Mentoring Works- Project Manager (Maternity Cover)

About East London Business Alliance (ELBA)

ELBA is a leading social regeneration charity in east London. Our mission is to develop employee volunteering and employment initiatives to decrease poverty, improve social mobility and increase equality for communities in east London and beyond. We facilitate corporate support from over 100 organisations into our community, education and employment programmes.

With over 35 years of experience enabling successful partnerships between businesses and communities, ELBA engages over 16,000 corporate employees in volunteer programmes annually that support employment, education and community initiatives.

In 2024 the Community Works programme supported over 250 charities and social enterprises through engaging employee volunteers in practical and skills-based volunteering opportunities.

About BIG Alliance

BIG Alliance (Businesses for Islington Giving) delivers business-supported employee volunteer programmes to strengthen links between businesses, community organisations and education institutions across Islington. In doing so, it aims to help address issues of poverty and isolation, which are prevalent across the borough, despite the perception of Islington being an area of high wealth.

Established in 2012, BIG Alliance aims to make community investment easier, more effective and more rewarding for its business members. It is a subsidiary of the East London Business Alliance – a registered charity that has been supporting the social and economic regeneration of east London for 30 years.

About Mentoring Works

ELBA’s Mentoring Works programme has been running since 1996 and has supported thousands of young people across London and beyond. Mentoring Works connects Year 10 and Sixth Form/college students to volunteer business mentors working in the City and Canary Wharf. Mentors and mentees connect regularly for sessions designed to develop the knowledge, skills and qualities needed for future careers.

Sessions explore the Skills Builder framework and key employability competencies but can also be tailored to individual needs. Mentoring Works provides resources, guides mentees in their own decisions and discoveries and promotes networks, opportunities and social mobility.

Purpose of the job

To be responsible for supporting the key aims and deliverables of Mentoring Works. The Mentoring Works Project Manager will need to develop and manage strong relationships with schools and colleges; recruit students and engage and train business volunteers as mentors; design resources; deliver sessions; monitor relationships; support with safeguarding and produce robust impact evaluations for the programme.

You will be required to support other members of the Mentoring Works team and your colleagues as and when required. The post will be managed by the Head of Programmes - Education, with further support and training from the Mentoring Works team.

The post holder will have regular one-to-one support for input and guidance to achieve agreed success indicators and will be subject to annual performance appraisals with mid-year reviews.

Working for ELBA

ELBA has a generous annual leave entitlement that increases with length of service; life assurance; 5% employer pension contribution; BUPA health cash plan; enhanced maternity and paternity pay; an active well-being and equalities programmes led by staff; a varied and busy learning and development schedule; cycle purchase scheme; and an enhanced Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).

Job Description

• Manage relationships with schools, colleges and employers, with particular responsibility for ELBA’s partners
• To promote safety and wellbeing of students at all times, to follow ELBA’s safeguarding policies and have full regard to the policies of the partners engaged in the programme.
• Oversee individual employee volunteer (mentor) and student (mentee) relationships to ensure programme objectives are being met.
• Plan and deliver employee volunteer and student recruitment sessions.
• Deliver training sessions for employee volunteers.
• Match employee volunteers with students in line with targets.
• Lead on development and delivery of group activities to support the Mentoring Works programme and feedback sessions with students.
• Build effective working relationships with ELBA corporate partners engaged with Mentoring Works to promote and enable delivery of projects/activities.
• Where required, support the Head of Programmes - Education with external communications, company and funder reports detailing the progress, impact and evaluation of Mentoring Works delivery.
• Develop programme material and share best practice within ELBA and Mentoring Works.
• Develop internal systems and work on streamlining processes.
• Organise sessions, workshops, events, and feedback forums for mentoring relationships.
• Work as part of the ELBA team to ensure corporate partners and schools receive excellent service.

General

• Use ELBA’S internal systems to maintain records and report progress via our CRM, Salesforce.
• Represent and act as an ELBA ambassador at meetings and functions as required
• Attend and contribute to Mentoring Works and Education team meetings.
• Attend ELBA team meetings, collaborate with colleagues on projects where appropriate and contribute to the development of ELBA.
• Adhere to relevant policies including equal opportunities and health and safety.
• Undertake any other reasonable duties as requested by your line manager.

Person Specification

ELBA’s core competencies define the principles and ethos that are central to the way we seek to operate as an organisation and the way we treat those with whom we come into contact. They inform us what we do and how we do it; we expect every member of staff to commit to creating value for our members and community partners. ELBA’s core competencies are:

• Accountability
• Relationship management
• Thought leadership

In addition the ideal candidate will have

Essential skills and experience

• Excellent project management skills, managing projects from inception through to completion and evaluation.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work effectively with partners across the private, public and voluntary sectors.
• Highly organised, thorough, with an attention for detail and an ability to prioritise work under pressure and deliver success indicators to agreed deadlines.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to articulate messages clearly and concisely in an engaging style, consistent with ELBA’s brand.
• Ability to manage and track multiple projects, often with competing deadlines.
• Effective interpersonal skills including negotiation, persuasion, flexibility and problem solving.
• Experience of developing sustainable and effective partnerships with multiple stakeholders.
• The ability to work across all levels of ELBA’s corporate partners, schools, colleges and local stakeholders.
• Ability to work collaboratively within ELBA to develop and share best practice.
• An understanding and passion for the principles of corporate community investment and employee volunteering.
• An understanding of the principles of safeguarding as it applies to students in education and employee volunteering.

Desirable skills and experience

• Knowledge and experience of corporate community investment.
• Experience of working with and facilitating employee volunteering activities.
• Experience of working with young people and developing educational sessions and materials.
• Experience of programme monitoring, evaluation and impact measurement techniques within education or corporate community investment.

ELBA is proud to represent the diversity of the communities we support. We are an equal opportunities employer and we welcome all applications.

Please note this role is required to have an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. The successful candidate will be required to comply with ELBA's safeguarding policies and any appointment will be subject to satisfactory references as well as DBS.