Volunteer relations coordinator jobs in edinburgh

Location: Port Edgar, Edinburgh

Contract: full time, 11 week fixed term contract, starting no later than 15 June 2025

Salary: £22,391 per annum, pro rata

Closing Date: 19 May 2025

Interview: Interviews to be held virtually 30th May 2025

Are you looking for a new opportunity?

The Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) is a vibrant and growing charity delivering life changing nautical adventure for young people through the Sea Cadets to give them the best possible head start in life. We also provide personal and professional development opportunities for seafarers with the Marine Society. Working with our staff, cadets, and volunteers, we have built a vision and five-year strategy to take us forward and further improve the astounding contribution already made through our work to the lives of thousands of young people and seafarers, while fully supporting our volunteers who are vital to our success.

We are currently looking for an OTW Project Assistant who will support the delivery of the On The Water project at one of our boating stations in Edinburgh. The project provides young people from outside Sea Cadets, age 9-14, the opportunity to get on the water, learn new skills and build confidence through boating activity. This is a very varied and rewarding role that requires someone who is self-motivated, inspiring, organised, creative, tenacious, positive, IT competent and with a real interest in people with a attention to detail and real enthusiasm for the project.

Project delivery at Port Edgar Boat Station takes place between 30th July 2025 and 1st August 2025 when the young people will be attending boating sessions. During this busy time the Project Assistant will be based at the boat station each day to complete registration, manage group change overs, track project targets, encourage survey completion and fill booking gaps. Prior to delivery at Crosby, the role will be focused on supporting the booking process and engaging in community outreach. Once delivery is complete, the Project Assistant role will then predominantly be supporting the evaluation and data collection as well as supporting participants to join their local Sea Cadet unit.

The On The Water project is running at two further sites in London and Birmingham for an extended delivery period. The post holder for Crosby will also support delivery at the other 2 sites outside of their own delivery period where needed. This may be virtual administration support or require travel where expenses are paid.

Key Responsibilities

• The welcoming and registration of participants for the On The Water project
• Collecting and uploading daily statistics and figures that show how the project is progressing
• Making new and repeat bookings
• Talking to participants and their parents/carers about the opportunities within Sea Cadets
• Managing a waiting list and reducing drop-outs
• Responsible for the safety and wellbeing of participants alongside the Boat Station staff
• Ensure that participants complete surveys to share their experience of the project and encourage adults to feedback on their young people’s experience
• Attend any meetings as required by the project
• Assist with the evaluation of the On The Water project

Requirements

• Previous experience of working with volunteers

• Experience in a customer facing role
• Experience working with young people
• Experience working with diverse community groups or working in outreach
• Experience of tracking targets and managing data
• Self-motivated and able to manage your time and workload effectively
• Flexible and enthusiastic
• Able to work as a team player with creative ideas and solutions who will empower our volunteers to make a difference to the lives of even more young people across the UK
• Satisfactory DBS

For further information, please download the Recruitment Pack.

Benefits

• Flexible Working hours and a hybrid culture
• Cycle to work scheme and Season Ticket Loan
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Life assurance (4x salary) for those that join the pension
• Private medical insurance
• Pension (employer contribution up to 10%)
• Wellbeing portal and EAP with 121 counselling
• Employee development: We are investing in our employees' development and have an annual calendar of learning and development opportunities, designed to support employees to develop into their roles and stretch them to achieve their full potential.
• National staff conference: All employees come together once a year to reflect on the past year and celebrate success at our offsite staff conference. This is a great opportunity to listen to employees' views, and for employees to network, share information and socialise.

Additional Information

MSSC positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates from all backgrounds. Equity, diversity, and inclusion really matters to us, so we can best serve our beneficiaries from every community. We work to ensure a fair and consistent recruitment process and aim to be a charity where diversity of experience, identity and skills are valued and welcomed. MSSC is an equal opportunities employer.

We recognise our responsibilities to safeguard and protect the young people and vulnerable adults with whom we work. We do all we can to promote their health, safety and wellbeing, and we expect our staff to share this commitment and work in line with safeguarding policy, the MSSC’s values and ethos of inclusivity. We adhere to safer recruitment practices and therefore employment is subject to detailed pre-employment checks for successful candidates, including references and criminal disclosure checks and the completion of a disclosure questionnaire.

All successful applicants are required to attend safeguarding training and undergo a criminal record check.

The Community Engagement Officer is an essential role in fostering strong relationships with current and prospective members of the School Library Association community. The postholder will provide frontline support, drive online and in person engagement through outreach initiatives, and contribute to the growth and sustainability of the membership base. This is an exciting opportunity for someone passionate about school libraries, education, and community-building.

