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SalaryAbout Us:
THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM
Regeneration, Economy & Planning in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where people use their vision and commitment to open doors for the next generations.
Nothing beats the feeling of helping someone find their passion. At Westminster City Council, our City Lions team helps young local people engage with culture, creativity and dreams. When they came across a lonely, isolated 16-year-old who called himself a failure, they knew what to do. They worked 1-2-1 to find the thing this boy really loved. YouTube, it turned out. But it’s impossible to turn that into a career, right? Wrong. A week later, he was enrolled on the British Film Institute film-making programme. It was the ultimate light-bulb moment. And it turned him into what he is today – a budding Spielberg with a world of opportunity at his feet.
Please view the extraordinary story of the Impossible Dream here.
The Role:
As a Business Engagement & Project Officer, you can make your own powerful contribution to supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs and building a more inclusive, sustainable, and fairer economy. Joining our Business and Enterprise team, you’ll engage day to day with the borough’s business base and our partners. You’ll be a key player in developing and delivering of a broad range of support for business, as well as impactful economic development projects and interventions.
There are two roles. The first focuses on start-ups and small businesses, offering them access to affordable and flexible workspace and the business support they need to succeed. Our Enterprise Space Programme has enabled 12 workspaces providing over 200,000 sq ft of space. You’ll help to shape and launch new workspaces, develop and build our relationships directly with businesses calling them home, and our partners who operate them.
The second is devoted to attracting inward investment and sectoral approaches, encouraging and supporting businesses (from independents to international chains) to locate, grow and succeed in Westminster. Crucially, working to ensure the benefits of their investment is felt locally. Taking a sector-led approach, you’ll work to identify the opportunities to maximise inclusive growth – focused on our priority business sectors from creative and cultural, health and life sciences, to low carbon.
Research, analysis and evaluation will be key elements of both roles. We’ll look to you to identify what businesses need, how they can benefit the local community and what the impact of our work has been.
Please note: applicants should outline in their supporting statement which of the two initial portfolio focuses would be a preference, either:
- Enterprise Spaces
- Inward Investment and Sectoral Approaches
Please refer to the Job Description for more information
About You:
This is a fast-paced, political environment with high expectations for the team to make a positive impact on the local economy. You’re therefore likely to have some experience of economic development, business support or a related area, and a strong sense of inclusive and environmentally sustainable approaches to business growth. Well-developed project management skills are important, along with excellent engagement abilities. Able to foster productive working relationships, you’ll have a persuasive communication style and will be ready to work collaboratively and creatively with both internal and external partners.
What We Offer:
Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster.
Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.
At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties
As a forward thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.
The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.
Closing date: 7th April 2024.
Contact details for Informal discussion: Gaurav Choksi, Enterprise Space Programme Manager, via email: gchoksi@westminster.gov.uk or Rob Baffour-Awuah, Inward Investment Programme Manager, via email: rbaffour-awuah@westminster.gov.uk
