Senior Widening Participation Officer (1 year Fixed Term)

Birmingham City University, a large and diverse place to work, right in the heart of the UK’s second city. We have an exciting role to add to our Student Recruitment team, supporting the delivery of our Widening Participation activity. This role will suit an individual with some experience of working within the area of Widening Participation.

You will be responsible for delivery and administration of the University’s Widening Participation projects, with a focus in our Computing, Engineering and Built Environment faculty. The projects are diverse and exciting and involve working alongside young people of all ages, working to ensure that BCU is situated as a market leader in our Widening Participation (WP) recruitment activity. You will help to develop the position of BCU as “the University for Birmingham”. 

Duties and Responsibilities

• Deliver a number of pre and post 16 activities and events for schools and colleges, to help improve awareness of the University and raise aspirations towards higher education, with a focus on areas of low participation in HE and high levels of deprivation. 
• Lead on a provision of in-depth data and evaluation from identified schools to feed back to the Market Research and Analysis team. Contribute to reports the team creates and ensure awareness is raised within the schools of the outcomes. 
• Ensure data collection and reporting meets OfS standards for evaluation and output monitoring, in line with the commitments made in our Access and Participation Plan.
• Communicate and work closely with colleagues in Communications to ensure BCU secures maximum possible external awareness of the impactful, and that our internal community is kept informed and involved in this area of work.
• Represent the University in developing and maintaining relationships with staff in our partner schools, promoting the reputation of the University and ensuring good communication.
• Work closely with partner schools to ensure the delivery of our embedded graduates forms an effective and positive part of the curriculum, learning lessons and adapting where needed.
• Provide any feedback from the school to the Assistant Director Student Recruitment to ensure smooth and open lines of communication. 
• Provide support to the wider Student Recruitment team as needed, demonstrating a collaborative approach to engaging with non-Widening Participation schools at times, and offering administrative, event or project-specific assistance where required. 
• Provide administrative and staffing expertise in relation to events which form part of the University’s Aimhigher Partnership, including the annual Summer School activity which takes place during July. 
• Deal with a range of general enquiries from prospective students and other key stakeholder groups, ensuring a customer-focused approach at all times with high levels of professionalism. 
• Deliver talks and presentations on higher education matters and the application process to pre and post 16 learners, parents or guardians and teachers and careers advisors. 
• Assist and support the wide range of activities undertaken within the Department in support of student recruitment, including open days, applicant visit days, business/community events, Clearing and production of marketing collateral.
• Any other tasks commensurate with the post as required by the Assistant Director Student Recruitment.

Skills and Experience

• Candidates should be educated to degree level (or equivalent) or hold a professional qualification such as IAG level 4. 
• Experience of working in WP/or working with young people is desired. 
• Experience of project delivery and working with key stakeholders.
• Experience of delivering presentations and/or workshops.

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