Programme Communications Officer

Role titles: Digital Schoolhouse Programme Communications Officer

Pay: £29,000 per annum, depending upon experience. PIPs pension, bonus scheme, private medical scheme, and generous leave

Location: This is primarily a London based role. However, we offer a mixture of remote and in the office working at Black Bull Yard, 24-28 Hatton Wall, London, EC1N 8JH. This role includes regular office-based team and member related activities and occasional national travel.

Ukie is the trade body for games and interactive entertainment in the UK, with a mission to make the UK the best place in the world to make, sell, and play games and interactive entertainment. We are an agile, not-for-profit company with a team of 20 people and owned by the industry. Ukie is an inclusive employer, and our culture supports entrepreneurship, teamwork and a can-do work ethic. We encourage you to have a look at the Ukie website to see our values and beliefs.

Ukie Education endeavours to support the next generation of industry talent from 5 – 21+ years and beyond. Under the Ukie Education umbrella sit our flagship education initiatives, Digital Schoolhouse and Student Membership alongside the Video Games Ambassadors Scheme and supporting family friendly video games through Ask About Games. Working together we aim to enable anyone with a passion for video games to flourish. We promote a fun and playful approach to education, with creativity and innovation sitting at the heart of what we do. The education team at Ukie sits across disciplines, supports our members, and works with a broad range of partners and stakeholders. This role is focussed on supporting future industry talent through our education programme Digital Schoolhouse.

Digital Schoolhouse is a nationwide programme that operates out of 91 Schoolhouses in the UK and internationally. Delivering inspirational computing and immersive careers education using a play-based learning approach to schools is the fundamental core of the programme. Our pioneering esports tournaments are the first and largest formal school-based esports tournaments in the UK. Since its inception in 2014 the programme has now supported almost 300,000 pupils.

The Programme Communications Officer plays an essential role in the smooth running of Digital Schoolhouse. The successful candidate will be the initial point of contact for teachers that are involved in the Digital Schoolhouse programme. Resolving queries, organising training events and meetups, streamlining processes, dealing with day-to-day marketing and overseeing internal and external programme communications are key aspects of this role. As the programme continues to expand the opportunities for growth for the successful candidate will too.

There are opportunities for the successful candidate to showcase and develop their teamwork, organisational skills and entrepreneurial spirit as well as co-ordinate activity whilst working with people from different backgrounds and levels of seniority. Stakeholder and relationship management are key to this role.

Ukie has a supportive work culture, actively encouraging continuing professional development for all our staff. If you are excited by the role on offer, but do not feel you meet 100% of the requirements or qualifications we encourage you to apply anyway explaining why your skills and experience make you an ideal candidate.

Main areas of responsibility:

1.Programme communications and operations

2. Events communications and logistics

3. Day to day marketing and communications

1. Programme communications and operations

§ Be first point of contact for Lead Teachers involved in the delivery of the programme.

§ Lead on organising and executing annual Schoolhouse recruitment campaign from January – May; schedule interviews with candidates, the programme director and the academic selection panel.

§ Organise and support Regional Leads and their school clusters, manage the quality assurance process and co-ordinate regular Regional Huddle meetings.

§ Lead on teacher communications including but not limited to; event comms, bursary comms, opportunities, general reminders, collecting paperwork etc.

§ Maintain the Schoolhouse CRM and ensure teacher and Schoolhouse records are up to date.

§ Maintain the DSH website including creating teacher logins and Schoolhouse web profiles, helping teachers with web support, and carrying out general website maintenance.

§ Termly reporting and analysis of external programme communications. Including successful leads generated through social media marketing and campaigns, revenue generation activities etc.

§ Work with the DSH team to effectively implement the delivery of an ever-expanding programme.

2. Event Communications & Logistics

§ Lead on organising, planning, and executing teacher training days (Playful Computing Conference and Ingenuity Days).

§ Ensure paperwork for CPD accreditation is completed and processed.

§ Produce pre and post event communications, including Eventbrite and webpages as well as follow up emails and support.

§ Provide general event support – work with the wider Digital Schoolhouse team to organise shipments, event materials and supporting marketing materials for DSH events.

§ Co-ordinate and market careers competitions that are run as part of the annual Digital Schoolhouse esports tournaments.

3. Day-to-day Marketing and Communications

§ Work with the Senior Project Manager and the wider Ukie Communications team to manage social media activity and track engagement across all social channels, X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

§ Design, plan and deliver a social media fund raising campaign for the programme.

§ Curate the DSH Education newsletter monthly.

§ Run the One Minute Mentor (OMM) careers resource including editing and uploading videos and curating the OMM playlist on YouTube (and the DSH website).

§ Work with the Senior Project Manager to curate monthly blogs and news content for the DSH website.

§ Design assets where appropriate for marketing purposes, using Adobe Photoshop / InDesign / Canva etc.

§ Oversee consistent and accurate use of Digital Schoolhouse and partner branding in all external communications.

Desired experience and qualities:

§ Ideal for someone who is looking to develop their experience in communications and marketing including social media and design.

§ Excellent communication skills, including written, planning and analytical along with verbal communication and listening skills.

§ Excellent organisation and time management skills; methodical, detail oriented and flexible in approach to work, maintaining a high level of accuracy.

§ Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Office packages and the ability to work on new systems.

§ Proactive with the ability to work independently as well as within a team.

§ Proven experience of asset design and development.

§ Proven experience of social media management, marketing and campaigns.

§ Proven experience in a communications related role.

§ A creative thinker who can think outside the box.

§ An entrepreneurial mindset who has the ability to critically evaluate existing processes and innovate and improve upon them.

Other information:

Working hours are Monday to Friday – 9.00am to 5.30pm and there is an expectation that some evening and weekend work will be required to attend events as the business requires. Ukie supports remote working, but there is an expectation of regular visits to the office.

This role profile is not exhaustive; it will be subject to periodic review and may be amended to meet the changing needs of the business.