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Graduate Vacancy

Details for Project No: 1909
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Status:	CLOSED	Application Close Date: 08/08/2010
Vacancy ID:	1909
Project Type:	Sustainability
Position:	Greener Living Communications Assistant
Location:	NUS, London
Project County:	London
Employer:	SFS Services Ltd
Host Organisation:	NUS Services Limited
Telephone Interview Week Commencing:	09/08/2010
Interview Date:	23/08/2010
Project Start Date:	08/09/2010
Duration:	26 weeks
Project End Date:	06/03/2011
Salary:	££13,675pa
Hours Per week:	17.5
Work Out of Normal Hrs?:	Occasionaly as required
SFS Contact:	Joanna Kemp
Background:
Defra launched the Greener Living Fund (GLF) as part of their Third Sector Strategy in November 2008 to promote greener living across England. Over £6 million has been made available to develop and support projects run by national third sector delivery partners between June 2009 and March 2011. The National Union of Students (NUS) submitted a successful bid called “Degrees Cooler - Greening Universities and beyond through behaviour change”. The programme aims to deliver a measurable increase in the pro-environmental behaviours of over 90,000 students and staff across 20 higher education institutions (HEIs) in England. The specific behaviours targeted through the programme are better energy management, increased recycling, reducing non-essential flying and adopting sustainable food principles. The programme will provide a useful insight into how behaviours are formed and retained in young adults, and quantify the opportunities that the higher education sector offers in terms of behaviour change. The NUS is the programme lead working closely with five other partners. The partners and their roles are shown below: • Student Switch Off lead on delivering a behaviour change project in halls of residence. • Green Impact - The Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) lead on delivering a behaviour change project in university departments. • Going Greener - People & Planet deliver a students-led behaviour change project. • Greener Living Assistants - Studentforce for Sustainability lead on a resourcing project designed to help deliver the three behaviour change projects. • London Sustainability Exchange lead on monitoring impact of the projects and evaluating success. Now into its second year, the programme has seen some major achievements and impacts are being recognised across the universities involved. Keen to build on this, Greener Living Assistants are now being placed across more English Universities to enable this behaviour change momentum to be continued. This role has been created to support the Greener Living Project Coordinator to deliver successful and meaningful communication with internal and external stakeholders and offers an exciting opportunity to be an integral part of this wide reaching behaviour change project.
Objective:
This post will involve a coordinating and supportive role to ensure the effective implementation of Degrees Cooler in order to achieve an increase in the pro-environmental behaviours of students and staff living and working within universities. This post will enable the Greener Living Project Coordinator to facilitate effective support and communications between project partners and the staff and students involved in the projects on the ground. The post holder will form an integral link between the 10 Greener Living Assistants based at participating Universities and their respective Students Unions, in order to facilitate strong internal and external communications. This post will also involve a large amount of input into the Degrees Cooler website and forum, and social marketing websites, in addition to updating current stories and resources on behaviour change to enable the project partners and participants to develop the potential of Degrees Cooler. In this final year of the funded programme, there is great potential for this post holder to communicate the successes of Degrees Cooler, creating long lasting evidence of the positive impacts of the programme through ongoing press releases, input into monitoring and evaluation and collating key achievements and successes through a series of case studies. Green Impact: Assist the university project lead with the following actions and coordination of the project locally: •Assist local launch of year 2 of project ( e.g. Providing universities and unions with content relating to Degrees Cooler for their websites and student press) •Collect best practice photos and create best practice sharing methods •Keep in regular contact with the EAUC Green Impact Project Officer and attend phone or face to face meetings when required •Assist with the monitoring and evaluation requirements of the project. Going Greener: •To help collect contact details of students to promote the project and assist with monitoring and evaluation requirements. •To act as a link between staff and student groups in order to support the student-led behaviour change programme delivered by People and Planet. •To support Go Green Week / Transition big launch, events and event planning - Jan/Feb •To work in collaboration with the Student Union and university to develop good working relationships between staff and students surrounding environmental initiatives. (eg: by supporting Go Green Week Student Switch Off: •Assist with communications and raise awareness of the SSO campaign
Benefits To Graduate
The successful graduate will have opportunities to learn about being a team player, developing communication skills in different mediums and will gain project management and reporting skills. Working within the NUS will enable the graduate to be part of a small but progressive team having a real impact on ethical and environmental developments.
Employment Potential and Options Post Project Work
Defra funding is only guaranteed until March 2011. However, the role may be able to be extended dependent upon its success and the development of any further needs that NUS may have. Permanent work opportunities may arise within the team over the duration of the placement but timing and funding will influence the likelihood of any further opportunities for the student or graduate within the team.
Outputs:
1. Support the Degrees Cooler projects to encourage pro-environmental behaviour change across participating institutions and their wider communities.
2. Increase number of students and staff with pro-environmental knowledge and awareness
3. Successful communication of Degrees Cooler outcomes and achievements in line with programme deadlines and partner requirements.
4. Development and maintenance of website resources and best practice forums to increase the programme’s recognition and impact beyond the sector
5. Provide quantitative and qualitative data to the relevant partners as required.
Essential Selection Criteria:
1. An excellent communicator, able to comfortably express themselves verbally, in written text and to a variety of different audiences as well as in one-to-one situations.
2. Experience of web content management systems, editing photos and films, and design and development of social marketing websites and forums
3. ICT literacy in all Office applications but especially Word and Excel and any web content management programmes.
4. Good organisational and time management skills while working concurrently on a large number of different projects. Understanding of the principles of project management and ability to act on these in pressured work situations.
5. Knowledge of and commitment to environmental issues and their importance within the university environment for both staff, students and the wider community.
6. Able to work on own initiative and as part of a team with self motivation and the ability to motivate others.
7. Demonstrate commitment and motivation to complete the project and deliver the projects aims
8. Knowledge and experience of marketing and communications, involving various communication channels (electronic, hard copy, meetings)
9. Experience of editing and proofing texts for promotional materials (i.e. reports, magazines, flyers, brochures, publications, web etc.), with excellent attention to detail
10.
Desirable Selection Criteria:
1. Creative and innovative thinker and problem-solver that can formulate ideas and appropriately execute them
2. Experience of or a relevant qualification in communications, marketing or similar
3. Knowledge of both the Higher Education and Further Education sectors would be advantageous.
4. Experience with establishing and maintaining working relationships with members, external providers, Governmental bodies, and media representatives
5.
Key Tasks:
1. Liaise with key university and Union staff and GLA’s at participating Universities to encourage their early involvement in all of the planned communications.
2. Plan, deliver and evaluate the Degrees Cooler communications through a variety of internal and external channels with staff and students and project partners (for example; Freshers’s Fairs, press releases, reports, and case studies).
3. Liaise with project partners to enable them to input into internal and external communications as required.
4. Ensure that all records and information are collated and disseminated effectively, in line with the requirements of the project, and facilitate discussion and drive forward agendas with key contacts and participants
5. Plan, deliver and maintain website content and a resource forum on behaviour change materials for project partners and participants.
6. Prioritise key tasks and workload to ensure successful delivery to time frames specified by the project aims, and actively network with other Greener Living Assistants to ensure sharing of best practice across the sector.
7. To support the Greener Living Project Coordinator in their communication activities with partners, staff and students as required.
8. Act as an ambassador for the project and ensure effective communication of its aims and objectives in liaison with Student Unions and through other partners and external channels.
9. To assist with other projects relevant to Degrees Cooler being conducted by the Ethics and Environment Team, and to investigate external funding sources for further projects that would complement it.
10.