Role Purpose and Overview

Joining the team at Youth STEM 2030 as a Youth STEM Matters Programme Officer is an exciting opportunity to develop the programmes we create for young people through Youth STEM Matters, our youth-led scientific journal.  This role will focus primarily on increasing the journal’s long-term sustainability and impact.  This includes forging and leveraging partnerships with other organisations, and building the Youth STEM Matters Team’s capacity through skills development and community development, during a time of change within this project.  Ultimately, this role will give more young people a platform to share their STEM-based research, ideas and innovations which tackle the world’s biggest challenges, such as climate change, poverty and inequalities.  

As a Youth STEM Matters Programme Officer, you’ll play a key role in increasing the reach and impact of our programmes, forging partnerships with other organisations, and providing support to the 60+ young people around the world who form the Youth STEM Matters Team to enable Youth STEM Matters to be an impactful and accessible platform for youth.  We’re looking for someone who is proactive, can effectively build relationships with a range of corporate, non-profit and educational stakeholders, as well as diverse young people, and can bring a community-focussed approach within the Youth STEM Matters Team to create a self-sustaining positive community.  

We're not expecting applicants to know everything from day one, and mentoring, guidance and personal development opportunities will be provided within the role.  Through this role, you’ll develop your project management skills through developing skills development programmes, as well as your facilitation skills to deliver these (mainly asynchronously).  Through developing and maintaining partnerships to increase our impact, you will grow your network within the STEM sector, including STEM education and STEM industry.  You will grow as a leader through playing a key role in our community development, while empowering others within the Youth STEM Matters Team to step forward as leaders within the community.

Working at Youth STEM 2030

We’re a global youth-led social enterprise on a mission to empower youth globally to use science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) to tackle the world’s biggest challenges, such as climate change, poverty and inequalities.

By joining the Youth STEM 2030 Team, you’ll get to…

• Work with an incredible group of young researchers, innovators and changemakers, from over 80 countries and across 6 continents!

• Make a real impact - we’re a small social enterprise, so you’ll really see the difference you’re making.

• Develop your skills in a supportive and welcoming environment, where it’s okay to experiment, fail and learn by doing.

• Take advantage of a range of training opportunities, tailored to your individual development needs, to enhance and expand your skillset.

• Collaborate with a range of stakeholders, including corporates, other non-profit organisations and young people around the world!

Youth STEM 2030 is committed to building and developing a workforce that reflects the diversity of the young people we support, and we work proactively to ensure all job applications are treated fairly, with respect and without bias.  We actively encourage applications from candidates who identify as being part of one or more marginalised groups, and seek to create an environment where each individual is supported to thrive and bring their whole selves to our team.

Key Responsibilities

This is a varied role, where you’ll provide support to a diverse team of youth volunteers, build impactful and inclusive programmes for young researchers, innovators and changemakers, and build partnerships to increase Youth STEM 2030’s impact.  As a Youth STEM Matters Programme Officer, you will:

Elevate Young People’s Voices:

• All of our work is designed for youth, by the young people we work with.  Across your role, you’ll ensure their views and voices have shaped the work you do, whether the content of skills development sessions, selection of advisors, or creation of key resources for the journal

• Support groups of young people to share their views and put their ideas into action to advance Youth STEM 2030’s mission

• Work proactively to ensure global representation, and that all Youth STEM Matters activities and outputs are inclusive and accessible to our diverse community of youth

Youth STEM Matters Team Support & Development: 

• Work collaboratively to develop a new Skills Development Programme for new members of the Youth STEM Matters Team

• Organise a programme of monthly Skills Development sessions for all Youth STEM Matters Team members, covering the next 8 months

• Support the Youth STEM Matters Executive Team to coordinate the work of our volunteers, ensuring they are clearly guided, supported, motivated and impactful

• Provide support to individual volunteers, to ensure they can play a full and active role in the Youth STEM Matters Team, enabling them to take action that progresses the journal’s mission

Contribute to Programme Growth and Development: 

• Create and develop resources and guidance documents to support volunteer engagement, including documenting key processes, learnings and training resources, to increase efficiency and maintain quality, ensuring the long-term success of the journal

