Overview

Job Purpose: To provide education support to a portfolio of projects
Contract Type: Full time
Duration: 2 years
Location: BGCI Offices, Kew, London (with option for hybrid working)
Remuneration: £27,500

Position Summary

BGCI is looking for an enthusiastic and experienced Education and Training Officer to join our team. This role will particularly focus on providing education and engagement support to three new BGCI projects taking place in Uganda, Malawi and Vietnam. This will be a coordination role, supporting in country teams and working with the wider partnership (including the BGCI project manager for each project). The role will also include some training content development using our online learning platform.

About BGCI

There are an estimated 2,500 botanic gardens and arboreta in the world attracting 750 million visitors each year. Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) is at the centre of this network. Our members include the largest, most renowned gardens on the planet – Kew, New York, Missouri, Singapore, Sydney and Shanghai –and they also include many smaller gardens situated in the world’s plant diversity hotspots. All of these member gardens share a commitment to making sure that no plant species becomes extinct, and they have a combined workforce of many thousands of horticulturalists and scientists working towards that end.

BGCI provides support to its members in many different ways: we are an advocate for the botanic garden community, promoting the role of botanic gardens in plant conservation policy, practice and education; we connect people, co-ordinating efforts and bringing people together to exchange ideas; we are a knowledge hub, providing training, learning resources and professional support; and we provide funding and technical support to efforts aimed at saving plants.

Central to BGCI’s role in advocating for the botanic garden community is our efforts to communicate about the important conservation work being carried out by BGCI, our members, and our partners. We recently launched a landmark report, ‘State of the World’s Trees’, documenting the conservation status of the world’s 60,000 tree species. This report indicated that 30% of the world’s tree species are at risk of extinction.

Detailed Position Description

The key roles of the post are as follows:

Uganda – Project: Understanding Ugandan native plant species’ role in innovative sustainable landscapes

  • Act as the education contact at BGCI liaising with the BGCI Conservation Project Manager and relevant partners in the project
  • To organise and chair regular meetings with the project’s education consortium
  • To input into the development of co-creation and interpretation training for project partners
  • To coordinate and support the development of education project activities (co-creation workshops, development of interpretation materials at two botanic gardens)

Malawi – Project: Improving community sustainable natural resource management of Mount Mulanje

  • Act as the education contact at BGCI liaising with the BGCI Conservation Project Manager and relevant partners in the project
  • To organise and chair regular meetings with the in country engagement officer
  • To coordinate and support the development of awareness raising activities – the project aims to raise awareness of the project’s activities with 75,000 households
  • To support planned evaluation surveys of households to assess changes in awareness

Vietnam – Project: People, Primates, Plants: co-managing biodiversity and improving livelihoods in Vietnam

  • Act as the education contact at BGCI liaising with the BGCI’s Southeast Asia Botanic Gardens Network Coordinator and relevant partners in the project
  • To organise and chair regular meetings with the education team
  • To coordinate and support the development of public engagement campaigns aimed to reach 10,000 people

Other tasks

  • Supporting the Head of Education and Vocational Training on the development of new courses for BGCI’s online learning platform including creation of a seed conservation module
  • Supporting the delivery of BGCI’s regular webinar series
  • Inputting into other education projects and activities as required

Person Specification

BGCI is seeking to appoint a person with excellent organisational, project management and communication skills. Candidates for this post will have a proven track record with public engagement in the conservation/environmental/heritage sector. The post holder will demonstrate sensitivity to complex, multicultural and multinational institutions and structures.

Education and Experience

Essential

  • A degree level qualification in science communication, environmental/museum education or another relevant discipline (or the relevant experience)
  • At least 2 years’ experience working in public engagement
  • Experience in coordinating multi-partner projects
  • Perfect mastery of English, both oral and written combined with excellent presentational abilities

Desirable

  • Experience of working for a not for profit organisation
  • Experience of working with international partners
  • Experience working in or with developing countries
  • Experience in using Moodle based online learning platforms

Skills and competencies

Essential

  • Proven track record of delivering learning programmes in the conservation/environmental/heritage sector
  • Knowledge of engagement approaches and methodologies
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Ability to work independently

Desirable

  • Command of additional languages
  • Knowledge of co-creation
  • Evaluation skills related to public engagement activities in the environmental/conservation/heritage sectors

Application Process

Interested applicants should submit a CV and a cover letter of two pages maximum, explaining the candidate’s motivation and providing concrete evidence of why they are suitable for the position.

Please send your CV and cover letter to info@bgci.org

Closing date: Sunday 2nd October 2022.

BGCI is committed to putting equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our organisation. We are committed to ensuring a working environment in which all individuals are free from discrimination and in which opportunities are equal to all. We encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly those underrepresented within our sector.