Programmes Officer

Background

The Sustainable Research Team and Biosciences Education Team have received funding from Education for Sustainability team to work together to develop resources to embed sustainability into the bioscience's undergraduate curricula.

As scientific researchers, we have an ethical responsibility to reduce the environmental impact of our work. Laboratories consume between three and ten times more energy per square foot than office spaces, and biological and medical research contributes significantly to global plastic waste. Current bioscience students at King's College London (KCL) receive minimal exposure to sustainable practices in labs until they progress to further studies or work. Integrating sustainability concepts into the curriculum from the start will equip students with essential skills, preparing them to incorporate sustainable approaches in their future research.

Part of this fund is allocated to hire a Sustainability in Education Research Assistant to help perform the key tasks of the project up to 8 hours a week. Please ensure you have your supervisor's support to take part in this project as the working hours will typically be Monday-Friday 9-6pm.

Responsibilities

Write a systematic literature review about how sustainability has been embedded in other universities.
Organise and host an away day bringing together module and programme leads, technical staff and other stakeholders involved in the biosciences courses to understand where to place new content, and analysing outcomes from the day.
Develop initial resources for content in years 1, 2, and 3 and gather feedback from students on content and delivery proposals.
Organise and host a final workshop with academic and technical staff to demonstrate use of new resources.
Coordinating with project lead- Sustainability Innovation Lead (Research) Dr Marcelo Salierno

None

You will have..... 
Knowledge  
Essential: Bioscience and laboratory skills including understanding of contamination and waste  
Desirable: Knowledge of embedding sustainability in education (preferably bioscience)
Experience  
Essential: Demonstrating experience or lecture experience in bioscience or chemistry lab practicals  
Skills  
Essential: Able to use their initiative and work independently  
Essential: Able to work to tight deadlines as this project is only funded for 6 months.   
 

PLEASE NOTE THIS ROLE IS FOR INVIGILATING AT SOUTH BANK ACADEMY AND CANDIDATES MUST HAVE A RECENT ENHANCED DBS CERTIFICATE

Urgently Hiring: Examination Support Assistants Needed to Ensure Smooth Exam Operations

Main Purpose of the Role:
To play a vital role in supporting the efficient and secure delivery of examinations.

Key Responsibilities:
We are seeking reliable and detail-oriented individuals to assist the Head Invigilator and Examination Team in the day-to-day running of exam venues. Duties include, but are not limited to:

Setting up examination venues by arranging seating, distributing exam materials, and ensuring all equipment is in place following strict guidelines.

Supporting candidates upon arrival by directing them to seats and explaining rules regarding permitted items.

Assisting unregistered candidates who may not have allocated seating.

Maintaining exam integrity by ensuring silence and order in the examination room.

Invigilating exams, addressing candidate concerns, and reporting any irregularities per established procedures.

Recording attendance and managing early departures by collecting scripts and documenting necessary information.

Escorting and supervising candidates outside the venue when required.

Collecting and organizing scripts at the end of each exam, ensuring accuracy and adherence to protocols.

Preparing script envelopes and handling exam materials securely.

Supervising candidate departure, ensuring materials are not removed, and maintaining a quiet, controlled exit process.
 

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Person specification desirable: 

An understanding of examination processes 

Effective oral/written communication skills 

Skills and knowledge, essential: 

Good numeracy skills 

Accuracy and attention to detail 

Flexible approach to work 

Ability to relate to academic staff and students 

Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES  

1. To support the Supervisor to achieve the day-to-day tasks, by understanding individual and team tasks, working to deliver an effective and efficient service and supporting colleagues to ensure that all tasks and services are supported therefore contributing to individual and team metrics/KPI?s.
2. To establish and maintain good working relationships with all stakeholders, providing advice, information, signposting and sharing specialist knowledge with all team colleagues relating the school portfolio that they have been allocated in that academic year. Supporting different portfolios as needed, which will allocated by the Supervisor and/or Coordinator using a data led approach and rotated yearly as appropriate.
3. To play an active role in ensuring that the team provide excellent customer service, ensuring they are contributing to the continual enhancement of services offered by highlight processes, procedures or policies that are not easily administrable, identifying any barriers and possible solutions.   
4. Responding to enquiries in a timely, calm, sensitive and informative manner through the variety of platforms available to students, providing advice and information relating to extenuating circumstances and attendance monitoring, making sure the information provided is accurate and escalating complex queries or concerns with the Student Engagement Coordinator.
5. Supporting the attendance monitoring process by completing weekly reviews, identifying students not meeting the attendance/engagement thresholds, sending out emails/appointments as per the policy, managing a case load of students, writing up all actions in the CRM, making appointments with appropriate members of academic staff (in line with the policy) to complete attendance review panels, recording this information and completing all follow up work.
6. Working collaboratively with Schools to support students ?at risk? of non-continuation by providing timely and effective interventions to re-engage the student with their studies, adopting a mentoring and coaching approach to support the students to achieve their full potential.
7. Completion of interruption and withdrawal procedures as a result of continued poor engagement, making sure to liaise with appropriate key stakeholders and providing weekly/monthly reports on student engagement and non-continuation (withdrawals and interruptions).
8. Working on a continual basis to review and support the extenuating circumstances process, ensuring the queries are responded to, decisions made, and communicated, complex cases are resolved, all decisions are appropriately recorded, with all stakeholders informed, providing reports relating to the volume of queries and completion of tasks in line with SLA?s.
9. Responsible for delivering ad hoc activities that contribute to continuation, progression, and successful student outcomes across the University. 

This list is not exhaustive. The postholder will be expected to carry out relevant and related tasks as commensurate with the current grade and agreed with the Head of Student Administration or their nominee.

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PERSON SPECIFICATION / SELECTION CRITERIA

Applicants will be short-listed solely on the extent to which they meet the following essential (E) and desirable (D) requirements.

Experience

• Practical administration experience (E) working in a higher education setting (D), supporting and resolving students/customer concerns both face to face and online (E). 
• Experience of supporting and resolving students concerns both face to face and online (E) with an experience of and/or understanding the current issues facing students including the barriers and challenges to engagement. (D)
• Experience of managing a student caseload (E) using data to target support (D) providing mentoring and coaching support (D).
• Experience of maintaining accurate records, (E) the use the IT systems/software to input, store and where appropriate gather data (E).
• To be able to use own initiative to plan (E), prioritise and organise own varied workload, in a timely manner (E), to approach challenges/problems in a creative and proactive way (E).
• To operate flexibly either as part of a team or independently (E).
• Excellent organisational and administrative skills (E) and to cope with high volumes of work and work as a team during stressful periods in the academic year in a calm and efficient manner (E).
• Good customer service/relationship skills (E), dealing sensitively with enquiries from a diverse range of individuals, and de-escalate and manage potentially difficult or conflict situations calmly and with confidence (D).
• Experience of servicing committee meetings, both in preparation and minute taking, and following up matters raised in meetings (D).
• To be committed to and have experience of the application of ICT in administration (E). Knowledge of word processing, databases and spreadsheets (E) and of the use of the web (D). Willingness and ability to learn new packages in order to carry out the duties of the role (E).