• Provide support to other Youth STEM 2030 staff in funding applications or pitches to help secure the long-term financial sustainability of Youth STEM Matters

• Assist in identifying, contacting and creating partnerships with companies, institutions and organisations who share our values to support Youth STEM Matters as sponsors

Community Development:

• Plan, develop and deliver Youth STEM Matters Journal Development Days in April 2022 and July 2022 to bring together the Youth STEM Matters Team, develop their skills and develop the journal as a whole

• Initiate and lead whole-team projects, which bring together team members from across the team to work on short time-bound projects which have tangible results

Coordination of International Advisory Group:

• In collaboration with the Youth STEM Matters Team, coordinate International Advisory Group (IAG) membership, as a diverse and global group of STEM, SDG and publishing professionals, including advertisement and selection of new IAG members in February 2023

• Provide IAG members with regular updates, including on the journal’s progress, dates of next meetings, requests for support and the impact they are helping us create

• Coordinate the schedule of IAG meetings, and create and share agendas and minutes

Other Duties:

• Keep the Youth STEM Matters pages of our website updated (no coding experience required), and oversee the online publication of Youth STEM Matters articles

• Onboarding and offboarding of Youth STEM Matters volunteers

• Represent Youth STEM 2030 at events (predominantly virtually)

• Other duties, as required, to increase the impact and reach of Youth STEM Matters.

Person Specification

You’ll excel in this role if you are passionate about empowering and supporting young people, and building inclusive and impactful programmes! You will enjoy working as part of a diverse team of youth, and be passionate about giving young people a platform to share their STEM research, ideas and innovations, taking action to tackle the world’s biggest challenges through STEM.  We are looking for someone who is eager to get stuck in and is able to bring their own ideas to the team.  Above all, you should be a proactive team player, who is ready to learn and extremely self-motivated.  

Essential Skills, Attributes and Experience:

Our ideal candidate is/can…

• Able to take a proactive approach, with an ability to work on your own initiative, problem-solve to find solutions to challenges and share your creative new ideas.

• Keen to learn and continuously improve.  A lot of the work we do as an organisation involves ‘learning by doing’, so the successful applicant will have a positive attitude towards working on a range of projects and tasks, and receiving constructive feedback.

• Have excellent organisational skills with the ability to plan projects to achieve a goal, manage your time and workload effectively, and handle competing priorities.

• Are good at working and communicating transparently and able to communicate effectively in English with a wide range of people; you can support a diverse group of young people and effectively build relationships with partners.

• Committed to working proactively to ensure global representation, and that all our activities and outputs are inclusive and accessible, across everything you do.

• Have previous experience in working collaboratively (ideally with other young people) to make change, and able to apply this experience to provide effective project management and deliver high quality programmes for diverse youth.

• Previous experience in one or more of the following areas: doing STEM-based projects (scientific research or invention/innovation), science communication, STEM education/outreach, experience within scientific publishing, experience relating to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

• Able to take an impact-driven approach towards achieving our mission, and understands the bigger picture of how our programme design, the community we build and young people’s experiences as part of our programmes can impact different stakeholder groups.

• Show commitment to Youth STEM 2030’s mission and values, with a passion for empowering young people to drive change.

Desirable Skills, Attributes and Experience:

Any experience in the following areas would be of added benefit to your application, but this is not essential (and we encourage your application even if you do not have experience in any of these):

• Working with young people, and meaningfully elevating their voices.

• Effectively supporting and managing diverse groups of volunteers.

• Collaborating with partner organisations effectively, and creating partnerships between organisations.

• Building inclusive, engaged and meaningful communities in youth-led or youth-focussed organisations, campaigns or groups. 

• Proficiency in either French or Spanish.

Other Essential Criteria:

Youth STEM 2030 is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all; this is a responsibility that is shared by all members of staff.  Since this role involves working with children and young people, the successful candidate will be appointed on the condition of becoming a member of the PVG (Protecting Vulnerable Groups) scheme.  Youth STEM 2030 will pay for and administrate this.