Widening Participation Officer (Outreach for Medicine & Dentistry and Partnerships)

About Us

The King’s community is dedicated to the service of society. King’s Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world. Our ambitious Education Strategy sets out the actions that we must take to transform how we teach, how and where our students learn and how we support them during their time with us. 

Within the Social Mobility & Widening Participation Department we believe all young people should be able to have high expectations for their future. This means equal access to education and career opportunities. We run programmes that aim to empower young people from under-represented backgrounds to access and succeed at university 

We are part of the wider Students & Education Directorate, a collection of wide-ranging professional services in place to support King’s students and their education. As a directorate we manage the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King’s faculties to do so. 

About the Role

This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking to start a career in Widening Participation and Social Mobility, and who wish to utilise their skills and expertise in administrative tasks to support the OfMD and partnerships teams deliver a range of projects. This is an opportunity to grow your skills in outreach and make a difference to young people locally and nationally.   

The Widening Participation Officer (OfMD and Partnerships) is a vital member of the Outreach for Medicine & Dentistry and Partnerships team. The purpose of this role is to provide administrative support including financial and data tasks to our Outreach for Medicine & Dentistry (OfMD) programmes plus key partners such as The Brilliant Club, IntoUniversity and The Elephant Group. For more information please see:  

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/outreach/widening-participation

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This role will lead on the delivery of MedSoc for year 10-13 pupils, develop teacher lesson plans, coordinate regular newsletters, coordinate partner visits and events for primary and secondary pupils, represent the department at partner events and support the internal WP Champions community for King’s staff. The post holder will work closely with the wider OfMD team, our student ambassadors and key partner staff. This role is responsible to the Widening Participation Manager (Partnerships).

We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role. 

This is role is maternity cover lasting approx. 12 months.  

This is a full-time post, but we welcome applications from candidates seeking a flexible work pattern within our 10am to 4pm service operating hours.

• Provide efficient and timely administrative support to the Outreach for Medicine & Dentistry and Partnerships team, including maintaining accurate records of programme participants, data entry, organising meetings, and responding to enquiries from partners, academics, teachers, parents, and young people via shared inboxes. 
• Support two OfMD Senior Officers and the Partnerships Manager with the organisation and delivery of OfMD and partner events for primary-secondary aged young people. 
• Lead on delivering the pupil led MedSoc programme with partner schools and clinical skills sessions for partners 
• Coordinate regular student & teaching staff newsletters 
• Instruct, supervise, and train student ambassadors working on events. 
• Undertake basic financial procedures, such as ordering goods and services, processing invoices and receipts, and updating departmental budgets. 

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Essential criteria

Experience of undertaking and completing projects which require administrative and organisational skills 

Ability to communicate and present complicated information orally and in writing 

Ability to work with others to deliver project aims and overcome challenge 

Ability to use initiative and judgement to resolve day-to-day and predictable problems 

Ability to manage multiple workload priorities and deliver work to deadline 

Ability to decide own pattern of work and manage own workload and resources 

Ability to provide instruction and train others to undertake specific tasks 

Ability to gather and manipulate data so that it can be interpreted by others 

Desirable criteria

Educated to degree or foundation degree level 

Experience working or volunteering with children or young people  

Understanding of the widening participation agenda and/or the role of higher education in social mobility 

Your application should clearly set out how you meet the essential criteria as this is how we shortlist applications. Learn more about how we recruit, including tips on writing your application and supporting statement on our website:  

https://jobs.kcl.ac.uk/gb/en/applying

Interviews will be held using Microsoft Teams and will consist of competency-based questions linked closely to the essential and desirable criteria mentioned here. 

Although we have made improvements over the last number of years, our team is still under-represented in terms of staff from global majority ethnicities, LGBTQ+ identities, and from people with disabilities. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, communities, and industries, and are committed to employing a team that has diverse skills, experiences, and abilities. 

Interviews are scheduled to take place on Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 February 2023.