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Policy Manager / Assistant Director, Higher Education

Employer
Public First
Location
London, United Kingdom
Salary
£25,000-£55,000
Closing date
May 11, 2021

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About Public First

Public First is a public policy consultancy who offer solutions to complex policy problems faced by clients. We are a boutique, high end organisation that works in a few distinct areas of specialism and offers unparalleled expertise within these areas.

We are part think tank, part strategic advisory consultancy, part polling company, and part communications and public affairs agency:
  • Policy and research -research and analysis, economic modelling, writing of publications, thought leadership, and strategic counsel on public policy and public affairs issues.
  • Opinion research -accredited British Polling Council opinion pollster, and a wide range of Market Research Society qualitative opinion research methods including focus groups.
  • Communications and campaigns - a full service of campaign work including grass roots campaigning execution for clients, as well as more traditional media and communications support including press releases, op-ed drafting and placement, select committee training and media training, and event / launch management.

Our team comes from the most senior levels of government, the civil service, political campaigns, think thanks, opinion research, and the media.

The education practice

Education is one of the major areas of specialism for Public First. Many of the most senior team at the company - including three Partners Rachel Wolf, James Frayne, Gabriel Milland; Associate Partner Andy Westwood; the Head of Education Practice Jonathan Simons; and other Directors Luke Tryl and Ed Dorrell - have all worked in and around government in education policy for the last fifteen years. Between us, we have worked directly with and for or advised the last four Prime Ministers, seven Education Secretaries, and numerous junior Ministers. Our present and past client list in higher education includes representative bodies and mission groups; government departments; universities themselves; charities and foundations who work in the sector; and new universities and institutions.

The role

We are looking for someone to come and join the education practice with a specialism in HE. We are open to the level of seniority that this role might cover. You may be someone who has spent a couple of years professionally in Higher Education, or in a policy role covering Higher Education such as in government, a think tank, a charity, or a mission group (what we call Policy Managers). Or you may be a more experienced policymaker who has spent several years in one or more of those roles, or similar (what we call Associate Directors).

The role will include some or all of the following key responsibilities:
  • Leading or supporting individual projects and liaison with the client within the education practice with significant day to day autonomy and responsibility for execution and delivery of work. This will include policy writing (internally and for publication), data analysis (via Excel), and meetings and discussions with external stakeholders in Westminster and elsewhere.
  • Providing expertise in higher education. We are knowledge junkies! We want a culture of expertise within the organisation, and to learn from each other about specialist areas.
  • Contributing to broader projects within the practice and across different practices - for example, on a piece of work around child health, or on a campaign or media relations piece of work which will include collaboration with specialists in these areas across Public First.
  • Maintaining client relationships , including ongoing broader support, advice and counsel on developments in Westminster, and politics and policy more broadly.
  • Scoping of and developing future project work and engaging with potential clients . Although this is not a sales role, and there is no 'target', everyone will have scope to develop new areas of policy which they want to work in and have opportunities to engage with new clients.
  • Maintaining and further building strong networks across the education sector in the UK - in government, educational institutions, think tanks and policy organisations, corporations and third sector organisations, media, and others. For more senior staff, we encourage everyone to build and maintain their own profile by speaking at events or writing for publications.
  • Working alongside colleagues who offer specialisms in policy, communications, and campaigns and who will contribute to education projects.


The role will require the following skills and experience:
  • Experience within the higher education field in the UK . The single most important thing we will be looking for is someone who understands UK higher education policy. We are relaxed about where this expertise may have come from, or how many years' experience you have. But we will be looking for someone who - for example - reads, and enjoys reading, Wonkhe on a daily basis! We are unashamed about being wonks ourselves and we want someone similar.
  • Deep familiarity with government, Westminster and policymaking and politics . Successful candidates will need to demonstrate that they understand how government and policymaking works, and can explain the implications of government announcements to clients.
  • Ability to write clearly, incisively and precisely about policy issues - including the ability to translate complex policy topics into language accessible to educated laypeople.
  • Ability to handle quantitative data - Public First employs economists and data modellers but all staff are required to be able to conduct, for example, data analysis functions in Excel up to publishable standard and to be comfortable working with large datasets and raw numbers.
  • The ability to be able to present, verbally, conclusions from our work . This could be to clients (including very senior individuals), or to prospective clients, or to MPs and policymakers, or to an expert education audience. We are looking for someone who is comfortable and enthusiastic about discussing education policy and what it means.


Salary, location, and ways of working

The role is nominally London based (Westminster) but if Covid has taught us anything, it's that we are flexible! Ideally the postholder will be physically present in London for at least a couple of days a week but we are also highly likely to offer home working for a proportion of the week and indeed, client depending, for many contracts and projects for the foreseeable future. Given universities are all across the UK, we are also open to discussions about job holders being permanently based in another part of the country. We particularly welcome applications from disabled and BAME candidates. Unfortunately, we cannot sponsor visas.

Salaries will depend on experience and level of seniority but will range from £25,000-£55,000 depending on seniority of role, with considerable flexibility for the right candidate depending on experience and skill.

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