Location: Venue-based - most of your time will be spent in our venue on Bristol Harbourside interacting directly with visitors.
Department: Operations
Report to: Live Science Team Leaders and Live Science Team Manager
Responsible for: No direct reports
Salary: £10.90 per hour starting salary, rising to £11.27 per hour after passing probation, and £11.97 per hour upon completion of progression milestones.
Contract: 18 Month, fixed term
Working hours: 23.25 hours per week, worked over 3 days per week, 9am-5.15pm
Regular shifts are usually worked Tuesday -Sunday in term time– We require that you work 3 out of 4 weekends of the month - both Saturday and Sunday
There will be occasional Monday shifts during Schools holidays and training days. There will be the chance to work some evening events, including presenting our weekly Planetarium nights shows.
A fixed schedule of shifts can be discussed.
About We The Curious
We The Curious is an educational charity and South West England's leading science centre.
We produce experiences that bring people together to play, get creative with science and explore different ideas.
We work with partners, locally and nationally, supporting people to be inquisitive, develop new skills and improve their wellbeing.
We are progressive, inquisitive, collaborative, playful and creative.
Our mission
Our aim is to connect and empower people through sharing creative experiences which celebrate unknowns in science.
Our work as a charity is driven by five key pledges:
_Cultivate Curiosity
_Include Everyone
_Open Up Science
_Sustainable Futures
_Build Resilience
You can find out more about these in our Manifesto.
About the role
As We the Curious gets ready to re-open, the Live Science Team are recruiting new team members! This is a really exciting time for We the Curious, and for our team, as we work towards welcoming back our visitors and members, and re-acquainting ourselves with our wonderful venue.
Live Science Team provide creative, playful , inclusive experiences to people who attend our venue. Enabling excellent visitor experience and supporting other Live Science Team Members will be your priority.
Within our venue you will be presenting shows, facilitating hands-on activities, starting conversations among exhibits and helping people to get involved by sparking curiosity, creating fun and promoting the value of people’s opinions and life experiences. You will also keep aware of the safety of our visitors by following our safeguarding and evacuation procedures.
In our ground-breaking Open City Research activities, you will be the link between our research partners and our visitors, explaining the background of real science research and helping them to participate.
Our venue and events are attended by lots of different people and age groups, but our main audience is families, so you should be confident working with children (aged 3-11 years) and young people, as well as being comfortable encouraging adults to get involved.
What will you do in this role?
Role specific responsibilities
_You will keep aware of your surroundings, ensuring that visitors and staff are safe. You will learn and follow safe-working policies, including emergency evacuation procedure and our safeguarding policy.
_When there are opportunities to do so, you will work with other departments to support We The Curious mission and vision. This can include some meetings and office-based work.
What will you do in this role?
Shared responsibilities across the organisation
_ Embody and demonstrate our values; Collaborative, Creative, Inquisitive, Playful, Progressive.
_ Responsible for carefully following safeguarding policies and procedures and raising any concerns to manager/Designated Safeguarding Officer.
_ Due to the responsibilities of this role, you will be required to complete an enhanced DBS check.
_ General responsibility for departmental compliance with GDPR.
_ Promote charity messaging across your area of work wherever possible, with support from the Development and Marketing teams.
What we're looking for from you
_You have previous experience in customer service, or working with a public audience, and are confident working with the public and being in a public facing role.
_You have excellent communication skills, and are able to engage both individuals and groups of people. You can find starting points for conversations on a wide variety of topics and adapt to people of different backgrounds, age, ability and interests.
_You feel confident presenting to groups of people and facilitating activities with diverse audiences.
_You have excellent listening skills and an understanding of visitor needs and expectations and have a positive attitude to solving problems and handling customer issues.
_ You can work on your own and as part of a team. You are happy to support other team members as well as self-motivating whilst presenting activities on your own.
_You are confident learning and retaining information, including some simple scientific concepts to present as part of activities or shows.
_You can learn to, or are already able to, work safely with new technologies and equipment both in front of visitors and behind the scenes.
_You are comfortable adapting to quickly changing circumstances.