With a particular focus on coordinating and supporting our Branch network, you will collaborate on initiatives for development, delivery and new projects as they come online. You will be the first port of call for advice and expertise relating to school libraries and enabling our members to more effectively support their school communities. Supporting the delivery of online and in-person networking events and workshops for members, you will work with your SLA colleagues, in particular the Training and Events Officer, to deliver a high-quality member offer and to ensure member needs are reflected in all offerings. The ability to travel to training and events across the UK is essential. Duties include:

Branch network and member support

• Work with the CEO to develop the SLA Branch Network and accompanying strategies
• Identify opportunities for developing initiatives to grow and develop the Branch network community, that will deliver on the SLA mission
• Develop strong relationships with local, regional and national stakeholders to support network growth and enable members to take full advantage of all relevant opportunities available to them
• Provide advice for SLA members on all aspects of school libraries, ensuring they are supported and can be as effective as possible in their school communities 
• Drive engagement and development of online communities as part of the branch network

 Training and events

• Work with the Training and Events Coordinator to support and deliver a calendar of exciting, engaging and informative events
• Support the delivery of online and in-person networking events and workshops with a focus on the Branch network community
• Represent the association at relevant events and for programmes (e.g., conferences, webinars, book awards) to promote membership and services
• Support training and event delivery (online and in-person), engaging and inspiring audiences as needed
• Support development of training programmes, toolkits and resources using member insight to inform

Outreach and communications

• Coordinate the mentoring scheme and ensure it is promoted effectively, with necessary support and development available to mentees and training for mentors
• Use your sector insight to identify opportunities for development of research and other initiatives, maintaining links and horizon scanning
• Provide SLA consultancy aligned with strategic approaches, supporting schools with development of their libraries, reading and information literacy provision to help children and young people reach their full potential
• Contribute to SLA communications such as TSL, newsletters, updates, and promotional materials
• Oversee the book review process in support of TSL, our quarterly journal
• Supporting management of the SLA resource library, working with colleagues to ensure alignment
• Support outreach to new audiences

Building relationships and an ability to foster collaboration and community engagement will be an important part of this role. All team members contribute to office admin, maintaining member data and general office support.

To be successful in this role you should ideally be able to demonstrate:

· experience of working in school libraries, the education sector and a strong understanding of the education landscape

· clear understanding of the curriculum and teaching and learning outcomes

· knowledge of children and young people’s literature

· experience developing and delivering inspirational training, to small and large groups, both online and in person

· experience creating training resources, toolkits and teaching and learning resources

· ability to galvanise and inspire others with flair and creativity

· the ability to manage own workload, prioritise and meet competing deadlines

· the ability to work hours flexibly around event and training delivery

An expert communicator, you will be experienced in developing relationships with a variety of stakeholders at all levels. Experience of consultancy, schools’ engagement and outreach would be advantage.

The salary for this position is £19, 594.59 (FTE £29,000) for 25 hours per week, and comes with a 6% employer pension contribution.

We are open to discussing flexible working patterns, condensed hours or other arrangements we may not yet have thought of. This is a remote working role, with monthly all team meetings which you will be required to attend, in addition to training and events across the UK. Working patterns can be negotiated. We strongly encourage candidates of all different backgrounds and identities to apply. Each new role provides us with an opportunity for us to bring in a different perspective and  we are always eager to diversify our team. The SLA is committed to building an inclusive, supportive place, where you can do brilliant and rewarding work.

Why work for the School Library Association?

We are in an exciting period of growth in the history of the SLA, with a new CEO, coinciding with the opportunity to influence a new government. Plans to redevelop our offer are in progress and you will have the opportunity to influence new approaches and ways of working. We are a small, friendly team who support each other to deliver an excellent service to our members and passionately believe in the power of school libraries to transform children and young people’s personal, social and educational outcomes.

Annual Leave is 25 days plus bank holidays. We offer free mental health support and counselling sessions and brilliant discounts with a variety of retailers including up to 40% off Vue cinema tickets through our HR partner.

About the School Library Association

The School Library Association (SLA) is an independent charity and membership organisation that believes every pupil is entitled to effective school library provision. The SLA supports all those working in school libraries. We have been representing the school library sector for more than eighty-five years, with membership to the Association thought of as essential to all those who work in and around school libraries. Membership to the SLA provides training, support in advocating with senior leadership teams, incredible discounts and collegiate networking opportunities for everybody working in and with school libraries.

How to apply

To apply please send your CV and a covering letter (no more than one page) detailing the experience you have in relation to the job description, that you can bring to this role, and how your skills align with what we are looking for. Applications without a cover letter will not be considered. We truly appreciate all applications, but due to the volume we receive, we will not be able to provide individual feedback. No agencies please

Deadline: Monday 2nd June, 9am. Please note we will be actively interviewing for this role; if you are interested apply as soon as possible as we may close recruitment early if the right candidate is found.