Job Title: Education Programme Officer

Manager: Children and Young People Programme Manager
Contract: Fixed term (1 year), full-time
Location: Rathmines (Hybrid option – 2 compulsory office days)

The Irish Heart Foundation is Ireland’s national charity dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. Every hour someone in Ireland suffers a stroke and every day hundreds of people are diagnosed with heart conditions. The lives of these people are often cut tragically short. Many are left with disabilities. Almost 9,000 die from heart conditions and stroke every year in Ireland making cardiovascular disease one of the nation’s biggest killers. We work to turn this around – support people to live healthy lives and avoid cardiovascular disease, but also to support people living with heart conditions and stroke.

The Role

The Children and Young People team develops and runs national health promotion programmes for primary and post-primary schools. We codesign programmes and resources to meet the needs of children in Ireland, protecting their future health and empowering them with life skills. Through our programmes we train teachers to deliver best practice programmes in the areas of physical activity, wellbeing, PE and CPR.

The role will require a people-person who can develop health messages for a variety of audiences and stakeholders in an easy to use and exciting way. The role requires a person with practical experience of scaling programmes who can translate research and user needs into accessible programmes for teachers and schools.

Our team currently is over 100 employees and up to 100 volunteers working towards the Foundation’s vision of a future where no hearts are broken by preventable heart disease.

Key Responsibilities

• Working closely with the Children and Young People Programme Manager to provide education expertise and practice across the team’s activities in primary and post-primary settings.
• Use expertise and programme experience to embed health messaging across the current school programming
• To advise on gaps in programmes and explore potential implementation solutions to fill gaps
• With support from the marketing department, develop a marketing package for existing and future programmes, ensuring links to curriculum and teacher needs are included
• Timely development and refinement of easy to use materials for independent use by schools to support current and future school programming at a national level
• Project management of selected activities, as designated by the team manager.
• Develop key relationships and partnerships to support national dissemination of programming at scale.
• Utilise existing relationships in schools for user testing of scalable elements.
• Develop exemplars and case studies from school projects to highlight ongoing work.
• Develop teacher CPD to support delivery at scale.
• Review up to date guidelines and research to translate to programmes.
• Provide expert guidance on national curriculum consultations.
• Create reports for internal and external use evaluating programme impact and opportunities for development.

Skills and Experience Required

Education

• A relevant third level qualification. This role could suit candidates from many professional backgrounds, including but not limited to, health, education and training, youth work or social science.
  And
• Minimum 2 years demonstrable relevant practical experience.

Skills

• Experience of developing and delivering training including workshop facilitation skills.
• Proven knowledge and experience of working in an educational setting, ideally experience working in disadvantaged communities.
• Highly perceptive with honed ability to distil and apply data points from multiple sources.
• A creative mindset using an iterative ‘test and learn’ and user-centred approach to programme development and scaling.
• A self-motivated person with strong administration and time management skills with an ability to take ownership, project managing and prioritising workload, planning and working to multiple deadlines in a demanding, dynamic environment.
• Excellent communication skills – verbal and written with ability to quickly develop rapport with all stakeholders. Fluent in both written and spoken English.
• An understanding of health promotion and health literacy concepts and practice.
• Ability to refine project based on quality improvement cycle and evaluations.
• Experience working directly with children, young people or families.
• Strong skills in CANVA design or similar and PowerPoint essential.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Understanding and knowledge of health inequalities or community development.
• Experience of working on curriculum-based programmes and education frameworks is desirable.
• Digital proficiency including MS Office Suite and CRM database. Ability to bring digitally innovative approaches to your field.
• Ability to represent the Irish Heart Foundation in a professional manner at all times.
• Full clean driving licence and access to car is essential.

Benefits of working with Irish Heart Foundation:

Flexible working with our hybrid working model, our team enjoy more flexibility working from home and our Head office location in Rathmines (2 days per week office based on Mondays and Thursdays) or more if you prefer!

We provide benefits to help you protect your health and financial security; and give you peace of mind.

• Pension scheme with employer contributions, from day 1 of service
• Life assurance of 4 times base salary with immediate effect
• Income continuance/disability benefit, at no cost to you from day 1 of service
• Paid Maternity leave
• Company sick pay
• Generous annual leave policy including additional company days
• Bike to Work Scheme, Travel Saver Tickets, Excellent public transport links
• Employee Assistance Programme
• A wonderful office we are proud of with excellent working, kitchen and changing facilities
• Events organised by social club and Health and Well-being Committee
• CPR Training for all employees
• Ongoing Training and Development initiatives to help you grow your career with us

Details of Role and Application process

This is a fixed-term contract of one year, full-time.

To apply please provide an up-to-date curriculum vitae and cover letter outlining how you suit the post by email to Klara O’Malley, HR Manager. Email: hr@irishheart.ie

The closing date for this position is COB Friday 1st of November 2024

The Irish Heart Foundation is an equal opportunities employer.
The Irish Heart Foundation has a strict no smoking policy.