Job Description

Catalyst Project Volunteering Support Officer

Strategic Planning and Change Section

The Strategic Planning and Change Section successfully bid for funding for a £4m project under HEFCE’s ‘Universities as Anchors’ initiative which is a strand of HEFCE’s Catalyst Fund. This exciting project which started in December 2015, involves Essex County Council (ECC) and Suffolk County Council (SCC), levering the University’s research capability and expertise in the Social Sciences and in Big Data to improve outcomes for vulnerable people in the community. The Project is developing and testing a suite of ‘smart tools’ for risk management, community asset mapping and the evaluation of local authority interventions in order to better target resources and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of local services. In addition, the project is supporting a step change in student volunteering and community activity, helping our students to develop valuable employability skills, to make a real difference in their local community.

Duties of the Role

We are seeking someone to provide vital project support for the remaining period of the project to the overall Catalyst Project (together with another part-time Project Support Officer) and specifically to one of the work-streams within the Catalyst Project called ‘Community Volunteering Connector Hub (CVCH)’. This will include monitoring progress, supporting the liaison with volunteering organisations through various events and maintaining regular engagement with key stakeholders of the work-stream. You will proactively manage work-stream actions, issues and risks, and provide high-quality project documentation, briefing material, presentations and communications to the Senior Project Manager, the CVCH Working Group and others as appropriate.

Qualifications and Skills required

The successful candidate will be educated to A-level or equivalent, and will have proven experience in a similar role, preferably combined with experience working within the Community and Voluntary sector.

They will have excellent experience in project planning, monitoring of project progress, risk, issue and stakeholder management, and knowledge or understanding of project management principles. They will have strong administrative and organisational skills along with extensive experience with Microsoft packages.  Experience of taking actions and minutes, and the ability to deal with multiple priorities and deadlines is essential. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills are required to engage, persuade, influence, and enthuse others.

This appointment is fixed-term, part-time (21.6 hours per week) until 31 December 2019 in alignment to the project end date.

At the University of Essex internationalism is central to who we are and what we do. We are committed to being a cosmopolitan, internationally-oriented university that is welcoming to staff and students from all countries and a university where you can find the world in one place.

Please visit our website for a full job description, person specification and more information relating to this post. We recommend you read this information carefully before making an application.  Applications should be made on-line, but if you would like advice or help in making an application, or need information in a different format, please telephone the Resourcing Team 

Closing date: 10 June 2018

Interviews are planned for: 28 June 2018