Job Description

• Help Academy Ambassadors improve education and build relationships with corporate organisations and stakeholders. 
• Working with HR, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and talent teams at blue chip firms you will help improve education by encouraging senior leaders to volunteer as non-executive directors at multi-academy trusts. 
• You will also provide regional administration and support for the ‘matching’ between the senior volunteers and academy trusts. You will provide outstanding client support to the academy trusts who are our key customers and to senior volunteers. 
• You will also support an experienced Regional Adviser and the Partnerships Manager to deliver events and other activity aimed at high-calibre volunteer recruitment. 

This role would suit individuals interested in corporate social responsibility, fundraising, volunteer management, recruitment and/or client and account management. It offers the opportunity to work at pace in a highly-regarded organisation and build an outstanding personal network in both the corporate and education sectors.

About us

Academy Ambassadors provides a free, bespoke service matching business people and professionals with multi-academy trusts looking to strengthen their boards.  Multi-academy trust are schools that come together to raise standards, governed by one ‘trust board’. Since 2013, the not-for-profit programme funded by the Department for Education has introduced over 900 business people and professionals to trust boards.

Academy Ambassadors is part of the New Schools Network (NSN) Charity led by Interim Director Mark Lehain. New Schools Network (NSN) is a dynamic, growing charity that aims to improve the quality of education – particularly for the most deprived – by increasing the number of good free schools and business expertise within the state sector.

The Academy Ambassadors programme consists of a small team with five staff based in London and two staff in Manchester. We also work with consultants (Regional Advisers) who are based remotely. Find out more on our website.

Responsibilities will include:

Partnerships

· New business development – focusing on a business sector and using cold and warm contacts to create corporate partnerships that promote multi-academy trust voluntary board roles to their employees

· Stewardship – providing excellent long-term support and feedback to existing corporate partners to ensure they continue their support

· Networks and stakeholders – expanding the networks and stakeholders that Academy Ambassadors engage with to promote to professional membership organisations, institutes and networks

· Fundraising – supporting the Partnerships Manager and the Head of Development as required.

Regional administration

· Scrupulous record-keeping using Salesforce database (customer relationship management system) database and undertaking other administrative tasks

· Drafting and proofreading role adverts

· Preparing meeting agendas and minutes

· Desk-based research tasks, such as targeting employers in a particular region or finding new partners

· Responding to telephone and email enquiries from academy trusts, business leaders and other key stakeholders

· Data management to analyse trends and ensure volunteer supply matches trust demand

Events

· Event organisation – organising regional and corporate events to ensure that Academy Ambassadors has a high profile among the business sector to attract new business leaders to governance roles on academy trust boards or to support our existing non-executive director alumni network

· Event administration including following up with attendees and responding to email and telephone enquiries

This job description is intended to convey information essential to understanding the scope of the job and the general nature and level of work performed by employees in this role. It is not exhaustive and staff may be required to undertake other reasonable duties commensurate with the role as requested by the line manager.

Person Specification

Applicants will have impressive communication skills – you will require a confident and articulate phone manner to talk to senior business leaders and Academy Trust Chairs over the phone and in writing. Excellent command of grammar and spelling is essential.

The position requires an individual with excellent attention to detail – able to complete both written and data-related tasks with precision, ensuring accuracy and coherence across all your work. You will need to be able to grasp processes quickly and follow desk instructions carefully.

Critical to your success will be your positive attitude and a desire to work to the highest standards of stakeholder and client management. You will have a very strong customer service ethos and be keen to think and act in a way that puts the client first.

Skills

Essential:

· Excellent oral and written communications with the ability to communicate with confidence at all levels. Excellent command of spelling and grammar is essential

· Excellent organisational skills and time management – able to work to tight deadlines and manage time efficiently given the fast-paced nature of Academy Ambassadors’ work

· Excellent IT skills, including MS Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint

· Accuracy and attention to detail – particularly in data entry

· Ability to work as part of a team and on own initiative

· Ability to adapt and solve problems quickly

Desirable:

· Excellent copywriting skills

Experience of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and ability to develop reports and track data

Experience/ Knowledge

Essential:

· Educated to degree level with strong academic credentials

· Experience (paid or voluntary) in an office environment

· Experience handling business phone calls in a professional manner

· Experience of organising and prioritising a demanding workload, to meet deadlines

· Accurate record-keeping and database entry/management

Desirable:

· Experience of client account management

· Supporting event management

Personal Attributes

Essential:

· Enthusiasm – you must be passionate about education and support our aim of increasing business engagement in education.

· Professionalism – you need to be able to represent Academy Ambassadors and NSN in a professional and confident manner in any context.

· A ‘can do’ attitude with a strong customer service ethos

· Driven to achieve great results with the ability to work well under pressure and comfortable in being held to high standards

We are looking for outstanding candidates to take on this exciting and varied role. It presents the opportunity to be involved in a growing organisation that has an excellent reputation and provides exceptional networking opportunities. 

Due to the nature of our work, the successful candidate may be required to travel to various parts of England occasionally and some occasional overnight stays may be necessary.

Interview dates

Telephone interviews - 2nd May 2018 - afternoon

Face-to-face interviews – 8th May 2018

(TBC) Second conversations - TBC

Unfortunately, due to the number of applications we receive we are only able to contact shortlisted applicants. Thank you for your understanding.