Activities Officer at Bath Preservation Trust

Background

The Beckford Tower Trust (BTT) owns and manages Beckford’s Tower, the last surviving building connected with the historically significant William Beckford. Located within the area of Lansdown, the building is open to the public at weekends, operating as a museum and Tower experience. Connected to the public buildings is a property leased to the Landmark Trust, operating as a holiday let. The Trust recognises an urgent conservation need to repair and conserve the Tower and is seeing this as an opportunity to develop our visitor experience, engage wider audiences and reconnect the Tower with its lost landscape, through new experiences, interpretation and access.

The initial exploratory works have been funded by Beckford Tower Trust (BTT), which has been awarded a development grant by the National Heritage Lottery Fund (NLHF) to develop their own proposals up to submission of planning and to assess their costs for the project. The outcome of this development work will influence the works to be carried out during the delivery phase, which we aim to fund through a combination of sources including a further NLHF grant, other grants and donations including that gained by direct fundraising. On completion of this development work a NLHF Round 2 grant request will be made and if successful, the conservation works and other activity plans will be funded by BTT with substantial support from its sole Trustee, Bath Preservation Trust (BPT) as well as from the NLHF.

The Activities Officer will be required to work as part of a design team alongside other contractors and members of BPT staff, to provide the Trust with a coherent and costed plan for the future Education and Community engagement programme including learning resources and interpretation elements (Phase One) and to oversee its implementation (Phase Two).

Purpose

To manage and deliver the Activity Plan with responsibility for all learning, community and volunteering elements, as well as input into the Interpretation Scheme for the ‘Our Tower’ Project, ensuring all outputs are completed on time and on budget with evaluation completed in line with the evaluation framework.

Key responsibilities

The following is not an exhaustive list but is to give an idea of the scope of the role. In addition, the post holder may be required to undertake other duties and responsibilities compatible with the overall scope of the post.

• Managing the Activity Plan timetable to ensure all activities are planned, completed and evaluated on time with digital content for PR and marketing provided as needed.
• Overseeing the Activity Plan budget (excluding the interpretation budget – this will be managed by the Interpretation Designer) and providing regular update reports to the Project Co-Ordinator
• Securing future funding to develop project legacy
• Overseeing all activities and providing regular update reports to the Project Co-Ordinator
• Managing partnerships as detailed in the Activity Plan
• Collaborating with the BPT Learning & Engagement Officer to ensure a joined up approach across BPT engagement activity
• Participating in Interpretation Design Meetings and delivering all learning, community and volunteering elements, including resources
• Supporting the Evaluation Officer in data collection
• Attending regular update meetings with the Project Co-Ordinator
• Liaising with the BPT Marketing & Communications Officer to ensure all activities are well publicised and communicated externally.

Person specification

Essential

• Pro-active self-starter
• Qualified Teacher Status and experience of teaching and/or qualification and experience in related discipline (e.g. MA in Museum Studies / Museum Education)
• Proven experience in delivering education, community engagement and volunteer activities and coordinating projects on time and on budget
• Proven experience of producing learning resources informed by core Interpretation
• Strong planning and time management skills – ability to set up and manage a schedule of activities across the year
• Computer literate in Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Outlook
• Confidence in using written word
• Effective communicator with confidence to build relationships collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders including local schools
• Excellent social skills and team player
• Willingness to be DBS checked

Desirable

• Experience of line management of staff and/or volunteers
• Interest in historic houses, architectural history or conservation
• Experience of running co-produced projects
• Experience of submitting successful grant and funding applications

To apply

See the full details on the Bath Preservation Trust website>>

Please complete the BPT Application Form and BPT Equal Opportunities Form (the latter is not mandatory) and send to recruitment@bptrust.org.uk

Applications close on Sunday 18 April, with interviews to follow in early May.

Bath Preservation Trust is committed to diversifying our audiences and workforce in line with the priorities of our organisation. We actively encourage applications from candidates from groups under-represented in our organisation including; Black and minority ethnic people and Disabled people.