Engagement Officer

Job summary

We are seeking an Engagement Officer to support the Stakeholder Engagement Team and play an integral role in the smooth delivery of a range of the OfS’s stakeholder engagement activities, including provider engagement, visits programme, political and sector engagement and events.

You will have an opportunity to be involved in a range of areas, including delivering the OfS’s programme of provider visits, including managing the briefings process from start to finish, lead on the OfS’s public affairs activity, preparing senior leadership for meetings by producing useful briefings and lines to take. You will also own and maintain the OfS stakeholder mapping process, tracking engagement across the OfS.

Sitting within the Strategy, Delivery and Communications (SDC) Directorate, the communications team drives the OfS’s external and internal communications, including public affairs, media relations, digital publishing, stakeholder engagement, events and public information. Communications is essential for the organisation to drive progress towards our strategic goals.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone with strong engagement and communications skills who wants to work at the heart of higher education regulation. Please note there will be regular travel to London as part of this role and some evening work to attend meetings, receptions and events.

Job description

As Engagement Officer, you will:

• Manage delivery and coordination of briefings for the OfS’s programme of visits to universities and colleges (approximately 40 per cent of the role)

• Prepare external and internal briefings, speeches and talking points for a range of audiences, ranging from senior OfS staff to parliamentarians

• Manage the OfS’s public affairs activity, including drafting supporting parliamentary correspondence, including letters and briefings to MPs, own relationship with APPGs, undertake networking and attend external meetings to support senior leaders and staff in representing the OfS

• Undertake proactive political and sector monitoring through management of the OfS’s monitoring service and draft and manage timely internal updates

• Own and maintain the OfS stakeholder mapping process, ensuring it is up to date; track stakeholder engagement across the OfS to ensure the organisation maintains useful records of interactions with stakeholders

• Develop strategic stakeholder engagement activity and ideas across several workstreams and advising on strategic communications plans for launches and publications

• Work with Administrative Resource Unit colleagues to ensure timely and accurate responses from the OfS’s public enquiries function

Person specification

These are the skills and experience you’ll already have:

• Excellent organisational skills, attention to detail and ability to use own initiative to pick up work proactively and work autonomously without close supervision

• Political awareness and an interest in public affairs

• Outstanding written communication skills, in particular the ability to present complex policy and technical information in a clear, accessible way tailored to specific audiences

• Good networking and influencing skills, with the ability to build trusted, effective working relationships with both internal and external stakeholders

• Experience of working in a team that has delivered high-quality and impactful public affairs and / or stakeholder engagement strategies

• Excellent writing skills

Desirable experience

• Previous experience working in higher education

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,614, Office for Students contributes £10,896 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to everyone. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you through the application stage, please contact us at recruitmentteam@officeforstudents.org.uk and we will be happy to help.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : The Recruitment Team
• Email : recruitmentteam@officeforstudents.org.uk
• Telephone : 0117 931 7444

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitmentteam@officeforstudents.org.uk

Further information

https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/