Senior Alumni Engagement Officer

Pay band: 7

Salary: £30,839 per annum plus London Market Allowance of £3,300 per annum for those based in the London area only.

What we’ll offer you: In addition to a competitive salary and excellent civil service pension contributions, the British Council offers:
•    32 days annual leave, in addition to public holidays •    3 days volunteering leave
•    Opportunities to grow and develop in the role with continuous professional development.

Location: UK – London, Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh or Belfast.
Department: Higher Education, Education, Cultural Engagement.
Contract type: Fixed term contract until 31st August 2025.
Closing Date: 7th January 2024 at 23:59 UK Time.
Requirements:

This role is based in the UK and therefore you must have the legal right to work in the UK at the time of application.

We are unable to support with mobility, relocation or sponsorship. 

British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working, subject to approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service. This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.

The Team:

The British Council has been awarded a contract by the FCDO to become the supplier to provide administration services for two prestigious scholarship programmes one of those is the Chevening Scholarship programme, owned by the FCDO.

Both programmes offer postgraduate scholarships and a small number of fellowships to international students to study in the UK. Under Chevening, around 1,500 scholarships or fellowships are awarded annually to students from across the world.

The services required to be delivered in the contract include: Communications; programme promotion; scholar selection; scholar placing assistance; pre-departure services; support to scholars in the UK; alumni engagement; impact reporting and MEL; financial reporting; partnership development; and ensuring social value.

Delivery of the programmes will complement these activities and serve to demonstrate the British Council’s value as a partner of UK government and as a partner for the UK’s higher education sector. Facilitating the long-lasting and deep relationships between people across the world and the UK will strengthen individual and subsequent institutional connections as well as ties of friendship.

The Role

The focus of the post of Senior Alumni Engagement Officer is to implement a strategic approach to managing the global network of 57,000 alumni of the Chevening programme, together with the FCDO and key internal stakeholders.   This includes ensuring high-quality content for online alumni sites, regular and strategic communications with alumni, and oversight of the central alumni database.

You will also provide advice, guidance and tools for Embassies/High Commissions to use to engage with alumni locally, and for alumni groups to function effectively. The post holder will demonstrate a strong commitment to delivering a genuinely world-leading international scholarship programme and to higher education.

You will coordinate the delivery of an annual events programme (online and some face-to face) for alumni, ensures that case-studies and examples of impactful alumni work are captured, and drives the content and delivery of the regular alumni newsletter.

The post holder also manages the annual Chevening Alumni Project Fund (CAPF) bidding process, providing guidance to the FCDO in utilising alumni to campaign for Chevening funding, promote the scheme and participate in scholar selection, and developing new tools and strategies to grow and strengthen the alumni aspects of the Chevening programme, ensuring buy-in from stakeholders, including the FCDO. In addition, the post holder will identify opportunities to make participating in the network more attractive to individuals and deliver campaigns to reconnect with alumni and celebrate their achievements.

The role is the central point of contact for the large network of Chevening Alumni worldwide and play a key role in implementing a global alumni strategy agreed by the FCDO and British Council. It is responsible for successfully transitioning current Chevening Scholars into the alumni network, with the objective of them becoming engaged alumni. The post holder will be the expert on alumni relations best practice at the Chevening Secretariat. The role is responsible for the Chevening Secretariat alumni budget and for the effective management of the alumni relations team.

Accountabilities are, but not limited to:

1.Line management of a small alumni relations team leading on effective people management, delegation and team development.

2. Act as the lead contact to colleagues in over 160 Embassies/High Commissions, providing advice, guidance and support to help alumni engagement in country and creating new processes and tools to enable them to deliver against a plan for alumni engagement globally. Advise and guide Embassies/High Commissions on delivering meaningful ‘welcome home’ events for newly graduated scholars.

3. Work with the Communications Manager to develop a robust alumni communications strategy that meets the needs of the global audience. Manage the Chevening alumni online platforms (Facebook, Linked In), for the alumni audience, ensuring consistent and regular contact with active alumni and content which may attract alumni who have drafted away. Maintain an alumni section on the Chevening website.

4. Support Alumni Officers to design of a variety of communications for alumni e.g. newsletters, social media postings, and monitoring the public-facing alumni email account and social media platforms, ensuring messages are responded to with good customer care.

5. Oversee events and value-added schemes for alumni, including support for career and skills development, and coordinating alumni transitioning for awardees coming to the end of their Chevening experience.

6. Maintain a set of resources for alumni to use to promote the programme and encourage greater promotion during the annual application period.

7. Oversee the CAPF scheme on behalf of and under direction from the FCDO’s Scholarships Team. Constantly seek to create improvements in the administration of CAPF and ensure that it meets all FCDO compliance requirements.

8. Support Alumni Officers to liaise with all official alumni associations in other countries and maintain records of key contacts. Support existing alumni groups and where feasible, support further alumni groups to self-organise in locations where no official alumni association.

Requirements of the role:

•    Relevant experience of working in an HEI or educational office environment with an understanding of the role of alumni relations

•    Managing projects (level 3). Leads smaller projects Analyses requirements with the sponsor/stakeholders, defining the specification with awareness of equality and diversity impact, planning, revising, implementing and evaluating on small-to medium scale and/or low risk projects.

•    Planning and organising (level 3). Develops annual plans Develops and reviews the implementation of annual plans for a work group or function, taking account of business and customer requirements and reconciling competing demands.

Additional Information:

You must have the legal right to work in the UK at the time of application. We are unable to support with sponsorship or relocation support. 

This role is based in the UK only. 

Closing Date:   Applications will close on 7th January 2024 at 23:59 UK Time. 

Interviews will be held around the end of January 2024.