Senior Clerical Officer

Applications are invited for the above full-time Senior Clerical officer’s post working in Reaching Wider: North and Mid Wales Partnership to be engaged on a Fixed term contract.

The purpose of the Role is to provide effective clerical support for a range of administrative activity within the Reaching Wider: North and mid Wales Partnerships working on a national mentoring programme.

Candidates should have a minimum of 5 GCSEs at grades A* – C (incl. English and Maths) or NVQ level 2 in a relevant subject area or possess equivalent experience.

The successful candidate will be expected to commence as soon as possible. The post is available until 31st August 2025 subject to funding.

The ability to communicate in Welsh is essential for this post.

This post is subject to a satisfactory enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service check.

Applications will only be accepted via our on-line recruitment website, jobs.bangor.ac.uk. However, in cases of access issues due to disability, paper application forms are available by telephoning 01248 383865.

Closing date for applications: 24 November 2023

Committed To Equal Opportunities

Overview

Reaching Wider aims to facilitate the entrance of people from under-represented backgrounds into Higher Education.

The North and Mid Wales Partnership will be managing a national mentoring programme across Wales, in partnership with the Southwest Wales and Southeast Wales Reaching Wider partnerships.

The project officer will recruit, train, and coordinate HE undergraduates to be mentors to learners engaged in 16-19 education, offering a package of mentoring support for the academic year 2023 to 2025. This exciting opportunity will target Reaching Wider priority cohorts across Wales.

The post holder will take a leading role in the recruitment and engagement of the mentors and mentees working with key partners, to deliver a successful programme.  Supporting the project managers to deliver the aims and objectives of the project within the time projects timelines.

The Project

The RWNMWP is a partnership of higher education and further education in the North and Mid Wales region. Our Executive Steering group members are Bangor University (Lead Partner), Aberystwyth University, Wrexham Glyndwr University, , Coleg Cambria, Coleg Ceredigion, Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, Grwp Llandrillo Menai, and NPTC Grwp.

The purpose of this partnership is to widen access to Higher Education for underrepresented groups identified by HEFCW. Responding to the region’s widening access priorities and requirements, we will support our learners at various stages and transition points on their individual educational journey, working with learners more intensively over a longer period wherever possible.

The mentoring project sits under the broader Reaching Wider programme, which contributes to HEFCW’s response to widening access to higher education by supporting priority schools, colleges, communities and learners. The national offer has five priorities [1] :

• Supporting the transition to higher education increase confidence, progression, lifelong learning, and success.
• Supporting educational aspiration raising to increase motivation, retention and progression.
• Enhancing educational skills to enable learners to fulfil their academic potential and be prepared for further and/or higher education.
• Promoting vocational and employability skills to encourage upskilling and career aspirations, including access to apprenticeships and professions.
• Promoting equality of opportunity and inclusive approaches for care-experienced people, carers, and people with disabilities.

Purpose of the Job

The purpose of the role is to provide effective finance and administrative support for this HEFCW funded project, supporting the project staff with project objectives and activities, ensure effective delivery of the project and compliance with relevant financial and procurement requirements as stipulated by the university and HEFCW.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Process financial claims associated with the project in a timely manner to meet deadlines, and prepare information and evidence required for these claims.
• Ensure that all paperwork associated with this is completed accurately and meets audit requirements.
• Establish budgetary monitoring systems to ensure accurate and up to date information is available on project expenditure against profiled budget.
• Identify and raise any budgetary issues with the Project Manager and provide suggestions on how issues may be resolved.
• Supported by the Partnership Manager, liaise with the Project Accountant to raise and resolve budgetary queries.
• Ensure project partners and sub-contractors submit invoices and any relevant supporting documents in a timely manner, raising any issues or queries with the Project Manager.
• Support the project team to ensure the university’s casual worker process is followed and that new casual workers are registered correctly on the casual worker system. The post holder will undertake and ensure all relevant eligibility screening checks are completed in line with the university’s HR and finance procedures.
• Maintain effective administrative and financial systems and processes to efficiently process invoices and expenses.
• Support the Project Officers with project objectives and activities.
• Provide administrative support evaluation processes associated with the project in line with HEFCW monitoring requirements.
• Supported by the Partnership Manager liaise with Bangor Universities Finance team to compile a quarterly finance report.
• Maintain accurate financial records and report these to the Partnership Manager monthly.
• Participate in networks within the institution or externally in order to pass on information promptly and keep people informed to ensure co-ordination of effort and that work is done effectively.
• Assist with the programme monitoring, data collection efforts and evaluations and ensure feedback is shared with the project participants to ensure continuous improvement of the project.
• Running reports on the data to feed into HEFCW’s Annual Monitoring Statement (AMS) as well as creating excel reports for specific feedback requests.
• Provide administration support to facilitate the smooth running of programmes and events.
• Carry out other administrative duties as required.

