Job title: Outreach Administrator – External Relations – 102976 – Grade 4
Company: University of Birmingham
Job description: Job Description:
Position Details
External Relations
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £25,866 to £27,518, with potential progression once in post to £30,820.
Grade: 4
Full Time, Permanent
Closing date: 18th December 2023
Our offer to you
People are at the heart of what we are and do.
The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.
We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.
We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.
Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.
The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.
Find out more about the
Background
The University of Birmingham has a commitment to widening participation; ensuring that young people from communities who are under-represented in Higher Education are encouraged and supported to make informed choices regarding their future progression. This activity provides a ladder of engagement from Year 6 through to Year 13 and on to Higher Education.
The Undergraduate Recruitment and Marketing team and the Outreach team are responsible for the development, promotion and delivery of student recruitment and widening participation activities for the University within the UK. The team undertake a wide range of aspiration raising events and student recruitment activities (i.e. HE fairs, school and campus visits, open days and residential events) as well as undertaking a range of activities targeted at specific groups within the community as part of our commitment to widening participation.
This is an exciting role in a busy and fast-paced team. This permanent post will play a key role in supporting the University’s widening participation and outreach agenda and will provide specific support for the Access to Birmingham Scheme.
Role Summary
To provide proactive administrative support in the Outreach team, working as part of a team or on own initiative. You will have the ability to manage your work without needing to refer to others for most of your time. In order to flexibly use resource you may be given the opportunity to work in different areas of the department or wider University.
Main Duties
- You will act as a point of contact to provide accurate and timely information and advice to internal and external customers and stakeholders on University processes and procedures, answering queries promptly, providing guidance and resolving queries from initial contact to resolution. This will include recognising when queries need to be referred elsewhere.
- Regularly communicate relevant information to students, staff and external contacts.
- Provide administrative support for diary or event planning.
- Process data (which may be financial, HR, student-related or other), monitoring accuracy, chasing up missing information, and escalating any issues as appropriate.
- Use a variety of complex University systems and processes to research, manipulate, analyse and interpret sets of data, and produce routine reports.
- Maintain working relationship with key stakeholders, fielding queries, receiving and dealing with any disputes or complaints and resolving promptly.
- Offer advice and support to others on area of activity.
- Review processes and tasks and proactively offer suggestions for improvement and sharing best practice as appropriate.
- As required, provide a professional secretarial service to relevant committees and meetings.
- General financial support for the department, including raising purchase orders and recording transactions on the University’s finance system.
- Working directly with Worklink to support the employment of student ambassadors and mentors.
- Supporting student tracking through several of the Pathways to Birmingham programmes, including destination data.
- Supporting the DBS process and DBS checks.
- Supporting the wider recruitment team at Open Days.
- Supports equality and values diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
Essential:
- GCSEs to a minimum of grade C/4 in English and Mathematics grade C minimum (or equivalent level 2 qualification).
- Good IT skills with working knowledge of standard Microsoft Office software.
- Ability to take responsibility for specific tasks, carrying out duties without needing to refer to others, with scope for some choice and using your own judgment.
- Ability to work on your own initiative.
- Ability to proactively contribute to improving processes and for proposing new ways of working.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to communicate clearly and effectively with others with a wide range of stakeholders including teachers, young people, parents and university staff.
- Well organised with the ability to prioritise work proactively, independently and as part of a team.
- A good understanding of how to deliver excellent customer service.
- Experience of using and maintaining complex work systems e.g. student databases/finance record systems/HR systems or equivalent, and an aptitude for learning new IT packages and systems.
- The ability to cope with change in a fast moving, dynamic environment where change is often required immediately.
- An understanding of the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.
- An understanding of data protection legislation and compliance, in particular how this applies to students under 18 years old.
- The ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures and how to respond to issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.
- Prepared to work occasional weekends and evenings where required.
- An enhanced DBS check would be required for this post.
Desirable:
- An understanding of widening participation in the field of education.
- Experience of working with students.
- Knowledge and understanding of the UK Education system.
- Experience of working within the HE/Education sector.
Dimensions
You will not be required to line manage anyone in this role or manage a budget.
Planning and organising
You will be required to manage and prioritise a varied workload to deliver within required time frames. There is also a need to maintain an awareness of activity across the department and wider University as appropriate.
Problem solving and decision making
You will be working under the direction of a senior manager, but with the autonomy to deliver the outputs required. You will be working within the framework of existing policies, processes and procedures for the department. You will take day to day decisions on what advice to give and for responding to and resolving queries.
Internal and external relationships
This role will be liaising with internal colleagues and stakeholders, and external stakeholders as well with an expectation on maintaining good working relationships with all.
DBS required
The University is committed to safeguarding and we promote safe recruitment practice, therefore all associated pre-employment checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed. Due to the nature of the work undertaken in this role all successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory DBS clearance prior to appointment.
Informal enquiries to Rachel Burgess, email:
View our staff values and behaviours
We believe there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone .
Expected salary: £25866 – 27518 per year
Location: United Kingdom
Job date: Tue, 05 Dec 2023 07:32:54 GMT