The Labour Party

General Election

Student Vote Activators

Application Information Pack

Thank you for your interest in applying to become a General Election Student Vote Activator with the Labour Party.

The closing date for receipt of applications for these posts is 10th December 2014 at 9am. Applications should be emailed to

In this pack you will find information about these roles and the application process.

Please note the application form and equal opportunities form are separate documents which you can download at pack is provided to give you as much information as possible to help you decide if this opportunity is for you, and to help you to apply.

The following papers are included in this pack:

  • Job description
  • Person specification
  • Information on terms and conditions
  • Recruitment process
  • Equal opportunities statement

Thank you for your interest and we wish you every success in your application.

Labour Party

Job Description

Job Title: General Election Student Vote Activator

Responsible to: Head of General Election Youth Strategy

Location: There are roles available located in each of the following places; Bedford, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Chester, Ipswich, Lancaster, Leeds, Lincoln, London, Loughborough, Manchester, Northampton, Norwich, Plymouth, Southampton, Warwick, Wolverhampton and Worcester

Key purpose: The Student Vote Activators will be responsible for working to maximise the number of students who vote Labour in their allocated seat.

The move to Individual Electoral Registration has seen thousands fewer students and young people on the electoral registers. These missing voters have the potential to play a decisive role at the general election.

S/he will be responsible for working with the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Labour Students, the local council and universities and colleges to maximise the number of students registered to vote in the seat.

Specific Responsibilities

Capacity Building and partnerships

  • Build relationships with the local University/ies and Student Unions and other organisations to maximise the number of students registered to vote in the designated area.
  • Work alongside organisations such as Bite the Ballot, Uprising, the British Youth Council and the National Union of Students in their efforts to maximise the number of students and young people registered to vote.
  • Build and maintain a good relationship with the other student vote organising assistants to facilitate the sharing of best practice.

Assistance with campaign activities and events

  • Work with the candidate, the local party and Labour Students to develop and organise campaigns and events that motivate students to engage with the democratic process and vote Labour.
  • Maximise the number of students, graduates and other young people that are registered to vote in the seat through a variety of methods including voter registration campaigns and engagement through social media.
  • Work with the candidate to help enhance their profile amongst the student body.
  • The development of communications systems to help engage the maximum number of students with the democratic process.
  • Work with Labour Students and local activists to organise regular campaign days in the seat.
  • Assist with the development of materials targeted at first time voters and students.
  • Assist the Labour Students National Office with regional campaign days.

Training and development

  • To attend and participate in a series of classroom training sessions, covering encouraging voter registration, capacity building and campaigning techniques.
  • Training students and other activists about the voter registration process.

Other duties

  • To carry our any other reasonable duty as required by the Head of GE Youth Strategy or regional organising staff.
  • Provide regular reports on the level of activity with regard to campaign days, voter registration drives etc.
  • To work closely with the relevant local organiser to assist with their duties.
  • The post-holder will be expected to adopt a flexible attitude to his/her work and be prepared to contribute to wider organisational activity.

Labour Party - Person Specification

General Election Student Vote Activators

What we are looking for

Knowledge

  • A knowledge and understanding of the Labour party including its student and youth structures.
  • An understanding of Individual Electoral Registration and its implications.
  • An understanding of the structures and workings of Universities and Students’ Unions.

Experience

  • Experience of organising and coordinating student volunteers.
  • Experience of working on own initiative.
  • Experience of engaging and motivating large numbers of young people or students.
  • Experience of balancing the objectives and desires of multiple stakeholders.

Skills

Communication skills including;

  • Ability to communicate clearly and concisely.
  • Ability to effectively utilise social media to engage large numbers of people.

Organising skills including:

  • Ability to organise events that will appeal to a large number of students.
  • Ability to build, enable and empower a student campaign team.
  • Ability to organise and deliver training events.

Administrative skills including:

  • Ability to use software to monitor progress made against objectives.

Interpersonal skills including:

  • Ability to work with and lead teams of young activists.
  • Ability to build relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders.

Labour Party – Terms & conditions

General Election Student Vote Activator

Summary of terms and conditions

All General Election Student Vote Activator terms and conditions will be in line with the Labour Party’s terms and conditions of employment.

The Labour Party

Pay

The salary will be the Living Wage (£7.85 per hour) or the London Living Wage (£9.15 per hour) depending on whether the post is based in London.

Contract

These roles are on a fixed term contract until March 27th 2015.

Training

You will be required to attend all the residential and online training elements of the course.

Payroll

Location

Generally in a specified town or city, although some travel will be required to training events and campaign days within the region.

Days per week

Roles available are two days per week.

Working pattern

A working week is 14 hours. A working week may include weekend and evening work, but can be reasonably flexible in line with the appointee’savailability.

The Labour Party

Salary is payable monthly on 20th

of each calendar month.

The Labour Party

Labour Party – Recruitment process

General Election Student Vote Activators

Recruitment process

The recruitment process for General Election Student Vote Activators has been put together to encourage applications from all those with the motivation and interest to apply, and then to use a number of techniques to assess everyone’s suitability in a fair and consistent way.

Application process

Application forms to be returned completed by 9am on 10th December 2014. Applications will be shortlisted against the criteria set out in our person specification.

Interviews and Assessment Centre

If shortlisted, candidates will be invited to attend an Assessment Centre and this may involve a follow up interview.

Feedback

Due to the volume of applicants we expect to receive, we will be able to provide feedback only to those who attend the Assessment Centre and / or interview.

Guideline for completing the application form

What we will use this form for:

  • to find out about your skills and experience
  • to select applicants to go through to the next round
  • if you go through to the next round, we may ask you questions about what you write.

Hints to help you:

  • Read all the material in this information pack, it will give you an idea of what being a General Election Student Vote Activator will be like and also the skills, experience and qualities we are looking for.
  • Write a draft before completing your final version - you may want to keep a copy of what you sent to us.
  • Complete all the details/sections.

Labour Party - Equal opportunities information

General Election Student Vote Activators

Equal opportunities information

The following is an extract from the clause in the memorandum of agreement between the national executive committee of the Labour Party and the joint trade union committee of the Labour Party staffs:

“We are committed to the development of positive policies to promote equal opportunity in employment regardless of workers’ sex, age, marital status, creed, colour, mental or physical impairment, ethnic origins or sexuality. This principle will apply in respect of all conditions of work including pay, hours of work, holiday entitlement, overtime, work allocation, guaranteed earnings, sick pay, pensions, recruitment, training, promotion and redundancy.

This policy of equal opportunity will be followed except where there are legal or Inland Revenue provisions which preclude it.

If an employee considers that he or she is suffering from unequal treatment on the grounds of sex, marital status, creed, colour, race, mental or physical impairment, ethnic origins or sexuality, he or she may make a complaint which shall in the first instance be dealt with through the Negotiating Procedure Agreement.

The aim of this equal opportunity policy is to ensure that no job applicant or employee received less favourable treatment on the grounds stated above. Selection criteria and procedures will be kept under review to ensure that individuals are selected, promoted, and treated on the basis of their relevant merits, experience and abilities. Where employees have been disadvantaged through discrimination they will be given special training to progress within the organisation. Supervisory staff will be trained in equal opportunities, personnel practices and procedures. The Party is committed to the development of programmes of action to ensure that this policy becomes fully effective.”

In order to ensure the continued development of this policy, applicants are asked to complete an equal opportunities monitoring form.

Please note that the equal opportunities form is a separate document which should be downloaded at

This information is strictly for statistical purposes only, and is always removed from the application form prior to shortlisting.