Student Support and Wellbeing Lead

This is a full-time permanent role on Crick terms and conditions of employment, reporting to the Director of Academic Training.

Provisional interview dates: 11-12 October 2022

For any enquiries, please contact: hr@crick.ac.uk

Summary

The Francis Crick Institute’s Academic Training Team (ATT) forms part of the Crick’s HR Directorate. The team is responsible for the management, development and operation of the Crick’s early career researcher training programmes, including the PhD Programme which is run in collaboration with the Crick’s university partners, Imperial College London, King’s College London and UCL. At any one time, we have approximately 200 PhD students, carrying out ambitious biomedical discovery research projects in a dynamic and exciting research environment, supervised by one of our ~120 research group leaders. Students follow a structured 4-year training and development programme to prepare them for science and science-related careers within and beyond academia.

An exciting new opportunity has arisen for a motivated and experienced individual to join the ATT and lead our activities to support the students and supervisors involved in our PhD programme. Carrying out a PhD is inherently challenging, requiring a range of personal and inter-personal skills as well as scientific, technical and professional skills. The new Student Support and Wellbeing Lead will work proactively to develop activities that support our students’ wellbeing, resilience, relationship management and development, and our group leaders’ student supervision skills. Alongside this, they will be responsible for providing individual support to help students with their health, wellbeing, working relationships, and performance, and help group leaders with student supervision, and help both maintain good working relationships. They will report to the Crick’s Director of Academic Training, with strong links to the Student Operations Lead, members of the Learning & Development, Organisational Development and HR Advisory teams, the Health and Wellbeing Manager, and academic and operational staff at our partner universities.

This role would suit candidates with a background in HR employee relations, training and/or development who have an interest in/knowledge of postgraduate education, and candidates from an academic background with an interest in/knowledge of people support, training and development. This is a new role that will provide the successful candidate with the opportunity to shape, develop and implement new activities, resources and approaches, contributing to the delivery of a world class international PhD programme.

Key Responsibilities

The purpose of this role is to support the development and wellbeing of students and supervisors at the Crick, via new training and development activities, 1:1 support and mediation.

These include but are not limited to:

• Develop, deliver and communicate new activities that support and promote student wellbeing, resilience, relationship and PhD management, and group leader supervision skills, working in collaboration with the Crick’s Learning & Development team and our university partners.  
• Act as the key point of contact for students and supervisors seeking advice and support, dealing proactively, sensitively and confidentially with any issues that arise, providing 1:1 advice, facilitation, coaching and/or mediation as appropriate.
• Ensure a good knowledge of Crick and university partner training and development activities to support students and supervisors involved in the PhD programme
• Ensure a good knowledge of Crick and partner university guidelines, procedures, regulations and resources relating to student progress, performance and  support (mental and physical), in order to be able to provide appropriate guidance, including at progression milestones on the PhD pathway.
• Manage and implement processes to gather feedback and monitor uptake and impact of new initiatives.
• Keep abreast of national and international knowledge and initiatives in this area, adapting our own processes and sharing best practice as appropriate.
• Support the wellbeing and supervision of other students at the Crick, including summer, sandwich and visiting students.
• Supporting the ATT in the operation of the Crick’s training programmes as required.

Education, experience and competencies

The post holder should embody and demonstrate our core Crick ways of working: 

• We are BOLD We make space for creative, dynamic and imaginative ideas and approaches and are not afraid to do things differently.
• We are OPEN We are highly collaborative and interactive and make our activities visible to the outside world.
• We are COLLEGIAL We show respect for one another, work cooperatively and support the wider community.

Essential

• Educated to degree level and with significant work experience leading to a good understanding of the requirements and challenges involved in PhD study.

• The ability to support student-supervisor or manager-managee relationships, including mentoring, motivating and coaching.
• Experience of training and development activities that support wellbeing and working relationships.

• Strong interpersonal skills, including cultural awareness and emotional intelligence, enabling the post holder to influence colleagues at all levels.
• Proven ability to work pro-actively and effectively with a high degree of initiative, individually and as part of a team.
• Ability to work within a complex and evolving environment, with a proven record of innovative problem solving.
• Highly pragmatic, flexible and adaptable with an ability to tailor approach to meet contrasting needs and demands.
• Strong planning skills, the ability to prioritize in the face of competing demands, proven success in delivering work personally (and through others) to tight deadlines.
• Good communication skills, both oral and written. Experience assimilating and interpreting procedures and policies, and of drafting and presenting clear and concise reports on complex issues at management level, always with excellent attention to detail.

Desirable

• Educated to PhD level.
• Experience of supporting postgraduate students and supervisors.
• Experience and/or a qualification in coaching or being a Mental Health First Aider.
• Experience of developing and delivering training and development activities that support wellbeing and working relationships.
• Experience of working at a senior level in a dynamic scientific environment and higher education/research setting.
• Experience in a biomedical research environment.