Who are we?

We are Manchester Students’ Union, the biggest SU in the country, supporting over 40,000 students throughout their time at university. We help to make student life the best it can be by supporting students to campaign for change, creating opportunities to meet new people, providing employment opportunities, providing advice and support and being a safe place on campus.

We are a values-centred organisation that employs around 90 permanent, full-time members of staff. We recruit a wide range of roles throughout the year within all our departments from our Commercial team operating Manchester Academy Venues, 13 Media, Bar 532 & Kitchen and Corridor Coffee to our Student Activities, Student Engagement, Marketing and Communications, Finance, HR and Facilities teams. Our team of around 400 part-time, studying staff are instrumental in providing to support to all departments as well as leading major projects like Student Angels. When you join UMSU, you’ll be immersed in an environment that empowers staff to make great things happen and we're always on the lookout for innovative, passionate, and proactive people to join us.

Our staff team is led by our senior leadership team who are instrumental in driving our strategy at UMSU. It’s made up of our CEO, COO, 3 Directors and 2 Associate Directors. We are governed by our trustees and Exec Officers, you can find out more about that here. All our permanent, full-time roles are graded (Grade A-E) which means that there is a clear path to your development and progression whilst at UMSU.

Our values are really important to us and shape the work that we do every day. As part of our recruitment process, we want you to demonstrate how your experiences, behaviours and skills align with our values. Our values are

• We put students at the heart of what we do 
• We provide a ‘great experience’ service
• We believe in improvement and progression
• We are a community
• We are open and transparent
• We are inclusive

You can find more detailed explanations of our values on our website.

About the role

Passionate about volunteering, community organising, or the value of people helping people? We’re hiring a Senior Volunteer Coordinator to join our Student Development Team.

Every year thousands of students volunteer to build communities around activities and social issues that are meaningful to them. These volunteer student leaders have a huge impact on the student experience of thousands more of their peers, as well as hundreds of people in the University’s local community. The Student Development Team aims to create opportunities for students to build and participate in communities that are inclusive, sustainable, ambitious, and impactful, and the Senior Volunteer Coordinator will play a key role in achieving this vision for our student leadership programmes.

In collaboration with a second Senior Volunteer Coordinator, you’ll be leading on a series of volunteering programmes that we’re really proud of. Since September 2023, student volunteers have raised over £150,000 for charitable causes, given over 2,800 hours of their time to volunteer directly in the local community, and broadcast an award-winning radio station, among other achievements. As the Senior Volunteer Coordinator you will coordinate the onboarding, skills development, and tailored support for volunteer student leaders who, in turn, coordinate their own volunteer teams. This means you’ll play a vital role in shaping our student leadership culture, as the way you manage your volunteers will influence the way they manage theirs.

This role is of strategic importance to our student leadership programmes as, alongside coordinating your own volunteering programmes, you’ll be working with other student-facing teams to inspire colleagues to develop their own volunteer management practices.

Our programmes are well-resourced, and we have an outstanding research & insight function that will support you to make data-driven decisions on making our programmes even better. We offer a comprehensive training programme for skills you might want to work on, from giving and receiving feedback well, to coaching and safeguarding. There’s no need for previous Higher Education sector experience – you might have coordinated teams of people in any context. We’re looking for someone who is capable of motivating or inspiring others into action, comfortable making autonomous decisions, and curious about exploring new ways of working.

This is an exciting time to join the Student Development team as we overhaul our approaches to volunteer management across the Union to ensure that volunteering remains attractive to students already balancing commitments including their studies and paid work. We want the skills development opportunities and rewards for volunteering to be sector-leading – could it be you that helps to make this happen?

This is a hybrid role, with the option for around 2 days per week working offsite.

Please read the full role profile before applying, as well as our guide to recruitment.

Details

Salary: £25,440 - £28,620 per year

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 35 hours per week, full-time

Our Staff Benefits

You'll get access to our great staff benefits;

• 30 days of annual leave + bank holidays + Christmas close
• Training and development opportunities, including access to our eLearning platform
• Flexible working and hybrid working opportunities
• Free NUS 1-year student card
• Free/Subsidised Manchester Academy gig tickets
• Contribution to eyecare such as glasses and contact lenses (for roles where you are using a computer screen)
• Access to our employee assistance programme, including 6 free counselling sessions
• 25% discount in our onsite bar and café - 532 Bar & Kitchen and Corridor Coffee
• Access to our cosy staff Community Space which has free breakfast and lunch for you whilst you are in the office
• Cheap on-site parking

Recruitment Guide

We have a guide that explains our full recruitment process. We recommend reading through this before beginning an application.

If you are invited to interview with us, we will share our interview questions in advance so you can prepare your responses. We’re more interested in hearing about your experiences and ideas than in testing your memory, and so we want you to feel as prepared as possible.

Inclusivity and Accessibility

We are committed to equality of opportunity, and we work hard to ensure we appoint based on merit.

We particularly encourage applications from Disabled or Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African candidates as these groups are currently underrepresented in our staff team.

If you have any accessibility requirements or require adjustments to support you to apply to work with us, please get in touch. We can offer reasonable adjustments at all stages of our recruitment process.

Recruitment Timeline

Applications opened: 13th June 2024 9am

Applications close: 4th July 2024 23:59

Interviews: Monday 29th July

Role Commencing: Late August

We may close applications early if we receive a high volume of applications. We recommend that you apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. In this case, all applicants who have started an application will be contacted 2 hours before we close the role.

Contact

People Team:

You can contact the People Team with any questions regarding our recruitment process.

Email: jobs.su@manchester.ac.uk

Phone: 0161 306 3279

Hiring Manager:

You can contact Elisabeth Whittall with any questions regarding this vacancy.

Email: elisabeth.whittall@manchester.ac.uk