Research and Production Officer in London

About us

The Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) is a registered charity working with schools, colleges and communities across the country to raise awareness about the Holocaust and its relevance today.

Job Description

We have an exciting opportunity for a Research and Production Officer to join our team based in Central London. After several years of research and development, we launched Testimony 360 in June 2024, a digital programme for UK secondary schools that uses interactive survivor testimony and virtual reality to innovatively teach about the Holocaust. Through the programme, students can interact with a recorded testimony of a Holocaust survivor, before seeing some of the sites they experienced using virtual reality headsets, all without leaving their classroom.

The successful candidate will serve as a member of the Trust’s Programmes Team, responsible for the research, post-production, testing and maintenance of interactive recorded testimony to ensure fluency and usability in the classroom. They will also be responsible for the ethical representation and engagement with the testimonies. We are looking for an individual with experience in research, with an understanding of the sensitive use of testimony, as well as experience of data management systems and platforms used for interactive testimony. They will have the ability to quickly learn how to use new technologies and programmes. As an expert in Holocaust education, you will also contribute to the successful delivery of our Testimony 360 programme through research and development of new content or digital resources.

Key Responsibilities

Interactive survivor testimony

• Work on the development of interactive testimony, including any future capture, clipping, annotation, data / metadata input, and Alpha/Beta testing. Throughout testing, lead the AI training process ensuring the system’s accuracy and ensuring the respectful and ethical representation of survivors’ life-stories.
  
• Maintain regular contact with our partner organisation, the USC Shoah Foundation, including progress updates, shared learning, and required training.
  
• Support colleagues undertaking training and/or working on supportive post-production.
  
• Log activity and decisions regarding the post-production editing process, as discussed with members of the Testimony 360 team and/or USC Shoah Foundation.
  
• Organise and deliver Alpha and Beta testing stages, working directly with students both online and in-person to deliver test sessions and action any necessary follow-up (to ensure learning from test sessions is fed back).
  
• Develop and manage systems to ensure the maintenance, accuracy, ethics and security of interactive testimonies and ensure consistency of approach across teams.
  

Delivery

• Plan and deliver any future online Beta testing sessions as part of the development of interactive testimonies, sharing knowledge and expertise and supporting their delivery.
  
• Work with the Data and Evaluation Manager on external research and evaluation partnerships to assess the impact of Testimony 360 on students and teachers, ensuring findings are shared and used to continuously improve our digital education offers.
  
• From time to time, we ask everyone in our team to be trained to deliver our educational programmes. This ensures we can adapt to our peaks of educational delivery during the year. Therefore, it is desirable that the successful candidate will be willing to participate in our classroom programmes as an educator from time to time.
  

Development

• Carry out research and development relating to the Trust’s digital strategy.
  
• Work with external providers to create historically accurate content that fits within the Trust’s pedagogical approach and programmes.
  

General

• Discussions about our learnings from Testimony 360 with the wider Delivery team, and we encourage consideration for how these learnings might feed into our wider educational offer.
• Ensuring the education about the Holocaust is at the core of our work. Members of the Programmes team are responsible for supporting the wider teams as they develop, plan and deliver on broader public engagement, fundraising, and awareness-raising initiatives.
  

Skills and Experience

Essential

• An understanding of the history of the Holocaust and its relevance today, evidenced through previous study or work history.

• An understanding of Holocaust survivor testimony, its value in education, and an insight and understanding of best practice and ethical considerations relevant to producing, using and maintaining recorded testimonies.

• Specialised IT competency in data management systems for interactive testimonies (such as the Digital Repository Management System and the Dimensions in Testimony Editor used by the USC Shoah Foundation) as well as a general understanding of the benefits and risks of using AI technology for testimony.

• Ability to work quickly in a fast-paced environment, to tight timeframes, with high levels of accuracy.

• Ability to work independently with demonstrable self-motivation.

• Strong communication skills, able to work effectively across a team and across organisations.

• Vibrant, enthusiastic, and dependable individual, with a clear passion and commitment to the aims and values of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

• Excellent organisational and time management skills.

• Demonstrable interest in, and an understanding of, evolving digital technologies and experiences (especially in the field of education).

• Experience producing or developing digital educational content.

Desirable

• Experience in teaching the Holocaust within schools, and evidence of CPD/training on pedagogical approaches to Holocaust education.
• Experience planning and delivering lessons as part of a formal or informal educational setting.

This job description is not an exhaustive list of duties and may be reviewed and amended in consultation with the postholder to reflect the developing needs of the Trust.