Parental Employability Manager
6 Month Contract (potential for extension)
Job Ref: V487
Fulltime role: 35 hours
Salary: £25,000
Start date: TBC
Location: Locally homebased (regular travel in West Lothian)
Closing date: Extended to 25th January 2024
Interviews: TBC
About Volunteering Matters
Volunteering Matters is a national volunteering and social change charity. We harness the unique power of volunteering to bring people together and build stronger, more resilient communities across the UK.
By bringing people together, we aim to resolve some of society’s most complex issues and have a real impact in communities. From tackling social isolation and loneliness; improving health and wellbeing; building skills, confidence and opportunities; and ensuring young people can become change makers in their community.
Information about the role
ProjectScotland, part of the national charity Volunteering Matters, supports people to move on in life through the power of volunteering. We are looking for a talented, dynamic, and professional Parental Employability Manager to join our team in West Lothian. The right candidate would be someone who can work flexibly, use their own initiative, and demonstrate a strong understanding and commitment to our organisational values . You will provide intensive Employability Support to 18 parents over the next 6 months.
You will:
- Work 1:1 with parents to understand their strengths, skills, and barriers to employment, putting steps or strategies in place to overcome these barriers or challenges
- Support with vocational activities – developing CV’s, job search, applications, mock interviews etc.
- Provide work-ready support – access to volunteering experiences, identifying training opportunities
- Work alongside colleagues who are engaging with West Lothian employers, to identify suitable paid work placement opportunities for parents
- Work alongside colleagues who are engaging parents in mentoring opportunities
- Work alongside our partner organisations across West Lothian, securing referrals for our service
Key Duties:
- Consistently role model and displaying our organisational values (further info below)
- Contribute to effective teamwork across the regional team and the wider charity, in line with our “flexible working by default” and “self-managed teams” philosophy
- Provide intensive 1:1 support to parents in a person-centered way, to achieve positive outcomes for all
- Understand each parent’s skills, strengths, experience, barriers, and development areas, resulting in the creation of a personal development plan
- To manage all elements of the parent’s experience, from referral to completion of their support
- Work alongside internal and external colleagues to ensure parents can take part in mentoring relationship, volunteering experiences or paid work placements
- To develop and maintain excellent relationships with partner organisations to support parents and meet their needs
- To manage the risk assessment, quality assurance and audit processes as required
- Ensuring monitoring, impact and evaluation information and data is collected and that the project meets its agreed targets, reporting format and schedule.
- Administration tasks including maintaining effective records, the use of Office 365 and other software including a CRM system – full training will be given.
Skills Required:
- An excellent knowledge and understanding of the life challenges and barriers that parents face in Scotland, particularly those identified in the 6 priority groups of the Child Poverty Delivery Plan
- An understanding of how to assess the needs of an individual using a person-centered approach
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills including being able to have strategic conversations with partners one minute, and talk to an anxious parent the next
- Excellent people skills with the ability to build professional, long-term relationships with various stakeholders, to influence and motivate others
- Excellent organisational and IT skills including the ability to manage workload and prioritise effectively, with strong attention to detail
- Driven, and able to use own initiative, and work independently.
Experience Required
- An excellent knowledge and understanding of the life challenges and barriers that parents face in Scotland, particularly those identified in the 6 priority groups of the Child Poverty Delivery Plan
- An understanding of how to assess the needs of an individual using a person-centered approach
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills including being able to have strategic conversations with partners one minute, and talk to an anxious parent the next
- Excellent people skills with the ability to build professional, long-term relationships with various stakeholders, to influence and motivate others
- Excellent organisational and IT skills including the ability to manage workload and prioritise effectively, with strong attention to detail
- Driven, and able to use own initiative, and work independently
Qualifications:
Relevant experience and values alignment is more important for this role than specific qualifications.
Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme
This role requires membership of the PVG scheme. Having a conviction is not necessarily a barrier to employment. If you are not currently a member of the PVG scheme, we can support you with the application process (fees will be reimbursed by Volunteering Matters).
Our Values & Way of Working:
Volunteering Matters offer flexible working by default. This means that our staff have significant flexibility when it comes to place of work, working days and hours, and are empowered with the responsibility of managing their own diary and workload.
Part of your working week will be based in local communities within the City of Edinburgh, meeting families, volunteers, and other stakeholders. For the remainder of the time, you will work from our City of Edinburgh office, or from home (must be local to Edinburgh).
If working from home, you will need good internet access and a suitable home working environment. All I.T. equipment, mobile phone and other infrastructure will be supplied.
At Volunteering Matters, we embrace a philosophy of ‘Freedom within a Framework’ and are guided by our organisational values at all times:
We are Empowering.
We are Inclusive.
We are Compassionate.
We are Positive.
We are Straightforward
We are looking for a candidate who can evidence these characteristics in their application and at interview.
Employee Benefits
Volunteering Matters ambition is to be the best place to work in the charity sector. We offer a wide range of employee benefits which include:
- Fully flexible working
- Unlimited annual leave allowance to achieve a positive work-life balance
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Interest free season ticket loan (public transport)
- Competitive and supportive maternity/adoption/family leave provision
- Competitive and supportive sick leave provision
- Access to our free Employee Assistance line (provided by CiC Wellbeing)
- An organisational “Wellbeing Promise”
Diversity & Inclusion
Volunteering Matters welcomes all applicants and are keen to ensure our team reflects the diversity of the UK and the communities we serve. We encourage applications from disabled, LGBT and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, along with candidates with any protected characteristics and from disadvantaged groups.
Disability Confident & Reasonable Adjustments:
We guarantee to interview anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the role. Please provide evidence in your application, which demonstrates that you meet the level of competence required in the “Experience/Skills” section of this advert.
To be considered for a guaranteed interview or to discuss any reasonable adjustments during the process, please state this in your application or contact join@volunteeringmatters.org.uk for more information.
We have also committed to the following pledges which positively encompass our recruitment and selection processes and methodology: The Promise, Show The Salary, Salary History.
GDPR Statement
If you apply for a role with us, we will retain your contact details including your name, address, email address and phone number to help us manage your application for up to 6 months. We will not use your personal data for any other purpose or share it with any third party. You can contact us at any point to update your personal information or ask us to delete it from our records.
How to apply
- Please complete an application form and send to scotinfo@volunteeringmatters.org.uk clearly stating which role you are applying for.
- Complete the Recruitment Monitoring Form
- If you would like to have a discussion with the Hiring Manager, please request this from scotinfo@volunteeringmatters.org.uk