Senior Administrator (Placements & Work Experience)

Job Description

The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities, and beliefs make Sheffield a world-class university.

We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement (with the ability to purchase more), a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more.

Overview

The University of Sheffield’s Strategy includes a clear focus on student employability, with university-wide objectives to support the development of skills, graduate attributes, access to high-quality work experiences, and expanded placement year participation. The Careers & Employability Service (CES) informs the strategy delivery plan to meet these objectives and coordinates the work to provide students with equitable access to opportunities to enhance their employability, career awareness, and future outcomes.

The role of Senior Administrator for placements and work experiences sits within the CES Placements & Employability Programmes team. The postholder works closely with colleagues in central and faculty employability teams, and with students and employers to support a range of work experience opportunities and schemes. This includes providing high-quality administrative support for student placement year activity and the coordination of various work experience and internship programmes, which will include employer and student liaison and require excellent communication and interpersonal skills and a keen interest in working with colleagues to enhance student experiences and opportunities.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide high-level administrative and organisational support across all activities within the Placements & Employability Programmes team.
• Support the effective delivery of placement year support to students and employers, in line with university policy and guidelines, including monitoring health & safety compliance, ensuring systems and records are efficiently maintained, accurate, and up-to-date.
• Administration tasks related to a variety of work experience programmes, including developing and maintaining appropriate processes and records on the best available systems.
• Act as a point of contact for students, employers, and staff, dealing with enquiries efficiently, friendly, and professional manner, interpreting requirements, and providing information and advice, signposting to further services as appropriate.
• Produce evaluations, reports, and presentations, including financial summaries, relating to placement and employability activities or events.
• Together with colleagues, proactively monitor and review processes and procedures and use feedback to ensure excellent customer service, identifying areas for improvement.
• Maintain and update marketing materials and promote employability and placements activity and opportunities to students, staff, and employers using agreed and coordinated communication channels including webpages, emails, and social media.
• Support committees and working groups which may include taking minutes and producing draft agendas.
• Build and engage with local and University networks to ensure up-to-date knowledge of internal policy and procedures.
• Attend CES and University events such as Careers Fairs and Open Days to promote employability, placement provision, and work experiences to students.
• Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post.

Person Specification

Criteria

• Educated to A Level standard (or equivalent experience) - Essential
• An awareness of employability support for HE students and graduates, and a particular interest in facilitating high-quality work experiences for students - Essential
• Competent IT skills with experience of business software, ideally Google Suite, plus social media for marketing and promotion activity - Essential
• Excellent interpersonal and customer skills with experience of responding efficiently and effectively to queries - Essential
• Effective time management skills - able to prioritise and progress a range of simultaneous projects and activities, and accommodate unscheduled tasks - Essential
• Ability to work independently, addressing issues as they arise, involving others and managers as appropriate - Essential
• Ability to work effectively within a team, maintaining positive relationships and supporting others - Essential
• Competent in managing project budgets and following correct processes and record-keeping, with excellent attention to detail - Essential
• Ability to obtain and analyse data to evaluate activity, compile reports, and offer suggestions for process and service improvements - Essential
• Ability to work sensitively with people from a wide variety of cultures exercising confidentiality, tact, and discretion - Essential

What We Offer

• A minimum of 38 days annual leave including bank holiday and closure days (pro rata) with the ability to purchase more.
• Flexible working opportunities, including hybrid working for some roles.
• Generous pension scheme.
• A wide range of discounts and rewards on shopping, eating out, and travel.
• A variety of staff networks, providing opportunities for social interaction, peer support, and personal development.
• Recognition Awards to reward staff who go above and beyond in their role.
• A commitment to your development access to learning and mentoring schemes.
• A range of generous family-friendly policies, paid time off for parenting and caring emergencies, access to menopause support in the workplace, paid time off and support for fertility treatment, and more.

We are a Disability Confident Leader. If you have a disability and meet the essential criteria for this job you will be invited to take part in the next stage of the selection process.