A Job Description for the Post of Education Officer

Date as postmark

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your interest in the post of Education Officer at Hanningfield Reservoir Visitor Centre for Essex Wildlife Trust.

Please find enclosed with this letter a copy of the following information about the post and the Essex Wildlife Trust:

• A Job Description for the post of Education Officer

• Terms and Conditions of Employment

• Our current staff structure

• An application form for the post

Essex Wildlife Trust was founded as a Charity and Limited Company in 1959 by Essex people who were determined to protect interesting wildlife and important habitats and countryside. Essex Wildlife Trust is a registered charity, protecting wildlife for the future and for the people of Essex. The Trust has 87 nature reserves, 9 Visitor Centres, over 34,000 members, around 125 staff and up to 2,000 volunteers.

Essex Wildlife Trust has a professional and passionate team of staff and volunteers. So far, in 2015, we have provided outdoor learning sessions to 16,022 school pupils from 257 schools and colleges in Essex. We deliver educational programmes to a wide range of ages from Early Years (under 5s) to Further and Higher Education. Schools engage with Essex Wildlife Trust at our visitor centres, nature reserves and parks, within school grounds and local green spaces and woodlands in their surrounding landscape. In 2014, 339 events were run at visitor centre sites, engaging over 7,653 people. Essex Wildlife Trust’s visitor centres are the hub of our work engaging people with wildlife and welcomed over 500,000 visitors in 2014.

The main aim of this post is to deliver and promote a varied and engaging education programme of informal and formal education for preschool age to adult at Hanningfield Reservoir Visitor Centre and in the local area. This is a superb Visitor Centre at Hanningfield Reservoir where we work closely with Essex and Suffolk Water.

The Education Officer post at Hanningfield Reservoir Visitor Centre is a key member of the visitor centre team and has an important role to engage local people with wildlife and to encourage them to take action to protect it. The successful applicant will have experience working with children and young people. An interest in wildlife and conservation is essential.

Applications should be made via Networx recruitment. To apply please submit your completed on-line application form together with your full CV and a covering letter explaining why you think you are suited to the job. Your application must by submitted to https://www.networxrecruitment.com/Jobs/Advert/245808

by 5.00pm on Wednesday 23 September 2015.

Networx will acknowledge safe receipt of your application. You will then be contacted again to notify whether or not you have been selected for interview.

Interviews will be held on Friday 2nd October 2015 at Hanningfield Reservoir Visitor Centre, near Chelmsford, Essex.

Due to the high number of applicants we normally receive we are not able to respond individually to all applications. If you are selected for interview, we will phone and confirm in writing. If you have not heard from us by the interview date you have not been successful and we take this opportunity to thank you for your application.

Thank you for your interest in the work of the Trust and I look forward to receiving your application.

