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Jobs at the Sensory Trust

Project Officer - Around 23k

This post will join the Sensory Trust's team to help deliver our range of project work. This is not focused on one specific project but instead will be involved in the full range of work that we undertake. For instance you may be called upon to undertake a site review to look at the quality of experience or at an outdoor museum, a local park or a major national tourist attraction. Or to run community consultation to find out how disabled and older people would like to use their local woodland. You may find yourself writing reports to consultancy clients or a proposal to a potential funder, researching and planning new projects or promoting our work through conference presentations.

Main Duties

Undertaking community consultation including organising focus groups and user-testing
Assisting with accessibility and visitor experience assessments
Assisting with project planning and funding proposals
Writing articles, reports and communications
Meeting with and presenting to clients and partner organisations
Contributing to the other complementary areas of work of the Trust

This post is likely to interest people from all sorts of professional backgrounds so the following list is intended to indicate the kind of skills that we are looking for. You will need to have a good representation from the essential skills in order to apply.

Essential skills and experience

You should be able to demonstrate:

That you are comfortable and effective working as part of a team. While there will be times when you will need to take the initiative and work independently, it is crucial that you work well as part of a team. This is central to how the Sensory Trust operates.
An ability to manage your own time and workload effectively.
Awareness of, and sensitivity to, disability and social inclusion issues.
Good computer literacy, particularly with Microsoft Office, word processing and e-mail.
Good writing skills. All project work involves the production of reports and news pieces for the website and you will need to be able to write these.
Good communication skills working with a wide range of people including volunteers. Community consultation will bring you into contact with all sorts of different people.
Experience of working to deadlines and setting priorities.
That you are prepared to spend time away from home, sometimes two or three days, on project work in other parts of the country.
That you are happy to get muddy and spend time outdoors.

Desirable skills and experience

Confident giving talks and delivering training, mainly to practitioners but occasionally to the general public.
Undaunted by practical, hands-on activities like making up materials for consultation sessions.
We don't expect full access auditing skills but some familiarity with accessibility issues would be an advantage.
Do mention if you have music skills, although we won't hold it against you if you don't.

Qualifications and experience

Educated to degree level or equivalent.
Minimum of three years in an education, disability-related, environmental or arts position.

Other details

The salary is in the region of £23,000, depending on experience. The Trust offers a pension at 5% of salary.

The wider Sensory Trust team includes a Board of Trustees and a network of consultants that we work with on a regular basis.

As a charity, the Sensory Trust relies on funding from grants and consultancy. We have a good track record in fundraising and earned income, and good reason to be optimistic for the future, but it is not possible to make guarantees. This post is guaranteed for one year and the intention is for this post to be supported in the longer term.

We support flexible work arrangements and will endeavour to structure working arrangements to suit us all.

The Trust is based in a rural location, about 3 miles from St Austell in Cornwall. We share an open plan office with Eden Project's horticultural team and an office cat. The office environment is informal, creative and professional.

About us

The Sensory Trust is not exactly a disability organisation, not exactly an environmental organisation, and yet we work with disabled people a lot, and we look at many barriers to accessing the environment in the course of our work. Here's the thing though. We look at the quality of experience that people have in outdoor environments, and to do that we can't be sitting in boardrooms and offices getting people to fill out questionnaires. We need to be outside getting rained on and finding out first-hand how people feel about places. We need to pack sandwiches, cakes and flasks of tea. We've developed a range of novel consultation tools and techniques to find out how people feel about a place. And we translate the findings into specific, workable advice that feed into things like development strategies, fundraising bids and audience development plans. Our public consultation work makes us easy going, entertaining and approachable, and at the same time the delivery of designs and reports to our clients means we are professional, knowledgeable and we know that we make a difference. It's a great combination. Feel you're up to it?

How to Apply

Closing date for receipt of applications: Monday 7 th July 2008

Interviews: Wednesday 23 rd and Thursday 24 th July 2008

Please send a covering letter saying why you are interested in working for the Sensory Trust and why you feel you are suitable for the position.

Please also send your current CV, which should include details of your current or most recent position; including salary and length of employment, relevant qualifications and experience, and anything else you feel would be relevant to your application.

Please note that you should also give the names and telephone numbers of two referees, one of whom should be your current or most recent employer. We will not contact these folks without your permission.

Please send your CV with covering letter to:

Jobs at Sensory Trust
Watering Lane Nursery
Pentewan
St Austell
Cornwall,
PL26 6BE

E Mail: jobs@sensorytrust.org.uk

Interviews will be at the Sensory Trust's office in Cornwall.

Sensory Trust is an Equal Opportunities employer.

More information about Sensory Trust: www.sensorytrust.org.uk

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