Event Manager (Interim)

Regional Manager - London

This is a remote role, but will require you to travel to sites across London on a regular basis.

About Career Ready

We are a UK-wide social mobility charity that believes that every young person deserves the opportunity to enjoy a rewarding future.

We were founded in 2002 by leading business figures with a mission: to boost social mobility by empowering young people and giving their talents a platform to flourish. Since then, we’ve grown across the UK to support young people in areas of need.

Our programme gives young people the key skills, confidence, and experiences they need to kickstart their futures. In partnership with our network we deliver a targeted programme providing young people aged 15-18 with a paid internship and mentor, workplace visits, and skills masterclasses.

Our organisational values underpin how we work and are at the core of everything we do. Career Ready’s values are: trust, bravery, collaboration, empowerment and inclusion.

Role Purpose

The main purpose of the programmes team is to grow, develop and deliver all aspects of the day-to-day relationship management of:

·       Schools and colleges running the Career Ready programme

·       Local employer supporters, corporate partners supporters, other key local stakeholders and networks

Each Regional Manager is responsible for a local patch which currently typically consists of 5-6 schools or colleges, up to 100 students and 4-5 operational relationships with our corporate partners. Regional Managers will also be responsible for building and maintaining a local network of employer supporters and seeking opportunities for new employer support ..

There will be opportunities to be creative, as well as being autonomous in how you run and develop the programme with the Career Ready schools and colleges in your area.

Main responsibilities and accountabilities

Centre Management and Student Support

·       You will work 1:1 with our community of school/college coordinators in your region to support them in delivering the programme. This will require regular meetings and communication, to support coordinators with the planning and managing of masterclasses, workplace visits and other Career Ready events for students and volunteers

·       Regularly communicate and report to the Head of Programmes  

·       Execute our strategy across the region

·       Support schools and colleges in programme onboarding (students and mentors) and delivery of paid internships

·       From time to time there may be a need to deliver sessions to skills and careers leads and to groups of young people within the school and college setting

·       Recruit new schools and colleges to the network from the region in accordance with priority target areas. Manage their induction, training, activities prior to launch and implementation of the Career Ready programme

·       Assist schools and colleges on our programmes to plan, manage and run events (i.e. icebreakers, launches, or student promotion sessions) and be prepared to present at such events.

Partnership Management, Stakeholder Engagement & Business Development

·       Day-to-day operational account management for employer supporters, ensuring they have excellent experiences.

·       Full partnership and operational account management for lower-level funders in your region.

·       Promote the contribution of Career Ready and awareness of Career Ready to potential supporters and assist in engaging their commitment to give both practical and financial support

·       Engaging new corporate, third and public sector organisations to directly support the programme delivery, working with the Head of Programmes to ensure your Regional Action Board supports you (develop a great relationship with them, set and agree targets and meet with Chair regularly).

·       Develop and deliver the overall employer engagement strategy for the area ensuring that the number of mentors (one for each student participating) is matched with the paid internship commitment and that employer volunteers are in place for masterclass delivery and workplace visits.

This Includes:

o   Promoting Career Ready to potential supporters, engaging their commitment.

o   Management of relationships with employer supporters through regular 'keeping in touch'.

o   Directly pursuing a prioritised list of prospect funders in your region in line with our organisational strategy. This work will be supported by Partnership Managers and Head of Programmes  

o   Using our SME Internship Investment Fund, seek small and medium sized businesses to provide a mentor and host an intern, seeking as much match funding as possible (e.g., we pay for 1 internship and you pay for 1; 50% of internship funded_

o   Support engagement, experience and deliver on the programme commitments to corporate partners in your area.

o   Support the Head of Programmes and Partnership Manager with programme reporting requirements specific to corporate partners, trusts and foundations

General

·       Promote a commitment to high standards of service, and to equality of opportunity through leadership and good practice.

·       With the Chief Executive, Director of Programmes and Operations, and Heads of Programmes , monitor the state of Career Ready in the region and seek ways to promote its achievements and improve the service given by the central staff team.

·       Attend meetings and training days with the national team (approximately 2 times a year – these have tended to take place in London).

·       Ensure that all regional management information is submitted to the national Salesforce database in a timely and accurate way.

·       In collaboration with the Career Ready team, raise our and key stakeholders’ profile in the area, celebrating success via socials and the local media, business and education communities.

·       Undertake public speaking as required to promote the work of Career Ready in the area.

Person Specification

This is a wonderful role that requires passion for our purpose and a broad range of skills, experience and the ability to demonstrate an understanding of the environments we operate in. You can develop, grow and maintain valuable and valued relationships through your motivation for what we do, with a passion that inspires and engages others, alongside the capacity to identify and manage multiple priorities. You need to thrive on attention to detail, be able to listen to what is not said, be well organised and confident to engage with and influence a wide range of people.  You will research and approach opportunities and outcomes with an entrepreneurial mindset.

Key qualities and skills

·       Driven, inspirational, warm with a track record of what you can do and how you do it

·       Loves developing, growing and maintaining a broad range of stakeholder relationship

·       Self-assured with great listening and negotiation skills to influence and communicate inspirationally, accurately and effectively to a wide variety of audiences (students to Head Teachers to CEOs)

·       Invests in understanding the bigger picture to enable local plans in service of our strategy and innovations which fit with Career Ready’s mission, values and practices

·       Composed and engaging whilst managing multiple activities and processes that, when combined, are the recognised high quality, high care, high impact Career Ready programme

·       Confident enough to manage and motivate yourself to deliver a range of outcomes and able to seek the views, ideas and wisdom of others

·       Truly great organisational skills, able to prioritise, keeping stakeholders informed and engaged

You also have strong IT literacy skills (CRM system [Salesforce] /Office 365 - Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and are social media savvy.

Hours:  Full-time (35 hours) although we will consider part time requests of a minimum of 28 hours per week 

Benefits

You will be rewarded with the following benefits:

• 6% contribution to personal pension plan, subject to 3% employee contribution
• Annual leave: 25 days per annum plus bank/public holidays. The charity is also closed between Christmas and New Year and there are an additional 2 days of leave available in August. Career Ready also allows flexible use of 7 Bank & Public Holidays
• Interest-free season ticket or bicycle purchase loans (or Cycle To Work Scheme).

• Flexible working: We strongly embody trust. We can support condensed / flexible working patterns. [This is a remote working role with occasional team meetings in Central London and more regular visits to schools, colleges and work places].​

• You’ll be part of a diverse, supportive, and friendly team​