Yours faithfully

Emma Sauntson

Education and Community Manager

Essex Wildlife Trust

Essex Wildlife Trust Job Description & Person Specification

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: Education Officer – Hanningfield Reservoir Visitor Centre
Location: Hanningfield Reservoir Visitor Centre
Reports to: Hanningfield Team Leader
Responsible for: Seasonal Educating Officer
Volunteers
Approximately 20 Education Volunteers
Financial Responsibilities: Income Expenditure
Direct responsibility £25,000 £5,620
Job Purpose: To promote and support the delivery of the Hanningfield Reservoir Visitor Centre Education and Events Programme incorporating formal and informal education, community/organisation activities, training and events, which will engage and enthuse a diverse audience of ages and abilities with the work of Essex Wildlife Trust.
Responsibility Areas
Service Delivery (80% of time)
·  To promote, develop and deliver a formal education programme for EYFS through to key stage 5.
·  To support the development of the Forest School Programme.
·  To promote and deliver an informal education programme (including weekends and evenings).
·  To engage children, young people and adults with wildlife, heritage, living landscapes and living seas through;
-  Family events - Birthday parties
-  School holiday activities - Youth groups/clubs
-  Pre-school clubs - Adult courses
-  Training & Accreditation - Practical work parties
·  To ensure that the education room is full and activities scheduled
·  To work with the centre team to ensure Visitor Centre facilities are ready to receive visitors and provide centre cover on a rota basis.
·  To develop links with local schools and community groups to promote the work of Essex Wildlife Trust.
·  To ensure that budgets and expenditure figures are maintained and managed and income targets are met.
·  To assist the Education & Community Officer and the Centre Manager with the running of large scale events.
·  To ensure relevant funding eg. HLF project targets are met and correctly reported.
·  To make and take opportunities to recruit members and supporters of Essex Wildlife Trust
People (5% of time)
·  Recruit, develop, reward, schedule and co-ordinate Seasonal Educational Officers and Education Volunteers to assist with the delivery of the education provision.
·  Effectively line manage, and monitor performance and development of volunteers and SEO’s through evaluation of events, one-to-ones and appraisals.
·  To ensure training needs of volunteers are met such as first aid, and ensure safeguarding of children procedures and policies are followed.
·  Run Training days for volunteers and SEO’s
·  To work with centre staff and peers to ensure that customers receive excellent customer care.
Problem Solving/Innovation (5% of time)
·  To develop innovative sessions, resources and materials for the delivery of formal and informal education programmes.
·  Deal with customer enquiries or complaints in an efficient and professional manner.
·  To carry out lessons learned exercises and evaluate the business case of the activity in question
Planning/organising (5% of time)
·  Responsible for writing, maintaining and implementing lesson plans, health and safety, risk assessments and collating evaluations.
·  To attend relevant meetings and to brief and de-brief with volunteers and colleagues.
·  Responsible for development and implementation of the annual events programme and schedule.
·  Responsible for; managing the bookings of education room, updating outlook calendar and ensuring that equipment is sourced and available and the education room is presentable and tidy.
·  To ensure that your TOIL, annual leave and days off are taken in consultation with other team members, and with permission of your line manager and Professiona Lead
·  To develop educational opportunities of the whole site and surrounding community to be interesting and relevant to educational establishments.
Communication (5%of time)
·  To respond promptly to correspondence with teacher staff and members of the public regarding events, bookings and enquiries.
·  To maintain and develop fresh and topical activities and educational resources for a range of ages.
·  To grow audience participation through bookings by widely promoting the education and events programme.
·  Promote the work of Essex Wildlife Trust.
·  Ensure good communication - face to face and online with colleagues.
·  To work closely with land owner and partner Essex & Suffolk Water
To undertake any other duties which are commensurate with the role.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Specialist knowledge and experience:
·  Knowledge:
o  Degree or equivalent experience in relevant field.
o  I.T. skills such as Microsoft Office and using social media.
o  Wildlife conservation and environment science.
·  Experience:
o  Working with a wide range of ages and audiences.
o  Promoting and delivering informal events.
o  Developing and delivering formal education.
o  Working in an environmental education setting.
o  Working with minimum supervision and prioritising workloads.
o  Aptitude and/or experience of working in a visitor centre.
Essential Skills and Behaviours

Team Working

·  Makes a positive contribution to the team, supporting colleagues in their day-to-day work.

·  Establishes constructive and collaborative relationships with immediate colleagues and volunteers.

·  Provide support, when required for Centre cover.

Problem solving and analysis

·  Identifies potential difficulties and their causes. Generates workable solutions and makes rational judgements.

·  A level of numeracy sufficient to be able to check and reconcile statistics, financial information etc.

·  Ensures details and facts are correct, complete and consistent, ensuring that conclusions drawn from the information are built on solid foundations.

Professionalism

·  Able to produce accurate and high quality results, with excellent attention to detail.

·  Shows enthusiasm to broaden own experience, knowledge, skills and self-insight.

·  Listens to feedback from colleagues and managers, taking the learning and development points on board and modifying own practice.

·  Ensures high standards are achieved and customer needs fulfilled.

Determination

·  Commits self to work hard towards goals and demonstrates commitment to team and staff at respective visitor centres

·  Able to remain calm and self-controlled under pressure.

·  Keeps track of own progress, completing work to deadlines or informing Professional Lead or Team Leader when targets can’t be met.

Persuasive communication

·  Ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, adapting style to suit the audience.

