Student Advice & Welfare Coordinator

Student Advice & Welfare Coordinator

The role is a permanent full-time position. It offers an excellent working environment and benefits package including 34 days annual leave, plus bank holidays.

The starting salary for this position will be grade 3.1 - £19,147 with incremental annual increases to grade 4.5 - £24,572. The position offers a supportive working environment and a generous personal development allowance. Full training and supervision will be provided.

The Organisation

Cardiff University Students’ Union (CUSU) has a vision of working with every Cardiff student to enhance their university experience. As a student-led, independent part of the University, CUSU represents over 30,000 students and provides a diverse and inclusive range of activities and services that enrich student life. These include advice, training, skills development, volunteering opportunities, employment and other services that promote inclusion, friendship and personal development. CUSU supports over 200 student societies and 60 sports clubs that boast more than 10,000 members. CUSU is also the recognised voice of students at Cardiff University, joining students in campaigning about the issues important to them.  

Based in Park Place and the Heath Park Campus, CUSU employs over 100 permanent staff and 300 student staff.  CUSU’s trading subsidiary, Cardiff Union Services Limited, manages a purpose built facility in the centre of Cardiff operating cafes, shops, bars, night club and a wide range of events that help fund CUSU’s charitable activities. The organisation holds the 'Gold' standard for Investors in People, and the 'Excellent' accreditation under the National Union of Students Quality standards for Students’ Unions. CUSU aspires to have a positive impact on the wider community in Cardiff and is consistently graded the number one Students’ Union in Wales and in the top five in the UK for student satisfaction.  

Student Advice

This post sits within the Student Advice department, under the direction of the Head of Student Advice. Student Advice provides free, confidential, independent and impartial guidance to students of Cardiff University. The service serves to empower students with objective information to make decisions in their own best interests. Our team accompany and represent students through University disciplinary and regulatory procedures.

In addition, Student Advice works closely with the elected sabbatical officer team and University staff to inform policy creation and bring about positive change to the experience. The department works closely with the Marketing and Communication team to coordinate direct prevention-based welfare campaigns with a view to addressing engrained, systematic or behavioural problems for student welfare.

The team work closely with an enthusiastic and committed team of student volunteers. The department is responsible for the support and development of our six Student Led Services. The service also undertakes other activities and events to promote and support the health and wellbeing of students.

The Role

The holder of this role will be responsible for supporting the welfare of students at Cardiff University. The position has an exciting developmental remit consisting of the following:

Responsibility for the planning and delivery of welfare-based campaigns and activities. The role will ensure the effectiveness of social media platforms, the accuracy of web-content and accessibility of welfare-based communications with students. The role will champion student leadership through the provision of training, supervision and support to over 50 student volunteers and a growing number of welfare-based ‘Student Led Services’.

The provision of independent, confidential and impartial guidance, support and information to the students of Cardiff University. This advice will be delivered through ‘walk-in’ clinics, appointments, telephone and email. The role will occasionally accompany and represent students through formal University procedures. The post holder will also be asked to deliver advice workshops and support outreach events to develop an awareness of rights and responsibilities.

The holder of the role will also be responsible for developing insight and understanding as to the nature of student welfare problems and the challenges faced by the students of Cardiff University. The role holder will be responsible for collating and analysing welfare-based data, through surveys, feedback reports and web-analytics. The post will be responsible for forming policy creation and the guidance of resource allocation through working with the Sabbatical Officer team and the writing of reports. 

Full training and supervision will be provided.

The Person

As the successful candidate, you will be passionate about improving student welfare. You will understand the University experience and will have experience in a dynamic environment that strives for excellence.

You will appreciate the importance of customer service skills and will have experience of working with the general public. You will have exceptional interpersonal skills and will appreciate the importance of working as part of a team. You will be someone your team will look forward to seeing and working with every day.

You will have exceptional ICT skills and be willing to learn new software packages. Social media will be second nature to you and you will have an ability to produce effective and engaging content for a student audience.

You will relish an opportunity to solve problems and enjoy the challenge of getting the most out of resources through effective planning.  You will be comfortable managing multiple deadlines and conflicting priorities and will strive for excellence in everything you commit yourself to.

Most importantly you will be conscientious and ambitious, with a commitment to personal and professional development. You will have initiative, energy and enthusiasm. You will be genuinely excited by the prospect of having a positive impact on student welfare and improving the student experience of 32,000 students.

To obtain further information and to apply for the role, please visit our website

The closing date for this position is Sunday 11^th November 2018.

When applying for vacancies with Cardiff University Students' Union, please complete our online Equal Opportunities Form which can be found on the “Jobs at CUSU” page.

Please note we reserve the right to close this position early. We would urge candidates to submit an application as early as possible.