Programme Assistant

Job Description: Fellowship Programme Assistant – Active Fellows

Line Manager: Team Leader (Active Fellows)

Objective: The Programme Assistant provides individualised support to Fellows and facilitates placements/extensions.

Experience: Bachelors’ degree or comparable experience

Duration: For an initial period of 12 months, subject to review.

Hours: Full-time. Eight hours each day Monday – Friday, with flexible working by arrangement around core hours of 10am – 4pm.

Location: Hybrid working - in London office in Elephant and Castle SE1 (2/3 set days per week) and working from home on the remaining days.

Start: 1 May 2024 or shortly thereafter.

Salary: £29,160.

Number of posts: One.

Application deadline: 25/04/2024.

Organisational Background

The Council for At-Risk Academics is a UK-registered charity founded in 1933 under the leadership of William Beveridge, to rescue academics suffering persecution under the rise of Nazism and facilitate their continued work in safety. Sixteen Cara Fellows from the 1930s and 1940s became Nobel Laureates, and many more innovators in their fields, including, Nikolaus Pevsner, Lise Meitner and Karl Popper. A number of Cara’s founders and Council members also personally provided places and/or funds to help individual academics; and Cara, known in the 1930s as the AAC, later the SPSL, was closely involved in the successful effort in 1933 to bring to London the Warburg Institute art library, which had been prohibited by the Nazis, and six of its staff. The Fellowship Programme is the continuation of the rescue mission operation started in 1933.

Cara has been a lifeline to academics at risk for just over 90 years, as and when world events have placed them in the line of fire: Hungarian Uprising, Cold War, Apartheid South Africa, Iran, Latin American Juntas, Vietnam, Kosovo, DRC, Rwanda, Sudan, Zimbabwe etc. and, more recently Iraq, Turkey, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine. Cara support is typically framed as temporary sanctuary offered at times of heightened risk.

Cara Objectives ‘To assist academics who have been, or are, or are at risk of being, subject to discrimination, persecution, suffering or violence on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, to relieve needs among them and their dependants and ensure that their specialist knowledge and abilities can continue to be used for the benefit of the public.’

‘To advance education by supporting academics and their educational institutions in countries where their continuing work is at risk or compromised, to ensure that such academics and institutions can continue to fulfil their critical role as educators for the public benefit.’

This is a critical time to join our dedicated and friendly Fellowship Programme team as we expand our capacity to support at-risk academics from the Middle East, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Russia and many other countries.

Fellowship Programme Officer Role & Responsibilities

Casework

-          Provide support for a caseload of at-risk academics (Cara Fellows) carrying out research placements at UK or international universities

-          Assess Fellows’ suitability for academic placements/extensions

-          Assess, arrange or signpost additional support for Fellows

-          Develop relationships with universities and other partner organisations

-          Secure fee waivers, bursaries & in-kind support from universities, research institutes and other funding bodies.

-          Provide logistical support for visa processes, travel, etc.

-          Write and send official documents to Fellows

-          Request relevant invoices and produce documentation needed to make payments

-          Attend weekly case meetings with the team

Administration

-          Provide support to the drafting of reports to funders

-          Present and collect data

-          Ensure Fellows have submitted their quarterly reports

-          Ensure safekeeping of confidential information

-          Maintain excellent detailed records of correspondence, documents, and activities

Managerial Support

-          Contributing to Fellowship Programme policy changes and decision-making

-          Provide advice and guidance to colleagues

Responsibilities also include related activities that might arise in relation to the Fellowship Programme

as required by the Executive Director or Deputy Director/Fellowship Programme Manager.

Benefits of Role

·       Challenging but rewarding work, always life-changing, sometimes life-saving

·       Competitive salary

·       Team and individual training opportunities

·       Weekly case review meetings with line manager, plus quarterly 1-1 sessions with manager to discuss role and to plan individual professional development

·       Hybrid working, home and office (usually 2 days each week in the office)

·       Eight hours each day Monday – Friday, with flexible working by arrangement around core hours of 10am – 4pm

·       25 days plus Bank Holidays annual leave entitlement

·       8% employer pension contribution

·       Convenient office location at Elephant and Castle, close to Tube (Bakerloo and Northern lines) and bus routes 

Person Specification

Essential

-          Bachelor's degree

-          Proactive with a willingness to learn

-          Great communication skills – internal and external stakeholders

-          Ability to manage workload in a fast-paced environment

-          Excellent record keeping and attention to detail

-          Keen team player who is ready to support and help colleagues

-          Ability to work independently and in a team

-          Good time management with ability to prioritise and independently work to deadlines, and shift priorities when required

-          Understanding of issues of confidentiality

-          Interest in and commitment to the work of Cara

-          Confident user of Microsoft package

-          Ability to have difficult conversations

Desirable

-          Confident user of Salesforce

-          Experience in a supporting role with people with lived experience of forced migration

-          Arabic language skills are desirable. Other foreign languages (such as Farsi/Dari, Pashto, Ukrainian and Russian) will also be considered.