The British Educational Research Association (BERA) has a new opportunity available for an Events Coordinator to join our team. The BERA Office operates on a flexible working arrangement with some core days in the office (currently based at UCL IOE in Bloomsbury) required of all staff but flexibility is a central part of our offer. In return you will receive a competitive salary of £27,000-£38,500 per annum.

Main purpose of the Events Coordinator role:

The main purpose of the job is to be responsible for the organisation, marketing and successful delivery of events for BERA throughout the year, including those of BERA’s Special Interest Groups (SIGs), initiatives, partners and external stakeholders. The majority of these events are currently being held virtually, but we are gradually reintroducing in person events as well.

The post holder will work primarily with the Conference and Events Manager, and Membership & Engagement Manager, in tandem with other members of staff both within the immediate office and across BERA’s professional networks. You will advance BERA’s strategic priorities, by:

Delivering all facets of our events programme throughout the year
Supporting the delivery of the annual conference
Working with senior colleagues to support the activities of our networks, communities and other groups
Working with colleagues to promote events and create event materials and post-event content.

This position reports to BERA’s Conference and Events Manager.

The BERA Office and Benefits:

BERA has a small central office, designed to manage the day-to-day business of the Association. Its work is overseen by a Chief Executive appointed by Council, who is responsible for, and has oversight of, all BERA’s functions and activities. Our staffing structure can be seen alongside this specification.

We offer a generous set of terms and conditions, including 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays and additional office closure days. We also offer a 10% employers’ pension contribution and employee assistance programme, as well as training and development opportunities. We are in the process of enhancing all our terms and conditions and the post holder will be invited to transfer into these once finalised.

All roles are externally evaluated before being graded. BERA roles are rated against a competency framework which can be found alongside the details for this role. There are 4 primary grades within our structure with 4 being the most senior. This role is a Grade 2.

As our Events Coordinator you will need the following skills and experience:

Proven event or project management and administrative skills with experience of planning reputational projects, and the ability to develop and maintain an overview of a complex workload
Excellent communication skills, both written and oral, including the communication of complex information, and the capacity to negotiate at all levels of an organisation, both within BERA and externally
Excellent IT skills and computer literacy and familiarity with the Microsoft suite of software to intermediate level in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Email, Outlook, and the internet
Proven experience of supporting conferences and events (ideally academic), including abstract submission
Experience of working with virtual event platforms
Experience of maintaining websites, and of using related technologies (we use WordPress)
Experience of direct delegate, supplier and customer interaction
Experience of working successfully on multiple projects or events at the same time
The desire to work as part of a team, with a commitment to be collaborative, flexible, inclusive and supportive of colleagues
Excellent record keeping skills, a high degree of accuracy in your work and proven ability to pay close attention to detail

The following skills and experience are also desirable:

Highly numerate with experience of financial administration, including the ability to monitor and review budgetary expenditure
An understanding of the higher education or research environment
A knowledge of appropriate software, CRM (we use Microsoft Dynamics), Adobe Creative Suite and mass marketing systems (we use Mailchimp)
Experience of working for a membership organisation

About the British Educational Research Association (BERA)

BERA is the largest UK-wide educational research organisation. With almost 2,500 members, it is a member-led organisation dedicated to supporting educational researchers and promoting high-quality research in education. It seeks to enhance the field of study, the growth of public knowledge and critical understanding, and the application of findings for the improvement of educational policy and practice.

If you think you have the correct skills and experience for this Events Coordinator role please apply today!

To apply please send your CV and a covering letter setting out how you meet the requirements within the person specification along with your personal details and our equal opportunities monitoring forms to jobs@bera.ac.uk.

If you have any queries, or would like to discuss the role, contact jobs@bera.ac.uk.