Job description

The Department of Informatics is seeking to embed Enterprise & Engagement (E&E) in education and has recently joined the Industry Exchange Network, a network of 12 UK Universities that run E&E education activities at scale. The Department has designed a framework for Knowledge Exchange Projects (KEP), which are individual or group student projects where an external stakeholder proposes the topic and provide advice alongside an academic supervisor.

In 2022/23 we launched KEP for undergraduate group projects and have partnered with Amazon Web Services to source real world challenges for ~50 Year 4 Computer Science students to work on as part of their final year project.  Students appreciate working on real world problems and building relationships with potential employers.

We are now working to expand this offering into 2023/2024 for undergraduate final year individual projects.  To be able to do this we need to onboard external stakeholders to then match the projects with our students and academic supervisors.

We aim to allocate around 15 – 20 KEPs in 2023/2024 and roll out the programme to reach ~150 students in subsequent years.

The Student Industry Projects Officer will support this activity, following up leads with potential partners, onboarding external stakeholders and acting as the main contact to maintain these relationships.  They will support the contractual and organisational aspects of the partnerships and the organisation of the student projects.

This post will be offered on an a fixed term contract for 1 year until 2nd July 2024

This is a full-time post - 100% full time equivalent

Key responsibilities

• Onboarding external stakeholders (a.k.a. industry partners) to the programme.  
• Overseeing contractual arrangements with external stakeholders interested in the programme.
• Following up on leads generated from the website and own initiative, contacts by academic supervisors, and industry placements team.
• Supporting the knowledge exchange project coordinator by being the main point of contact for all external stakeholders running KEPs, ensuring that they can participate in the supervision throughout and answering general questions about the programme.
• Organising meetings, ensuring stakeholders are aware of what they need to attend and have all relevant information.
• Ensure external partners are aware of what is expected of them during supervision.
• Supporting the knowledge exchange project coordinator by being the first point of contact for any general queries from students about the programme.
• Collecting testimonials from external stakeholders once a KEP has been completed.
• Collecting testimonials and other material (tutorials, demos, videos) from students once a KEP has been completed, for publication and promotion on the web site.
• Liaising with the Faculty communications team to publish testimonials on the Informatics E&E web page.
• Maintaining the KEP page under Informatics E&E, with the Faculty communications team
• Supporting the knowledge exchange project coordinator in evaluating the KEP programme internally, by collecting feedback from students and academic supervisors.

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.

Skills, knowledge, and experience 

Essential criteria  

1.       Relevant work experience and/or education: We think a wide range of different work and educational experiences could support you to be successful in this role. Relevant work experience might include work in graduate recruitment, HR, or work-based learning. Relevant educational experiences might include higher education in a related discipline, professional qualifications, or other training. 

2.       Knowledge and understanding of the higher education landscape, particularly in relation to university E&E initiatives.  

3.       Ability to use innovation and creativity to manage projects, whilst coping simultaneously with multiple tasks, programmes and competing demands for attention, ensuring tasks are completed complete in a timely and effective manner.  

4.       Previous experience of engaging and cultivating relationships with key stakeholders to develop services and grow and broaden opportunities, such as identifying and executing opportunities to upsell wider activities and gain buy-in. 

5.       Previous experience of communicating complex information clearly in a multi-faceted environment with a range of stakeholders, such as employers, students and colleagues at various levels of seniority. 

6.       Ability to conduct research and accurate analysis of data, reporting on trends and findings to assist formulation of Knowledge Exchange Projects provision and translate into operational delivery and to develop efficient and effective processes to facilitate the continuous growth and improvement of the scheme.  

7.       Ability to demonstrate an appropriate level of knowledge to act as a critical adviser and point of reference for all stakeholders, including students, academic and professional service colleagues, and employers. 

8.       Ability to follow, adapt and review complex processes, policies, and agreements, such as agreements with partners, to generate efficiencies, provide maximum effectiveness in delivery of projects. 

9.       Previous experience of dealing with queries from multiple stakeholders and prioritising workload and responses as appropriate. 

10.     To have self-motivated, self-organised, self-monitoring skills and a ‘can do’ attitude.

Desirable criteria

1.       Knowledge of the impact of national policy issues on work-based learning, industry engagement and student employability. 

2.       Previous experience of supporting students, preferably in a careers related/employability context.  

3.       Previous experience of working in a client-focused relationship management role in higher education, recruitment, commercial or marketing fields. 

Further information

We will assess your application for shortlisting based on your responses to the essential and where possible desirable criteria.   Please ensure you address these directly in your application.