Overview
Senior Social Mobility and Widening Participation Officer – Strand, London, WC2R 2LS
About us
The King’s community is dedicated to the service of society. King’s Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world. Our ambitious Education Strategy sets out the actions that we must take to transform how we teach, how and where our students learn and how we support them during their time with us.
Within the Social Mobility & Widening Participation Department we believe all young people should be able to have high expectations for their future. This means equal access to education and career opportunities. We run programmes that aim to empower young people from under-represented backgrounds to access and succeed at university.
We are part of the Students & Education Directorate, a collection of wide-ranging professional services in place to support King’s students and their education. As a directorate we manage the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King’s faculties to do so.
About the role
The Social Mobility and Widening Participation Senior Officer is a vital member of the department. The post-holder will lead on the development, delivery and evaluation of sustained outreach initiatives. They will also be involved in a range of other challenging projects run across the Social Mobility and Widening Participation Department.
The postholder will initially primarily work with post-16 learners and this will involve working collaboratively, and building relationships, with our STEM faculties to deliver the K+ programme.
The post holder will work closely with the wider team, student ambassadors and key partner staff.
This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking for a career with social impact, and who wish to utilise their skills and expertise in project management and working with young people. This is an opportunity to grow your skills in stakeholder engagement.
We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role.
This is a full time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.
About you
To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:
Essential criteria
- Relevant work experience and/or education: We think a wide range of different work and educational experiences could support you to be successful in this role. Relevant work experience might include work in schools, charities or the university sector. Relevant educational experiences might include higher education in a related discipline, professional qualifications or other training
- Experience working or volunteering with children or young people
- Experience of undertaking and completing projects which require high levels of administrative and organisational skill
- Ability to communicate complicated and specialist information orally and in writing to team members and programme participants
- Ability to work with others in a team to deliver project aims and overcome challenges
- Ability to use initiative and creativity to resolve problems, define clear outcomes for improvement and set out how progress and success will be measured
- Ability to coach or train others on how to undertake specific tasks and give clear direction on desired outcomes
- Ability to gather and manipulate data so that it can be interpreted by yourself and others
- Ability to decide own pattern of work and manage own workload and resources over a long period
Desirable criteria
- Educated to degree or foundation degree level
- Understanding of the widening participation agenda and/or the role of higher education in social mobility
- Experience overseeing budgets and undertaking financial administration
Full details of the role and the skills and experience required can be found in the attached job description which is provided on the next page.
IMPORTANT: Before applying for this role, please make sure you have the right to work in the country where the role is based. Unless it clearly stipulates within in the job advert above that the hiring company is looking to or able to sponsor applicants it is deemed that the hiring employer will only consider applications from those able to comply with and work in the country where the role is based.