UCL East – Schools Engagement Assistant (STEP)
Salary
£14.64 per hour
Hours
36.5 hours per week
Location
London
Closing Date
03 August 2025
Position Type
Full Time
Advert expires on
03 August 2025
Main Duties
Join a team of seven working on all aspects of schools engagement. It’s a very varied role where you could be helping deliver a workshop in a school, writing a blog, collating feedback, preparing workshop materials, promoting to teachers, working on careers talks, and events on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. You’ll be working with people in the university from a range of fascinating subjects, from art and archaeology to engineering and computer science, helping them find the best ways to communicate with local young people.
• Planning and delivery of schools programmes, gaining an understanding of the steps and actions needed to deliver a range of events, in schools, on UCL campuses, and sometimes in UCL’s museums. This includes:
– Generating ideas
– Preparing resources and materials
– Developing object-based learning activities
– Interacting with school students in schools and in the museums
– Liaising with teachers to promote programmes and to recruit eligible participants
– Event planning e.g. arranging venues and catering
• Developing and delivering presentations about higher education and UCL to school communities.
• Supporting the creation and development of online content including website, Instagram, X (Twitter), and learning how to produce it.
• Gathering feedback and turning this information into engaging case studies, sharing the story of what UCL is doing in east London.
• Supporting colleagues with the delivery of other Access and Widening Participation programmes, resulting in a broad understanding of the role of Widening Participation and the skills needed to work with a variety of stakeholders.
• Personal Work Planning: prioritising tasks and effective communication with line manager regarding work in progress.
• Supporting communications in the team
– Responding to general enquiries from prospective students, parents and teachers
– Liaising with academic and administrative departments to ensure the smooth delivery of events • Supporting administration in the team
– Keeping accurate, up-to-date records of schools and programme participants
– Keeping accurate, up-to-date financial records
– Monitoring shared inboxes and ensuring enquiries are passed on to the right team
• Developing a strong awareness of child protection and safeguarding procedures.
• Undertake all work in line with UCL policies, procedures and regulations and to ensure at all times the promotion of equality of opportunity and non- discrimination, in accordance with UCL’s Equal Opportunities policies.
• Maintain an awareness and observation of Fire and Health & Safety Regulations.
• Any other duties in line with the grade and purpose of the post.
Special working conditions:
• The team is part of UCL Student and Registry Services (SRS) where all staff are expected to help with major events e.g. enrolment, A-level publication. Staff may be subject to the following, as determined by the Head of Department: restrictions on taking annual leave during the main enrolment period of each academic year, on A-level results day, and/or at times of high workload.
• The UCL East Schools Engagement team delivers events on Saturdays and in the evenings, so some weekend and evening work is required. Occasional overnight work may be required. Time off in lieu will be given.
Other Duties:
• SRS staff may, subject to the agreement of their line manager, be called upon to assist with additional duties relating to Health and Safety, or other roles deriving from other UCL strategies, policies or initiatives.
• The precise duties to be undertaken will be agreed between the staff member and their line manager.
• All post holders have a responsibility to carry out their duties in a resource efficient way and actively support UCL’s Sustainability Strategy, policies and objectives within the remit of their role.
Work is directed by the Senior Engagement Officers and UCL East Schools Engagement Manager.
Skills and Experience Required
About STEP
To apply for the STEP programme you must be:
- Aged 18 to 30
• Resident of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest
• Priority will be given to those that have attended school or college in these boroughs.
Through STEP, you’ll get paid London Living Wage over a 12-month training programme to develop a range
of skills and creative approaches and build on your network across different organisations or departments. You’ll complete a work-based placement, grow as part of a peer network, take part in regular professional development workshops, and get a budget to produce a collaborative project. We’ll also connect you with a specialist industry mentor, provide careers coaching and continue to offer support as part of our community after the programme.
Skills and Experience
• Education to GCSE level or equivalent, including proficiency in English and mathematics.
• An understanding of east London, and the communities that live and work there.
• Experience of volunteer roles within schools, cultural or voluntary sector organisations (desirable
• Experience of data entry (desirable)
• Experience of web content management and the use of social media (desirable)
• Experience of visiting museums (desirable) Enthusiasm for promoting education opportunities to young east Londoners
• Ability to work creatively and innovatively to support the delivery of schools activities
• Ability to plan, prioritise and manage a demanding and varied workload
• Good communication skills, both written and spoken
• A good level of numeracy
• Excellent IT skills including a working knowledge of MS Office applications, and including email, spreadsheets and Word documents
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to develop good working relationships with colleagues and external partners, and the ability to work with a diverse range of people
• The ability to pay close attention to detail
• A commitment to high quality service delivery