The British Council builds connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language. We work in two ways – directly with individuals to transform their lives, and with governments and partners to make a bigger difference for the longer term, creating benefit for millions of people all over the world. We help young people to gain the skills, confidence and connections they are looking for to realise their potential and to participate in strong and inclusive communities. We support them to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Our work in arts and culture stimulates creative expression and exchange and nurtures creative enterprise. We connect the best of the UK with the world and the best of the world with the UK. These connections lead to an understanding of each other's strengths and of the challenges and values that we share. This builds trust between people in the UK and other nations which endures even when official relations may be strained. We work on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2019-20 we connected with 80 million people directly and with 791 million overall, including online and through our broadcasts and publications.
Role Purpose:
(i)To support the implementation of the Cultural Relations gender equality strategy; (ii)To support the professional development and learning of the Cultural Engagement team to address gender equality through planning, coordination and delivery of training and supporting the sharing of good practice; (iii) To support the design and implementation projects and programmes that address gender equality by providing advice to business development and delivery teams across Cultural Engagement. and managing an external Associate Advisers. (iv) To work with Marketing teams to ensure high quality content and evidence for internal and external communications of work on gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.
Role Context:
Promoting gender equality is fundamental to delivering our cultural relations work in terms of contributing to the UK’s commitments and leadership in gender equality, delivering effective programmes and meeting our legal obligations. It is also an increasing and often non-negotiable requirement of funders and partners. Cultural Engagement has made a commitment to ensure all programmes make a significant contribution to gender equality by 2025 which will drive a greater focus on gender equality outcomes in our grant-funded work as well as meeting the expectations of our funders and partners.
This role support Cultural Engagement’s contribution to the British Council’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Anti-Racism Action Plan through mainstreaming EDI in our programmes, products and services.
Main Accountabilities:
Strategy & Planning
- Provides high quality analysis of global and UK trends in addressing gender equality and empowerment of women and girls to contribute to the development of the British Council’s strategies and plans.
Relationship and Stakeholder Management & Business Development
- Develops and maintains excellent relationships and communication with internal stakeholders including programme leads, business development leads, Regional EDI leads and the Diversity Unit to build a clear understanding of their needs and experiences, to enable effective advice and tailored support to meet gender equality commitments.
- Builds reputation, relationships and partnerships with key gender equality stakeholders relevant to our programmes and the UK sector
- Contributes to concepts and technical proposals for smaller-scale new business opportunities that focus on or make a significant contribution to gender equality.
Professional Services Expertise
- Supports the development and implementation of systems and processes across Cultural Engagement to monitor and meet our gender equality commitments across all funding streams
- Provides professional advice, guidance and opportunity-development for the scoping, contextual analysis (including gender analysis) design and delivery of smaller-scale transformative programmes that focus on gender equality.
- Provides professional advice, guidance and support to integrate gender perspectives and outcomes for women and girls/gender transformative outcomes into smaller scale programmes.
Sector/subject expertise
- Actively builds knowledge and professional networks to maintain an excellent understanding of relevant developments, stakeholders and opinion formers in the field of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls (in both the UK and internationally), to support the creation of high quality product/project/programme proposals and position the Council as a credible authority in this area.
- Manages and develops information, case studies, track record and capability statements of the British Council’s programmes that contribute to gender equality/empowerment of women and girls across Cultural Engagement to support our narrative, communications with key stakeholders and business development activity
- Organises, design and contributes to activities to share good practice internally on gender equality
- Works with Marketing team to ensure quality content to support external and internal communications including for international events with gender equality themes.
- Manages the development of research and thought leadership materials and represent the British Council externally, to enhance its reputation as a credible authority in gender equality and to promote intercultural understanding/new collaborative opportunities.
- Contributes to the development and delivery of training, support and knowledge-sharing activities to build skills and capability in gender mainstreaming and the empowerment of women and girls across Cultural Engagement (in the UK and overseas).
- Supports the management of networks of associates, consultants and relevant partners to for the British Council’s work in gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
- To actively contribute to an inclusive and anti-racist organisational culture, being aware of your own biases, and taking action to mitigate against these. Ensuring people feel valued and are treated equitably, with support for people’s well-being and mental health.
- Understand the British Council’s approach to equality, diversity and inclusion and how it applies to your role, making time for learning and development relating to EDI and anti-racism.
Leadership & Management
- Sets and oversees delivery of the workplan for a small-medium-sized team of more junior staff (all working in a related area), holding them to account for achieving agreed performance targets that are aligned to wider regional/SBU priorities and goals.
- Actively applies coaching, performance feedback and sickness/absence management techniques to maximise staff productivity and motivation in a high volume/pressurised delivery environment.
- Drives integration of measures to support equality issues within teams and programmes
- Inclusive Leadership and Management: Volunteers and contributes to EDI related initiatives, tasks, events, research and publications. Celebrates cultural diversity. Avoids prejudgment in assessing performance and capability of others. Recognises incidents of inappropriate or non-inclusive behaviour. Seeks to involve others in decision making.
Role specific knowledge and experience
- Knowledge of gender equality issues in the UK and globally and relevant policies and the intersection between gender and other inequalities (Essential)
- Experience of applying knowledge of gender equality issues to research and programme design and delivery (Essential)
- Experience of writing and updating content for internal and external communication purposes eg case studies, track record and capability statements (Essential)
- Understands and promotes ethical conduct, and able to ensure that own behaviour and the behaviour of others is consistent with these standards and values of the British Council including those set out in our EDI priorities (Essential)
- Ability to analyse and address gender equality and other inequalities in programme design and delivery (Essential)
- Experience of delivering capacity building and training activities – specifically on gender equality (Desirable)
Further Information
Pay Band – Pay band 7 / F
Contract Type Indefinite
Salary - £26,934 - £30,354 (Depending on experience)
Location –
Candidates for this role must have a natural right to work in this location and would normally already be based in the location.
The successful candidate would join one of our five main UK offices as their base office (either London, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast).
Requirements –
Candidates are expected to have researched whether they have the right to live and work in the country in which the role is based.
Some travel and out of hours work may be required
Closing Date: 17th April
Interviews: 9th & 10th May
A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.
Equality , Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement
The British Council is committed to policies and practices of equality, diversity and inclusion across everything we do. We support all staff to make sure their behaviour is consistent with this commitment. We want to address under representation and encourage applicants from under-represented groups, in particular, but not exclusively, on grounds of ethnicity and disability. All disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria are guaranteed an interview and we have Disability Confident Employer Status. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.
The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.
We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.
Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.
Please note: Applications to this role can only be considered when made through the Apply section of our careers website. Our ‘ASK HR’ email is only to be used in case of a technical issue encountered when applying through the careers website. Emails with supporting statements and CV/Resumes sent to this email address will not be reviewed and will be deleted.