_You are comfortable working in a large public venue that can get quite loud and busy.
_You are comfortable carrying out basic manual handling tasks, spending a lot of the day walking round our venue, and participating in active tasks – if this is a barrier for you, we are happy to discuss access requirements.
_You can use Microsoft Teams and email to communicate with your colleagues or are happy to learn this as part of your role.
Training
_Due to our re-opening, your time at We the Curious will begin with an extended training schedule that will run from Tuesday – Friday each week. This is to give you all the skills and information you need to run activities, and keep our visitors safe and informed in our venue
_Training is provided throughout your time at We the Curious, and you can progress through steps of pay as your skills and experience grow.
Application process
Deadline for applications: Sunday 11th February 2024 at midnight
Interview dates and location: Friday 23rd February at We The Curious offices
Start date: Tuesday 26th March 2024
Application process: If you would like to apply, please complete the application form. It contains questions designed to assess your experience and suitability for the role.
Please do not send in CVs or covering letters as we don’t review them.
We appreciate interviews can be stressful, so if you are invited for interview, we’ll send you the structure of the workshop and the questions that you’ll be asked beforehand so that you have time to prepare.
If you would like to talk about the role, the application or interview process, please email people@wethecurious.org.
You are welcome to apply for any role that is being advertised in the run up to our re-opening, your applications are anonymous, and they will not be compared.
Support during the process
We The Curious is a Disability Confident Employer and we welcome applications from candidates who self-assess themselves as having a disability. We will guarantee an interview to applicants who advise that they have a disability and who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy. To help you, under the Equality Act 2010 a person is defined as having a disability if a) they have a physical or mental impairment, and b) the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
We want to work with you to ensure the recruitment process is accessible for you.
If you are disabled, neurodivergent, or if you have a long-term health condition, we’ll be happy to make reasonable adjustments to our processes for you.
You’ll have the opportunity to let us know about any adjustments you may need throughout the application and selection process. We’ll continue this conversation if you join us as a staff member, and we’ll work with you to make sure you have the adjustments you need to succeed in your role.
Examples of adjustments could include:
_providing alternative formats at every stage
_options to apply
_extra time for tasks
_providing some extra information about what to expect
_office orientation before an in-person interview.
Including everyone
We value the positive impact greater representation will have on our organisation, programmes and culture. It’s our goal to become an inclusive place to work and for our teams to better reflect our city and the people who visit us.
We welcome applications from people of all lived experiences and particularly those that are not well represented* in the science centre sector.
We want to work with you to ensure the recruitment process is accessible for you, please contact us if you have questions about We The Curious, our accessibility or recruitment process at people@wethecurious.org
*By not well represented we mean people with lived experience including but not limited to:
_African and African-Caribbean heritage
_South Asian and East Asian heritage
_Other global majority ethnic groups
- Disabled
_Neurodivergent
_Visually Impaired
_Deaf community
_LGBTQIA+ and/or non-binary
_Working class background
_Didn’t go to university or first in your immediate family to attend University
Working with us
We value the people that work with us. Our staff have access to the following:
Wellbeing & support
Mental Health First Aiders
Confidential advice & counselling through the Employee Support Programme
Leave
28 days holiday plus double pay for bank holidays (pro-rata)
New Parent Policy
We are proud to be a family friendly organisation, which is why we work to develop our people practices in line with that value. We have recently introduced a none gendered approach to Maternity and Paternity, re-branded as our “New Parent Policy”. There are eligibility criteria and terms and conditions, but the key take away is that anyone who is due to become a new parent, regardless of their gender, can take 1 year off work, and we’ll pay your full salary for the first 5 months.
Facilities & discounts
When we reopen
Free entry to the venue at any time with up to four guests, plus 12 additional entry tickets per calendar year to give away.
20% off in the We The Curious café plus £3 lunch deals
20% off in our shop
Range of discounts with local businesses and free entry to other local attractions.
Free parking
Secure cycle storage
Pension
We offer a pension scheme with 5% company contributions.
Death in service benefit
Four times your annual salary.