CoachBright’s standard training offer which includes safeguarding, health and safety and diversity, equity and inclusion training).

• Access to a 24-hour employee assisted helpline facilitated independently by Health Assured.

• Access to BrightHR perks, including a range of retail discounts. 

Key Information:

• Annual salary of  £30,579 - plus £2,500 London weighting where applicable (pro rata)

• Fixed term contract (6th October 2025  - 31st July 2026).

• Remote role with travel to schools across England. The majority of working days will require a trip to 1-2 schools in your region.

• Reporting to our Programmes Team Leader