Senior Project Manager – Primary Schools

About the Charity

At The Switch, we’re a committed team with a passion for working with young people. By partnering with businesses, we work with primary and secondary schools to introduce young people to all things related to work.

Through a wide range of volunteer-based programmes, The Switch provides a vital link between education and the world of work. Bringing communities together, we’re helping businesses to give back and enabling schools to achieve more. The result: we’re permanently changing the future outlook for thousands.

For 35 years, our charity has been providing educational experiences to raise the aspirations and boost the career chances of young people. With a committed, enthusiastic team, and our extensive relationships with schools and local businesses, we’re helping the community of Tower Hamlets work together to give every child a promising future.

Vision

To empower young people to discover their best future.

And for our business partners

Making volunteering what it should be: Easy, enjoyable and enriching.

Context of the Role

We pair trained business volunteers, who work in The City or Canary Wharf, with pupils in Tower Hamlets primary schools, to boost students’ literacy and numeracy skills and knowledge of the world of work. We are looking for an experienced project manager to manage the Reading Partners and Number Partners programmes, and manage the Primary Schools Team.

• Reading Partners read with their pupils and help them develop a love of reading.
• Number Partners help their pupils develop a love of maths, through specially created games and activities.

Key responsibilities:

• Manage the Primary Team and overseeing their projects (line managing Project Coordinator and Project Manager).  
• Oversee the project management of Writing Partners, BEE and Abacus.
• Deliver Reading Partners and Number Partners.
• Manage relationships with schools and companies, pairing them together and passing on relevant information to the Head of Partnerships & Fundraising 
• Negotiate renewals and expansions of Partner Scheme companies’ partnerships with us, including tier level payments, in conjunction with Partnership team.  
• Negotiate renewals of all primary schools’ partnerships with us. Ensure all primary schools pay the partnership fee, and as many as possible return a signed Service Level Agreement.  
• Facilitate in-person Inductions for Reading and Number Partners.
• Assemble and deliver weekly resources for Number Partners.
• Troubleshoot partnerships by visiting Reading and Number Partners sessions.
• Report any safeguarding concerns as a matter of urgency, following our set process.
• Facilitate office visits and ensure they uphold our safeguarding standards.
• Ensure that all volunteering is recorded accurately and consistently on the CRM to track participation numbers.
• Write Impact Reports for Reading & Number Partners and support team to write Impact Reports for their projects.

Additional Duties:

• Work from the office on at least two days per week: certainly including Wednesdays. You must be available to attend meetings/inductions on other days of the week as the role demands.
• Adhere to The Switch’s staff handbook procedures and participate in the annual appraisal system of staff development.
• Adhere to policies including safeguarding and data protection.
• Be aware of the need for self-development in line with The Switch’s business priorities, and to liaise with line manager to explore ways in which these needs can be best met.
• Contribute to general office responsibilities such as ensuring a clean and safe working environment and answering the switchboard when necessary.
• Support colleagues and other teams as and when directed by line manager.
• Contribute to the overall strategy of The Switch.
• Take on any other tasks, as delegated by senior Switch staff, as and when required. 

Reports to

The post holder will be line managed by the CEO with input and support, where appropriate, by other staff.

Skills and Experience:

• Project management: Strong project management, planning, administrative and organisational skills. Able to effectively evaluate work and improve based on results. Experience of managing a project, programme or event with multiple stakeholders. Experience working with primary-aged pupils and an understanding of employability.
• Experience working with schools and awareness of the Key Stage Two curriculum.
• Experience managing volunteers and an understanding of volunteering good practice.
• Experience in Corporate Social Responsibility and/or working with businesses such as banks and law firms.
• Communication: Confident and engaging public speaker; able to present complex information in a simple and concise way. They must be comfortable and confident in public speaking and capable of speaking to small groups or large audiences.
• Writing skills: Ability to articulate messages clearly and concisely in an engaging style consistent with The Switch’s brand. Ability to write for a variety of audiences. Able to produce professional materials and resources. Able to produce reports which are fit for publication.
• Customer care skills: Excellent people skills with the confidence to respond to positive or negative feedback from young people, volunteers and businesses/employers in a professional and diplomatic manner.
• Interpersonal Skills
  • Ability to relate to young people from all walks of life and a passion to help them reach their potential.
  • Able to negotiate, persuade, problem solve and be flexible. Can form good relationships with a range of people from different types of backgrounds and at different levels of experience.
  • Be persuasive communicators, able to motivate and enthuse others.
  • Good networking skills.
  • Show self-motivation and drive for promoting and developing links between businesses, employers and schools in Tower Hamlets.
  • Friendly and approachable with a ‘can do’ positive outlook.

• Teamwork: Strong team player, sharing knowledge and experience with colleagues, able to collaborate and support. Ability to negotiate, persuade, and be flexible.
• Initiative: A self-starter with the ability to direct own work in an organised and motivated way. Solutions-focused and able to resolve issues independently.
• Organised: A self-starter who is comfortable setting their own pace of work and managing their deadlines with limited supervision. They should be able to manage several projects at the same time.
• Prioritise: Ability to work under pressure and identify priorities and schedules of daily work. Must be able to effectively deliver against set targets to agreed deadlines.
• Punctual and reliable.
• Thorough: Displays attention to detail.
• Strategic thinking: Able to think strategically and demonstrate a capacity for continuous product and systems improvement. Capable of contributing to wider organisational strategy.
• The postholder must have an understanding and commitment to equal opportunities.

An enhanced DBS clearance is also essential. This can be undertaken as soon as the person is in post.

Additional Information
We welcome applications from candidates who may need reasonable adjustments either at interview or in the workplace.
The deadline for applications is 6pm on Tuesday 27 th January. All applications must include a CV and a covering letter of maximum 2 sides of A4 explaining how you fit the person specification in the “About You” description. These must be sent to: Megan.Hunter@theswitch.org

Due to the need to fill this role by early March, we will only be able to interview candidates who can start in this timeframe. Please include information in the covering letter about your availability.
First round interviews will be held as quickly as possible, so we ask for keen candidates to submit applications as soon as they can.