Student Adviser

Student Adviser

Annual Salary: £28,058 (Trainee salary £23,028)

35 hours per week

Generous Pension and benefits

37 days’ annual leave (rising to 42 after 5 years)

Thank you for your interest in the position of Student Adviser at Kent Union and for wanting to work with us. We are a vibrant, student-led organisation with a bright future ahead of us. After a challenging few years, we are going from strength to strength with a renewed focus and energy to amplify the voice of our members and ensure they have a fantastic student experience.

Our driving force is our new strategy, which sets out our priorities over the next four years. Students are the reason Kent Union exists. We are there through their university journey. Our amazing staff and volunteers work towards improving their experience, whether it’s helping them with their studies, practicalities of life or to have fun.

We are a strong and successful students’ union that delivers a broader range of services than most other UK Students’ Unions. We run student opportunities, events and services that are sector-leading and engage thousands of students every year.

The goals in our strategic plan going forward are to be ‘student led’, ‘here for you’ and ‘a place of opportunities’ for our students. We do this by being an expert on and advocate on behalf of students, campaigning and challenging for a positive and inclusive experience for them and empowering them to make the most of the many opportunities available to them.

Kent Union is a great place to work. We were re-accredited with Investor in People Gold status in December 2014, and were accredited with Leaders in Diversity in 2013. We were the first students’ union in the UK to achieve Investing in Volunteers status and have been included in the Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For, for 11 years, placed 17th for 2020. This year we have been included in the Best Education & Training Organisations to work for list top 25.

Information about the post

Are you passionate about working with students? Do you want to support and empower students so they can stay and complete their degrees at Kent?  Have you got an advice background and are looking for an opportunity to move into a position with an interesting and varied workload?

If the answer is yes, then this is the role for you! The role of Student Adviser is integral in advising and supporting students at Kent to ensure they stay in education and go on to fulfil their aspirations long after they leave Kent.  The Advice Service provides support to 3000 students each year on issues ranging from immigration, finances, housing and academic issues through our centre in Canterbury. It is completely independent of the University of Kent so provides an impartial and confidential service to our students.

As a Student Adviser, you will get to work with students every day ensuring you empower them with the advice and information they require to enable them to make decisions on issues affecting their time at university. You will also be working closely with stakeholders to develop and build partnerships with the University divisions and departments.

We are looking for someone who is passionate about supporting and empowering students and who can provide independent and impartial advice. For the role, you will need to have excellent people and communication skills which will enable you to engage effectively with both students and senior staff within the University. We are looking for a skilled Adviser with experience of giving advice in a Higher Education setting, however, if you are someone with the right skills but a lack of experience in the advice sector then we will consider a Trainee Adviser position where you will be trained over a two-year period and will move up a pay grade annually. The post holder must be able to deliver high standards of customer service and be committed to going above and beyond for the students at the University of Kent.  This is an incredibly exciting role and the opportunity to be one of Kent Union’s most important areas of work. We hope you consider joining the team.

Kent Union is committed to the principles of equality of opportunity and we have recently introduced a BAME guaranteed interview scheme, full details of which can be found in the Recruitment Pack.

To apply please download and complete an application form from our recruitment website www.kentunion.co.uk/careers and email it along with the Equality & Diversity Monitoring Form to kentunionrecruitment@kent.ac.uk; please ensure that you pay particular attention in your application to detailing how you meet the requirements of the person specification.

The Equality & Diversity Monitoring Form will be separated from applications prior to short-listing.

Completed applications must be received by:

Closing date: Sunday 14 January 2024

Interview date: Monday 22 January 2024