Policy Officer (Grade E2) in Edinburgh

To support delivery against SFC's statutory duties and strategic framework in relation to student interests and high-quality learning and teaching. This role will support SFC to better understand the student, learner and apprentice experience.

Key Responsibilities:

• Work with the Senior Policy Officer: Student Interests to implement SFC’s approach to student interests, particularly the delivery of opportunities for students, learners and apprentices to engage with and participate in the work of SFC.
• Identification of current student interest priorities to support focused and meaningful action to reduce or remove barriers to success.
• Work with others to develop and support student interests related external communications activity including contributing to the development and delivery of a range of engagement events and activities.
• Contribute to the reporting of the outcomes of student interests' activity by supporting students, learners and apprentices, recent graduates and practitioners to engage with the activities themselves as well as the outputs.
• Provide advice to senior officers and assist in drafting a range of policy and strategy papers including committee and board papers, particularly enabling consideration of the impact on the student experience.
• Maintain and develop your knowledge of the tertiary system and relevant policy areas to support the development of SFC’s work to enhance the student experience.
• Provide information, advice, updates and guidance to institutions and stakeholders (both internal and external) as required and represent the SFC on relevant committees and working groups.
• Working in partnership with the Senior Policy Officer and Internal Communications Officer contribute to the student interests internal communications activity in line with SFC’s Internal Communications Strategy.
• Provide project management support for the monitoring and reporting of national programmes and initiatives.
• Contribute flexibly to the work of the wider directorate and other groups in SFC as appropriate and when required.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise:

It is important through your CV / Cover Letter that you give evidence of proven experience of each of the following essential criteria:

• Experience of community engagement and/or working in partnership with service users and delivering outcomes that enhanced their experience.
• Effective interpersonal skills, including experience of building/developing and maintaining work relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Excellent research, analytical and reporting skills to provide advice and respond to complex issues.
• Proven written communication skills, including the ability to analyse, understand and respond to complex issues in an appropriate manner.
• Strong organisational and project management abilities to cope with diverse and changing workload in a politicised environment.
• Demonstrable policy development or implementation experience.
• SCQF level 7 or equivalent experience relevant to the role.

Desirable:

• Experience of working in partnership with students, learners and/or apprentices and delivering outcomes that enhanced their experience.
• Knowledge of the further and/or higher education sector and some awareness of the current Scottish political and government environment.
• Some experience of delivering training or similar activities to a range of audiences.

Terms and Benefits:

• Normal full-time hours of work are 35 per week. We will consider flexible working arrangements.
• Annual leave entitlement of 30 days pro-rata, plus public and privilege holiday entitlement of 13 days pro-rata.
• A flexible approach to hybrid working, giving you flexibility to work from home anywhere in the UK for some of the time while also maintaining regular in-person contact with colleagues.
• Annual pay review: approved within the framework of the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Pay Policy.
• Eligibility to join the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
• Support for continuous professional development.
• Support for health and wellbeing, including generous occupational sick pay and access to occupational health support.
• Support for travel to and from work, including a salary sacrifice cycle loan scheme and interest-free loan for bus or rail season tickets.
• We are happy to discuss part-time or compressed hours to suit a candidate's circumstances.

General information for applicants for SFC roles:

You must already be eligible to work in the UK to apply for these roles. SFC do not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skills Worker License and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and actively encourage interviews through the scheme.

Further information about SFC is available on our website.