Enterprise Practitioner

Location: London, Surrey, Berkshire, West Midlands, North West or Yorkshire

Length of role: From 3 days up to 36 days, plus up to 1.5 days of training

Payment: £288 per 3 day role

Dates: June to August 2016

Residential Requirements: Non-Residential

Enterprise Practitioners support up to twelve young people during the NCS Team Challenge, helping them to learn skills which enable them to interact with the local community. We are looking for passionate individuals with previous experience of facilitating enterprise or event planning groups and an interest in working with young people. Successful candidates should be ready for a demanding but rewarding role as part of an intensive summer programme, and will engage their team with their community partner as much as with the skill they are learning.

The Enterprise Practitioner is responsible for leading three day sessions teaching enterprise skills to a team of up to twelve 15 – 17 year olds. The Practitioner also leads two visits to a local community group (including care homes, youth clubs and homeless centres) so that the young people can use the skills they have learnt to interact with the people that they meet. Finally, the Practitioner works with the young people to design and deliver a showcase performance.

The role involves:

Working with a different team of young people of varying experience and motivation each week in delivering enterprise based activities and helping them plan an event to deliver for a community partner.

Motivating and encouraging the team of up to twelve young people to engage with their community group.

Working collaboratively with each team’s Senior Mentor to support and inspire young people.

Working with the young people to design and deliver a showcase performance about the team’s experiences with their community partner and on the programme.

About the Organisation and the NCS Programme

The Challenge is a fast-growing social enterprise that connects and inspires people across Britain to strengthen their communities. We work on a local level to bring together people from all ages, ethnicities and walks of life, connecting communities and building trust.

We are a major provider of the government’s National Citizen Service (NCS), a life-changing experience for 15-17 year-olds. In summer 2016, 42,000 young people across our regions will take part in our eighteen day intensive NCS programme. The scheme is available to young people from all backgrounds who get the chance to do outdoor activities, meet new people and give something back to their communities. By taking part they learn new skills and have a great experience they can put on their CVs or college applications. They achieve this by completing three challenges:

NCS Personal Challenge: Between four and seven socially mixed teams of young people bond through a week of challenging outdoor activities.

NCS Team Challenge: Teams return to their local area and learn skills in either Drama, Media, Photography, Enterprise, Music, Art or Sport. They use these skills to interact with the community and create a showcase performance for friends and family.

NCS Real Challenge: Teams work to design and deliver a campaign and social action projects that will bring the local community together. In order to gain funding and advice on their projects, the young people pitch to a ‘Dragons Den’ style panel of influential people in their community.
All young people who complete our NCS programme graduate and are signposted into year-round social action opportunities through The Challenge Society.

Our Seasonal Staff Expectations

Experience of working with young people. A belief in their potential and the ability to build rapport with them.

Energy and enthusiasm to enable young people to use their skills to learn from their community.

A willingness to take responsibility for delivering a challenging and safe experience for participants

Flexible with a creative and constructive approach to solving problems.

Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues to achieve successful and constructive results

We expect all staff to act as role models to our young people. In addition to the above this includes being organised, proactive, reliable and to be able to get to places on time.

Role Requirements

Candidates must demonstrate the following skills and characteristics:

Essential:

Experience of facilitation and leading enterprise or event planning based sessions

Experience of working with young people. A belief in their potential and the ability to build rapport with them

Enthusiastic about motivating young people to use their skills to interact with their community

Ability to interpret the enterprise curriculum creatively to involve all young people

Flexible, with a creative and constructive approach to problem solving

Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues to achieve successful results

A willingness to take responsibility for delivering a challenging and safe experience for participants

Beneficial:

Experience of using enterprise or planning events in a community environment, e.g. with charities, schools or youth groups

Experience of working with diverse community groups

Experience of tailoring sessions to make them inclusive to the needs of all young people

We also look for all employees to show the following characteristics:

Trust-building: Works hard to build trust with people. Brings together different groups of people.

Responsibility-taking: Takes responsibility for actions and attitudes. Claims and solves problems in the community.

Understanding and Empathy: Works to understand others – their strengths, fears and needs. Ready to stand up for someone who is different.
Willingness to be prepared to lead by example and encourage others to do the same.

Additional Support Needs

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applications from a diverse range of people, including those with disabilities. We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to ensure that successful candidates are able to undertake the role that they are offered. You will be asked to tell us about any additional support needs at the post assessment stage but we encourage candidates to get in touch with any concerns or questions they may have either before or during the application process by emailing Sherry or Matthew.