Location: Mainly venue based, some limited scope for working from home.
Department: Content
Report to: Producer – Public Programmes
Responsible for: N/A
Salary: £25,330 per annum (£20,264 pro-rata)
Contract: Fixed Term Contract until March 31st 2026, with potential for extension.
Working hours: Part-time, 30 hours a week (0.8 FTE) Tuesday-Friday. Please note, this role includes occasional evening and weekend working.
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
We are looking for a Programme Assistant to join our Public Programmes team.
This is an entry level role, designed to support the effective administration and delivery of our wide-ranging seasonal events programme.
Your time in this role will be split equally between supporting the delivery of our daily activities and events in-venue, and our growing communities programme, which takes place inside our venue as well as at other locations around the city.
You will be working closely with the Assistant Producer: Public Programmes, the Assistant Producer: Communities, as well as our Operational teams to ensure the smooth running of our busy programme.
The public programme focuses primarily on engaging non-schools’ audiences, so your time will be spent working with families, adults, the Under 5’s, priority audience groups and everyone in-between.
This is an excellent opportunity which would suit someone looking gain experience of working in public programming and develop their career.
What will you do in this role?
Role specific responsibilities
- Take a leading role in co-ordinating the logistics needed to effectively deliver the programme including procurement and administration, working within our organisational regulations and guidelines.
- Support the research and development of new, high-quality content – working with the Public Programmes team to help them create experiences, activities, and workshops for the public.
- Support training sessions for Operational Teams and Volunteers as required.
- Support the facilitation of face-to-face programme delivery with a variety of audiences, both inside and outside the venue as required.
- Be a link between our visitor facing operational teams and office staff, working cross-departmentally to ensure the smooth running of the public programme.
General responsibilities
- 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.
- Promote charity messaging across your area of work wherever possible, with support from the Development and Marketing teams.
- General responsibility for departmental compliance with GDPR.
- Occasional out of hours work and travel to events may be required of this role.
- Due to the responsibilities of this position, you will be required to complete an enhanced DBS check.
What we're looking for from you
Essential
- Proven administrative skills
- Confident facilitator and communicator
- Experience of working with the public
- Comfortable engaging with a wide range of people, both individually and as groups
- Highly organised, with excellent time management skills and the ability to prioritise
- Flexible and adaptable team player with good interpersonal skills
- Able to work independently under own initiative or under supervision
Desirable
- Experience of working with Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) ideas and concepts
- Understanding of the reasons why some people or groups may be underrepresented in STEM
- Experience of supporting training for staff/volunteers
Application process
Deadline for applications: Wednesday 28th August 2024 at midnight.
Interview date(s) and location: Thursday 12th September 2024, in person at We The Curious, Bristol. Online interview requests will be considered for those unable to attend in person.
Start date: Wednesday 23rd October 2024.
Application process:
If you would like to apply, please complete the application form. It contains three questions designed to assess your experience and suitability for the role.
Please don’t send a CV or covering letter as we will not review them.
We appreciate interviews can be stressful, so we try to make them more of a conversation and a chance for you to tell us about how your skills and experience make you the right person for the role.
If you are invited for interview, we’ll send you the questions that you’ll be asked beforehand so you have time to prepare.
If you have any particular needs or requirements, please do let us know so we are able to make the required adjustments.
If you would like to talk about the role or the application process, please email people@wethecurious.org
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
- Flexible working
- Hybrid working
- Mental Health First Aiders
- Confidential advice & counselling through the Employee Support Programme
Leave
- 25 days holiday in addition to bank holidays (all pro-rata).
Facilities & discounts
- Free entry to the venue at any time with up to four guests, plus 12 additional entry tickets per calendar year to give away.
- 15% off in the We The Curious café
- 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.
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 one year off work, and we’ll pay your full salary for the first five months.
