Student Casual – Social Organiser – Birmingham International Academy – Grade 3 – 907371

Please note that this vacancy may be taken down early depending on the number of applications received. We advise you to submit your application promptly.

Our offer to you

At the University of Birmingham, Worklink is the dedicated student employment service which helps students to find flexible, well paid part-time roles that fit around your studies. Each year, the University invests more than £2.5 million to employ 3,000 of our own students in a wide range of roles, supporting our student community into part-time work. Roles available via Worklink include a range of positions, including administrative roles, support staff such as cleaners or baristas, research roles and many more.

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Our jobs are flexible and can be scheduled around your academic commitments, so you can focus on your studies first. Our team are passionate about supporting students into work. Worklink are based in a central location on campus which is easily accessible for students and can also be contacted online.

Find out more about working through Worklink here or via the student intranet.

Job context

Birmingham International Academy (BIA) sits within Academic Services and works collaboratively with the Colleges to provide Presessional English, Academic English and Foundation Programmes. The BIA has an entirely international student cohort and a safeguarding responsibility to students under the age of 18. The BIA is accredited by the British Council for the teaching of English in the UK.

Job summary

The Social Organiser will work within the BIA Operations and Administrative team during the busy summer period where the department has around 1000 students and 100+ new teachers. The role will involve organising social events for the international student cohort, keeping to budget, risk assessing events with particular care of under 18s and liaising with external providers. The post holder will need to decide on a social programme, gain approval, advertise and execute events.

Main duties

• Work with a small team of social organisers to oversee social activities.
• Welcome students and present short introductory presentation on the first day of each student cohort
• Organise evening and weekend social (including online) activities in order to familiarise the students with the University Campus and its facilities and the city of Birmingham.
• Socialise with the students during social event and actively encourage them to develop their speaking and listening skills.
• Publicise the social events to the Programme Directors and key staff within the Unit
• Disseminate information via a newsletter, posters, email and CANVAS
• Carry out the appropriate health & safety assessments for all events and trips, including Risk Assessments.
• Conduct weekly meeting with the Administrative Staff regarding the events and activities
• Organise a large end of term party, managing a budget for venue, décor, food, music and entertainment.
• Work within a specified budget
• Other duties as may be reasonably required.

Required knowledge, skills, qualifications & experience

• A good standard of literacy and numeracy as may be evidenced by GCSE Maths and English (or equivalent) A-C/4-9 or equivalent. Where no equivalent qualification is held, relevant work experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role will normally be required.

• Experience working in a similar environment

• Proficient in Microsoft packages

• Accuracy and attention to detail is essential

• Excellent team working and communication skills both written and verbal is essential

• A customer focussed approach

• An ability to organise your own workload is required

• Ability to learn and understand how diversity considerations affect own area (e.g. dietary requirements/dress code)

Further details

• Please note that this role requires students to have full availability to work full time (37 hours per week) throughout the summer break.
• Applicants must therefore be undergraduate students on summer break, Masters students who have received confirmation from Registry that their course has been completed, PhD students in the ‘Thesis Awaited’ stage or any other exceptions that allow you to work full time hours. If you are unsure, please contact the Worklink Portal to query this before applying.

For any informal queries, please contact Esther Reeves (e.h.reeves@bham.ac.uk)

The University of Birmingham restricts all students to working up to 20 hours per week during term time for a maximum of 13 consecutive weeks. If your application is successful and your course does not follow the usual academic term timetable (e.g. PGT, PGR or PhD student), you and your supervisor must formally agree vacation periods if this role exceeds 20 hours per week. In addition to this, please be aware if you are an international student you will be required to apply to the Registry for the appropriate authorised absence.

You are only eligible to apply to this role if you are a current University of Birmingham student. If you are not a University of Birmingham student your application will not be considered.

To work you will need to carry out a right to work check. These checks will need to be completed prior to work commencing.

Regarding the use of AI in applications, we review hundreds of applications and shortlist candidates based on their unique perspective, motivations and potential. Cover letters generated through, or edited by, AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT or CoPilot) are easy to identify. They produce generic answers and will not score highly enough to progress. You may use AI tools for research, but all written content in your application must be your own work. Authenticity and originality are key to standing out in this process.

Due to the high volume of applications we receive, we’re unable to contact all applicants individually. You can check the progress of your application by logging into the Worklink jobs portal using the same email address you used to apply. If you haven’t heard back within six weeks of the closing date, please assume your application has been unsuccessful.