Partnerships Coordinator

This role is available in partnership with The Rank Foundation’s Time to Shine Leaders Programme. Please read the programme details before making your application.

Salary: £24,479 for 35 hours week plus £312 p.a working from home allowance. £26,936 for 35 hours per week, plus £213 p.a working from home allowance (London weighting).

Your opportunity: Tackle a vital challenge, with great people. Voice 21 exists to transform children's learning and life chances through talk and we are working with 1,200 schools across the country this year alone. To reach this goal we recruit great people and give them real responsibility, training and support. Output focused culture, with flexible working opportunities. We have an agile and flexible approach – our team can work when and wherever works best to deliver the requirements of their role. For staff working at home, we support them to create a workspace and provide technology that enables them to work effectively.

Real development opportunities: We believe in supporting people to develop the skills they need to be excellent – whether this means funding external training, finding a mentor to support them or giving them the time to learn from others in the organisations through our regular CPD sessions. We also offer paid study leave for team members taking part in formal studies outside of work.

Great benefits: 33 days holiday (inclusive of bank holidays) and additional Christmas closure period. Holiday entitlement increases linked to length of service, 5% employer contribution to pension, interest-free season ticket, cycle and technology loans, employee assistance scheme.

About Voice 21: Voice 21 is the national oracy education charity. We exist to empower every child to use their voice for success in school and life. Our work transforms learning and life chances through talk by increasing access to a high-quality oracy education for those that need it most.

Your purpose: To support our CEO, Director of Strategic Development and other members of the Senior Leadership Team to engage partners in our strategic planning, including to influence the implementation of the new national curriculum and guidance on oracy and establish a new advisory board to inform our strategy. You will be responsible for supporting the delivery of our partnerships strategy using email communications, providing administration and leading on planning for a series of meetings, round table discussions and partnership events. This will include working closely with the events team organising the flagship Voice 21 events, the Speaking Summit in March 2026 and Great Oracy Exhibition in October 2026. This is a newly created role in the team and the post holder will play a significant part in shaping it in order to deliver its core purpose. The role may evolve based on the needs of our growing organisation.

Your responsibilities:

• Partner relationships & communications: Ensure that communications to partners are sent in a clear and timely manner, using either automation or other systems e.g. mail merge. Coordinate processes for partnership meetings and roundtables, e.g. the booking process for participants and arrangements relating to special adjustments etc. Use our Customer Relationship Management (CRM), SalesForce, to create records and collect and update partner data.
• Meeting coordination & delivery: Arrange all key activities for events you are responsible for. This could include Advisory Board meetings (online and in person), visits to schools or roundtable and briefing meetings. Manage invites and book venues, reminder/follow up communications, and ensure feedback is captured and collated. Find solutions to problems e.g. technical issues in an online course; booking an additional venue due to increased demand. Attend events, either in person or online, to provide support to members of the team leading them.
• Partnership Strategy Planning: Track key progress with our partnership strategy and analyse this to support decision-making. Take ownership of partnership engagement and experience, finding opportunities for improvement and implementing these. Work closely with the members of the Whole Leadership Team to establish a ‘Relationship Manager’ lead system to maximise the benefits of partnerships.

This job is for you if you are:

• Highly organised, you enjoy making a plan and seeing it through!
• You might have previous experience organising events or programmes.
• Quick at picking up new skills e.g. using a Customer Relationship Management system, and generous in sharing your skills with others.
• A collaborator with great communication skills (written and verbal).
• Proactive when faced with problems, which you view as an opportunity to learn.
• Have strong IT skills and are competent using MS Office (essential).
• Have previously used a marketing automation platform (MAP) or worked with a contact database (desirable, not essential).
• Comfortable managing ambiguity - even when things are not certain or the way forward is not clear you make a start on figuring it out.
• You are passionate about Voice 21’s mission and helping us meet our ambitions.

Who you’ll work with:

• Our Senior Leadership team: made up of our CEO and 4 directors; your work will support objectives across the wider leadership team. You will work directly with the Director of Strategic Development.
• Our broader team across Voice 21: Collaboration and partnerships are a key part of Voice 21’s new five year strategy so your work will be across the Voice 21 team.
• Our partners, including Voice 21 Oracy Schools and Centres of Excellence we work with to support delivery of our 2030 Strategy.

Where you’ll work: Remote, with regular national travel to attend programmes and meetings, including regular overnight stays. You will also be required to attend Time to Shine key events which are detailed in the Guide for Potential Programme Candidates.

Contract: One year fixed term contract linked to specific grant funding and subject to successful probation review at 3 months.

Terms: We would welcome applications on a full-time basis. Candidates need to be available to start within 4 weeks of any offer.

Application details: The Rank Foundation is looking for Time to Shine (T2S) Leaders who can meet the aims of the T2S programme, please refer to the Time to Shine application pack as applicants who do not demonstrate this through their application will not be considered. The 12-month programme is experiential and focuses on building leadership skills and encouraging personal and professional development. The T2S Leader is employed by the charity and spends the majority of their time gaining valuable work experience and developing professional competency within the workplace.

To apply: Please send your CV and a short cover letter to with the subject line: "Partnerships Coordinator.” or apply via the recruitment page. Your cover letter should briefly address the following:

• What do you know about the Rank Foundation?
• What excites you about taking part in the Rank Foundation’s Time to Shine programme?
• What made you want to apply for this role?
• What skills will you bring to the project?
• What will be your biggest challenge in this role?
• What do you hope to achieve during your T2S year?

Closing date: 1st February 2026. We reserve the right to close the advert early should we exceed the number of applicants we can review within our recruitment process deadlines prior to interview commencement dates.

Interviews date: First Interviews 5th and 6th February. Second interviews, 10th February 2026. Start date: Must be before 13th April 2026.

Questions: If you have any questions about the role, or would like to discuss it before submitting an application, please contact Amy Gaunt, Director of Strategic Development.