Location: Place2Be Core Hub (Angel/Islington, London)
Responsible to: Fatema Miah, Training Programme Coordinator
Role duration:1-2 days a week, for a minimum of 2 months
Salary: Unpaid volunteer role
Introduction
Place2Be is the leading UK provider of school-based counselling services, working in over 170 schools and reaching 64,000 children, their parents and carers. Whether they are facing bereavement, family breakdown, domestic violence, trauma, or bullying, Place2Be helps children to grow up with prospects rather than problems.
As part of our mission, Place2Be provides specialist training and university-validated professional qualifications to those who work clinically with children and we arecommitted to training a diverse workforce.We offer a broad range of qualifications from an initial Access course to a 3 year Masters.
Traditionally the field of counselling, especially children’s counselling, attracts a predominantly female workforce. There is much work to be done to address the gender balance in the field generally and for Place2Be especially, as we would like the diversity of those training as children’s counsellors to represent the demographic of populations they will work with.Included in this is a desire to increase representation from BME groups on Place2Be professional qualification courses.
We are looking for aResearch and Marketing Volunteer to undertake research into what barriers may prevent individuals from under-representedgroups enrolling onto our professional qualification courses and to suggest strategies to address any obstacles identified.
Responsibilities
The Research and Marketing Volunteer will have responsibility for:
- Qualitative research with current and past Place2Be professional qualifications students to better understand their reasons for studying with us and, if relevant, why they didn’t progress their studies with us
- Market research into other counselling course providers to provide a comparison with Place2Be ofstudent diversity
- An audit of current Place2Be professional qualifications marketing materials to evaluate how well they appeal to differentgroups – including men and BME groups
- Additional research to understand motivations, needs and communication channels for those from under-represented backgrounds contemplating children’s counselling training
- Presenting recommendations as to how Place2Be can improve student diversityacross the breadth of our professional qualifications courses
Person Specification
- Experience of conducting and analysing research
- Experience of marketing and/ or communications work – including designing publicity material and selecting marketing audiences
- Interest in developing a better understanding of issues of diversity and representation
- Confident with IT packages
- Clear communicator
- Ability to work independently on tasks as well as part of a team and able to ask for support when required
Benefits and Support Provided
- The opportunity to gain experience in a research and marketing role at an innovative UK charity
- Insight into practices within the children and families’ mental health sector
- A chance to build professional skills in a dynamic working environment
- Ongoing supervisionand learning opportunities - including half-day Training for Non-Clinicians and Being is Believing school events[1]
“I had no experience of a “behind-the-scenes” role before volunteering with Place2Be. Understanding how an organisation like this operates has been an incredible experience, as has working alongside a team who are so dedicated and passionate” – Fundraising Research Volunteer, summer 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in part or entirely,
without written permission of the Chief Executive except when stated. © The Place2Be
Registered office address: The Place2Be, 13/14 Angel Gate, 326 City Road, LondonEC1V 2PT Tel: 020 7923 5500.
Registered charity number 1040756 (England and Wales) SC038649 (Scotland). Registered Company number 2876150.
[1] These events run throughout the calendar year and so volunteers would be welcome to attend if one is scheduled during their placement