Youth Engagement Officer in Watford

Department: Watford FC Community Sports and Education Trust

Reporting to: Community Project Manager (Education)

Hours: 40 hours per week

Salary: £28,100 pa

Location: Southwest Herts & Harrow

Contract Type: 3 year fixed term to 31 December 2029

Closing Date: Sunday 22 November 2026 (we reserve the right to close this vacancy early and interview candidates before the closing date if suitable applications are received. Early applications are strongly encouraged)

Interview Date: TBC

Our vision is to ‘improve lives, enhance communities’ and aim to ‘make a positive difference for all through sport, physical activity and learning’. We have developed a strong track record of delivering high quality community-based initiatives and services. Our work focuses on three priority areas: Health & Wellbeing, Learning & Skills, and Social Inclusion, alongside a core theme of work in Football and Sports Development. These are all underpinned by our promise to deliver accessible opportunities.

Summary of your role:

Do you have experience of and a passion for improving the lives of challenging young people in both mainstream and unique educational environments? Then look further, our social inclusion team are looking for passionate, innovative and reliable Youth Engagement Officer to continue growing our high-quality provision for young people in a range of local Secondary Schools, SEND Schools, AP settings and SEMH Schools. This includes delivering the Premier League Inspires programme which aims to support young people to overcome barriers in education – equipping them with the skills, attitude, and aspiration to succeed. As well as supporting our wider inclusion and community based work aimed at improving the lives of young people. Delivery is aimed at small groups of young people for a session each week with a mixture of educational workbooks, physical activity and wellbeing exercises. Full training will be provided and additional ongoing CPD but experience within these settings and with young people is vital. Delivery hours are spread across the school week and will take place during the school day with travel being required between schools or settings. You will join a friendly, experienced and confident team who are looking at gaining an enthusiastic individual to grow and develop our provision across Three Rivers, Watford, Hertsmere, St Albans, Dacorum and Harrow. In addition, the YEO will coordinate the Greater London Authority Majors Investment Fund (LINKD), by working in partnership with Ignite and Empower (internal), to increase the Trust’s social inclusion offer in Harrow, alongside Premier League Kicks.

Your key responsibilities, but not limited to:

• Providing high quality educational delivery, to local young people aged 11-18 in line with projects values and structure.
• Be confident in dealing with challenging behaviour and reporting any safeguarding disclosures to our Community Project Manager (Education).
• Deliver engaging and enjoyable sessions that young people can gain positive outcomes from.
• Build good rapport with young people and be a trusted adult.
• Be a good team player and work effectively with colleagues.
• To undertake an enhanced DBS check, complete safeguarding training and other relevant training.
• Complete administration tasks related to the programme, including designing high quality session plans and inputting, monitoring and evaluation data on data management systems including Salesforce.
• Ensuring that the programme has a positive impact on the lives of the young people referred and that this impact is recorded appropriately.
• Ensuring the team reaches their overall targets across the academic year.
• Liaising with the Community Project Manager to build new and existing positive relationships with schools to generate sustainable income for the organisation.

As this role develops there may be some delivery changes that could arise as this is dependent on future funding streams and maternity leave cover for the PL Inspires delivery in 2027.

You Must Have:

• Experience of working with children and or young people
• Experience of working in schools or youth settings.
• Positive attitude and innovative personality.
• Good maths and literacy skills.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Full clean driving licence and access to a vehicle.

You would ideally have, but not vital:

• Youth work or similar qualifications
• Experience of working in alternative education or SEND schools.
• Awareness and or training around adverse childhood experiences, special additional needs, trauma informed practices and mental health.
• Sports or coaching qualifications.

What is in it for you?

• Chance to join an award-winning charity and work alongside a high-quality delivery team, determined to use the positive power of sport, physical activity and learning for social good.
• Opportunity to benefit from a range of training and development opportunities
• Free gym usage at our two Community Centres
• Flexible working environment
• 25 days of Annual Leave entitlement plus bank holidays
• Great Trust pension scheme

Equal Opportunities: We are dedicated to fostering a diverse and dynamic working environment by building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more wide-ranging we are, the better our work will be. We are committed to Safeguarding children and adults at risk. The necessary Disclosure and Barring Service check will apply to this post.