Project Manager

Job title: Project Manager

Hours: Full time/Part time (4 to 5 days per week)

Location: Flexible options: working from home and/or working from the office near Brighton

Introduction to National Numeracy:

We are on a mission to empower children and adults in the UK to get on with numbers so they can fulfil their potential at work, home and school. Our work improves how people understand and use numbers in everyday life, sparking better opportunities and brighter futures.

The issue: Numeracy levels in the UK are significantly below the average for developed countries: nearly half the working age population (49%) has the expected numeracy level of a primary school child. This costs the UK economy a staggering £25 billion each year.

Enabling social mobility: Basic maths skills and confidence with numbers provide a gateway to financial inclusion, wellbeing, and employment prospects. Without number confidence and skills, people are locked out of many life opportunities. This problem is handed from one generation to the next.

Enabling a fairer society: Poor numeracy blights lives and livelihoods. People with low numeracy earn less, and it contributes to pervasive problems from unemployment to poor health and debt.

Our diversity: Our stakeholders have different backgrounds and experiences, and we are committed to having a diverse team who can bring their experiences from work and home into this role. Therefore, we actively encourage applicants from black, Asian or minority ethnic groups, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities to apply for this role

Introduction to the role:

Our work is needed now more than ever before. This is why we have embarked on a new strategy to make tackling low numeracy an urgent, national issue. However, we will only achieve significant and lasting change by partnering with organisations that commission our services and help deliver our impact. We work with a wide range of commissioners and delivery partners to reach and engage our target audience of people with low numeracy: from large employers, such as the NHS, to local authorities across the UK, and from businesses to charities and community organisations.

As we begin to work with an increasing number of local authorities, we have an exciting new role for a skilled project manager to oversee the work which is needed across our team to deliver this. This will involve co-ordinating activity across our programmes, communications and finance functions, ensuring that we deliver committed activity on time and on budget.

You will build strong, collaborative relationships across our team and play an important role in the continued growth of the organisation.

We are looking for someone who is flexible, a self-starter and able to use their own initiative to both strengthen relationships and establish new links. It’s not imperative that you come from the charity sector as long as you can show us that you have relevant transferable skills and an understanding of what it takes to be successful in this role. We welcome applications from people who may have struggled with maths and numbers and have a personal understanding of the experiences of our beneficiaries. This is a fantastic opportunity within a small but ambitious and dynamic organisation making a real difference to people’s lives and livelihoods.

As a charity, National Numeracy operates nationally, and for this role, we welcome applications from across the UK. You can work in the office in Falmer, East Sussex, and/or you can work from home. Our expectation is that you will visit Falmer occasionally during the year when the work requires. While much of the work for this role can be done from home or the office, it will also involve travel to meet with partner organisations across the UK.

We welcome applications from candidates looking to work either four or five days per week.

Overview of main duties:

Oversee and co-ordinate our work with local authorities to improve basic numeracy across their areas. This will involve:

• Managing this work as a project, ensuring that the milestones agreed for each contract are met on time and to budget.
• Liaising with other team members to ensure that staff time & resource is available and allocated to the activity as required to fulfil our commitments.
• Developing detailed project plans to schedule and track progress, ensuring that relevant processes are followed, and documentation is kept up to date.
• Managing budgets & monitor expenditure.
• Arranging and chairing project team meetings.
• Co-ordinating the project team’s work and keeping the wider team appraised of progress.
• Liaising with the project team to monitor project performance & evaluate impact.
• Writing project reports as required.
• Liaising with the External Relations team to publicise projects as appropriate.

Other duties as required, continually working towards the charity’s aims and objectives.

Essential skills/experience:

• Motivated by what we do as a charity and why it’s important.
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills.
• Confident presentation skills.
• Ability to build and maintain effective relationships within the team, with commissioners and with delivery partner organisations.
• Experience of project management(Project Management qualification not necessarily required).
• Good organisational, multi-tasking and prioritisation skills.
• Dynamic, enthusiastic, and self-motivated. Flexible in your approach, and able to work both independently as well as part of a team.
• Resilient and prepared to see tasks through to finish.
• Good at detail, spotting mistakes, anticipating problems, and finding alternative solutions.
• Competent in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

The details: We are offering: 

• Salary of £30,000 per annum FTE (non-negotiable).
• 33 days holiday a year including bank holidays
• Company pension scheme.
• Flexible approach to office/hybrid/remote working.
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategic plan.
• Employee Assistance Programme and other benefits.
• Multiple staff social opportunities.

National Numeracy offers a supportive, friendly culture with a focus on well-being and collaboration. We take life-long learning seriously and support our staff to develop their skills and knowledge.

We have an open hybrid approach to office/remote working and welcome applications from candidates interested either in office or predominantly remote working options.

National Numeracy is an equal opportunities employer, and all applicants are treated equally and fairly throughout the recruitment and selection process.

How to apply:

In the first instance, please submit a CV with covering letter of no more than two pages by 9am on Wednesday 7th September 2022.

Applications may be assessed on a rolling basis. Please include in your covering letter an outline of your suitability for the role with reference to the essential skills and experience criteria. Applications without a cover letter will not be accepted.

* This job description doesn't constitute a promise or guarantee of employment. National Numeracy reserve the right to make changes to this job description.

** National Numeracy reserves the right to change the deadline for applications or to close the application window if a suitable candidate is found.

*** National Numeracy cannot offer visa sponsorship for this opportunity. Please do not apply unless you can demonstrate eligibility to work in the UK