The post holder may be required to undertake other duties which fall within the grade of the job, in discussion with his/her manager.

This job description will be reviewed regularly in the light of changing service requirements and any such changes will be discussed with the post holder.

Other Duties and Responsibilities

• The post holder must comply with relevant legal policies and procedures and be aware of their responsibilities in terms of the legal requirements of their posts.
• The post holder will be expected to participate in performance review and developmental activities.
• The post holder will be expected to comply with the University equal opportunities policies, Dignity at Work and Study Policy and the University’s Welsh Language Policy and the Welsh Language Standards.
• The post holder has a general and legal duty of care in relation to health, safety and wellbeing and must take all reasonable steps to ensure a safe and healthy working environment for him/herself and for other members of staff, students and visitors affected by his/her actions or inactions. The post holder is also required to comply with all applicable health and safety policies, procedures and risk assessments.
• The post holder must comply with relevant legal and financial policies and procedures and be aware of their responsibilities in terms of the legal requirements of their posts.

Person Specification

Qualifications/Training

Essential

• Minimum of 5 GCSEs at grades A* – C (incl. English and Maths) or NVQ level III in a relevant subject area or possess equivalent experience in an administrative or clerical capacity.

Desirable

• NVQ level 4 in a relevant subject area.
• ECDL Certificate.

Experience/Knowledge

Essential

• Worked in a Higher Education environment.
• Experience of working within an office /administrative environment.
• Experience of working with databases Skills/Abilities.
• Experience of working with Reaching Wider Cohorts within an education and community setting
• Experience of working with learners between the ages of 15 – 18 years of age in colleges and six forms across Wales
• Experience of supporting an online bilingual mentoring programme

Desirable

• Experience of working in a financial environment

Abilities/Skills

Essential

• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel etc).
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to manage workload, prioritise tasks and meet deadlines.
• Ability to work independently and demonstrate initiative.
• Excellent organisational skills and ability to handle a varied and demanding workload.
• Accurate data entry and attention to detail
• The ability to speak Welsh fluently and carry out tasks such as writing emails in Welsh to a variety of audiences is essential for this post.

General

The University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We believe this can be achieved through attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse range of staff from many different backgrounds.  We strive to develop a workforce from all sections of the community regardless of sex, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, trans identity, relationship status, religion or belief, caring responsibilities, or age. We promote and facilitate the use of the Welsh language through our progressive Welsh Language Policy. We comply with the Welsh Language Standards and are committed to equality of opportunity. You are welcome to apply for any job in English or Welsh and all applications submitted will be treated equally.

 We are a member of Advance HE’s Athena SWAN Gender Equality charter and hold a Bronze award in recognition of our commitment to and progress towards gender equality within the University’s policies, practices, and culture. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer. 

All members of staff have a duty to ensure their actions are in line with the overall environmental aims of the University and minimise their environmental impact. 

All offers are made subject to proof of eligibility to work in the UK and receipt of satisfactory references.  

We have a legal responsibility to ensure that you have the right to work in the UK before you can start working for us.  When you apply for this post you will be required to explain the basis upon which you believe you will able to live and work in the UK legally on the commencement date of the role should your application be successful.   If you do not have the right to work freely in any position in the UK already, any offer of employment we will make to you will be subject to you obtaining a right to work visa.   The following link provides information on the various visa routes into employment and the eligibility requirements (including switching visa status where permissible) https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas .   If you are successful in your application we will discuss visa options with you at the time of making the offer of employment.     

Please note that, in the event of applications being received from candidates on the University’s Redeployment Register with a reasonable skills match to the post specification, these applicants will be given prior consideration.

Disclosure & Barring Service

This post is subject to a satisfactory enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service check.
As Bangor University meets the requirements in respect of exempted questions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, all applicants who are offered employment will be subject to a criminal record check from the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) before the appointment is confirmed. This will include details of cautions, reprimands or final warnings as well as convictions. DBS checks will be updated every 3 years. 

Candidates should note that the University uses an external Umbrella body to process  DBS checks.   As such you should be aware that, if successful in your application, your name and e-mail contact details will be shared with the Umbrella body in order that they may contact you to start the application process.