·  Produces written communication which is fluent, clear, concise and tailored to intended recipient(s). Speaks clearly, fluently and in a compelling manner to both individuals and groups.

·  Tailors communications to appeal to, include and engage different audiences.

Customer Focus

·  Puts the customer first and is eager to please them.

·  Treats both internal and external service users with honesty, integrity and discretion.

·  Works with others to identify customer needs and issues to ensure services are fit for purpose.

People management

·  Able to supervise and motivate volunteers.

·  Recognises and rewards good performance and tackles any poor performance of volunteers.

Planning

·  Able to organise time effectively, create work schedules, prioritise workload and meet deadlines.

·  Identifies the steps to achieve agreed tasks, goals and objectives in the immediate or short term.

·  Proven ability to effectively prioritise, organise, plan and schedule activities and resources.

Special Conditions:

·  Must have full valid UK driving licence.

·  Posts working within Education will be subject to full DBS checks.

·  Assist with the maintenance of the visitor centre, be a key holder to the building and attend alarm call outs normally living within 30 minutes of the centre.

·  Flexibility - work outside of normal office hours and work within a rota that covers weekends and evenings.

·  An interest in working for a charity which is determined to protect wildlife for the future and for the people of Essex.

TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT

Name of Employer: Essex Wildlife Trust

Title of Post: Hanningfield Reservoir Education Officer

A detailed job description is available but this does not form part of the terms of employment.

Responsible to: Hanningfield Reservoir Team Leader, who is Line Manager for this post.

Line of Technical Expertise: Education and Community Manager

Place of Work: Hanningfield Reservoir Visitor Centre, with visits to other sites within the surrounding Living Landscape area. Occasional visits to other locations as required by your Line Manager.

Hours of Work: 37.5 hours per week, normally 7.5 per day. Normal office hours are 9 am to 5 pm, however, work will be required outside these hours, including work at evenings, regular weekend work as part of a rota (usually working every other weekend) and Bank Holidays for which time may be taken off in lieu. Guidance and procedures on claiming time off in lieu are included in the Staff Handbook, located on SharePoint.

Itinerary: You must complete a staff itinerary in advance for each week for your Line Manager to read, this must show the days you are working, the hours you intend to work and indicate key jobs you are undertaking. This is held on Microsoft Outlook Calendar. Instructions are in the Staff Handbook.

Salary: Up to £24,560 pa depending on experience and qualifications and subject to review with your Line Manager. Salary is paid monthly in arrears. If for some reason it is clear that the Trust has over paid or under paid on one month it will adjust this by deduction or addition on the next month. Rates of pay are reviewed in November each year. Details of salary during Probationary period will be set out in your letter of appointment.

Travelling: When using your own vehicle on Trust business (excluding ordinary commuting) a mileage allowance may be payable (full details and current rates are available in the Staff Handbook). When you make a travel claim you will be asked to confirm that your private vehicle is appropriately insured, taxed and has an MOT (where applicable).

Travel at the beginning or end of the working day to/from your normal place of work is within your own time. It is not classed as working time and you are therefore not entitled to record time off in lieu for these journeys. If an employee travels from their place of work to another work related location or temporary place of work, this is normally in work time. If an employee’s role requires them to travel from home to a temporary place of work at the start of the day it would be reasonable for an employee to spend the first 30 minutes of the journey in their own time. The same would apply at the end of the day if an employee travels from a temporary place of work to home in that it would be reasonable for 30 minutes of that journey to be in their own time. Full guidance can be found in the Staff Handbook on SharePoint. Specific exceptions to this can be agreed by your Line Manager for going on a particular visit or training outside of Essex, where the length of the journey is more than a normal journey time you would do within Essex.

Annual Leave: Our holiday year runs from 1st January to 31st December. For a complete holiday year full-time staff are entitled to 23 working days in addition to days in lieu of statutory bank holidays rising to 25 days after 5 years’ service.

Holidays must be taken in consultation with other staff and with the agreement of your Line Manager. If you commence work part way through the holiday year, you need to base your entitlement on the remaining complete months in that holiday year.