About Babbasa 

Babbasa is an award-winning, Bristol-based, social enterprise with a vision to create a world where all people are inspired and able to realise their employment and enterprise ambitions, irrespective of where they live, their nationality, ethnicity, gender, race, sexuality or faith. Babbasa realises its mission through its subsidiary enterprises including Babbasa’s Youth Empowerment Programmes and Recruitment & Inclusion Services (BRIS) and our core values of Imagination, Determination and Kindness.

Babbasa supports low income and ethnic minority young people to prepare for the workplace as well as support employers to recruit diverse talent, develop cultural competencies and create inclusive work environments for all to thrive. The direct support for young people includes soft skills training, mentoring, and information and guidance support. The direct support for employers includes Recruitment, Inclusion Advisory Support, Cultural Competency Training, Research, Inclusion Needs Analysis and Onboarding Support. Over the next decade, Babbasa plans to grow its services to both young people and employers to respond to the pressing imperative to overcome the structural barriers to workforce inclusion and associated social inequalities in Bristol and beyond.

Job Purpose

The purpose of the role is to support and empower low income and ethnic minority young people to enhance their success in career development and progression. The post will lead Babbasa’s young people’s Placement Programme which prepares, places and supports participants to progress into their chosen career (through work taster days, work experience, and training opportunities). You will act as a key interface between our aspiring participants and available progression opportunities.

Role Specific Responsibilities

• Work with participants to understand their goals and ambitions; discover their personal barriers; and assess their strengths in line with available opportunities
• Build a trusting relationship (based on Babbasa values) with young people  engaged, to ensure we meet their desired outcome.
• Engage, build trust and maintain effective rapport with the caseload of participants looking to progress their career ambitions.
• Design, manage and facilitate a range of soft skills training modules and interventions focused on CV and cover letter creation,  interview guidance, employability skills, and general career guidance and be responsible for delivering these in 1:1 and group settings, both internally and externally.
• Liaise with Babbasa Team and external partners to provide participants with access to wraparound Specialist Support and other progression opportunities where needed e.g further training, education and self-employment
• Build relationships with city wide voluntary organisations, schools, colleges and local youth agencies to promote Babbasa’s opportunities and generate referrals to the placement programme. 
• Organising and facilitating work taster days with external companies and organisations (called insight days).
• Maintain a database of participants, monitor and evaluate their progress.

General Responsibilities

●  Ensure young peoples’ comments, voices and suggestions are at the heart of service delivery and respond to their needs.

●  Ensure internal administrative tasks and reports are completed in a timely and accurate manner as required by Babbasa and the activity funder.

●  Deliver support, information, and guidance to young people using best practice, referring them to specialist help when required.

Commit to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to achieve and maintain professional standards of your role and area of responsibilities.

●  To attend and take part in all core Babbasa meetings.

Contribute positively as part of a delivery team, as well as part of a wider business team, to deliver business objectives.

Person Specification

Knowledge and Experience - essential 

You build trusting relationships with young people - you have proven experience working with young people aged 15-30 from a wide range of backgrounds. You have a strong sense of professional boundaries and understand how to engage with young people in a way that makes them feel safe, and supported. You have experience delivering information and guidance to young people using best practice including referring to specialist help where needed. You have a strong understanding of the barriers under-represented or marginalised young people might face in realising their aspirations. You understand safeguarding policies and procedures, and are able to assess young people’s needs and challenges, making appropriate referrals where needed.

You’re aligned with our mission - You have lived experience and/or an understanding of the critical issues surrounding equality, inclusion and diversity, including structural issues around race and class, and how they impact young people within the communities that Babbasa serves. You are passionate about securing the best possible opportunities and life outcomes for young people and believe that with the right support, everyone has the potential to achieve.

You can deliver effective employability and progression support - you have experience designing, delivering and evaluating careers, employability, and education interventions for young people aged 15-30 and have delivered these in a variety of formats and settings. You understand the barriers that young people from marginalised and underrepresented backgrounds face when pursuing their aspirations and have developed effective interventions to support young people from these backgrounds toward their chosen outcome. You have good working knowledge of careers information and guidance, as well as pathways to further and higher education and are able to deliver effective support and guidance to young people, referring to specialist support where needed.

Organised - You are well-organised and have good attention to detail. Demonstrating efficient self time management. You have a track-record of balancing multiple tasks and responsibilities. . Effective and efficient – You are constantly reflecting on working practices and improving where necessary.  Able to work to deadlines, take initiative and are proactive in your approach to work. 

You have a good understanding of Service Delivery – You value the ability to deliver excellent customer service experience to make an impact. You have the ability to problem solve in a complex and rapidly changing environment. You have personal resilience and have the ability to stay focused.  You are prepared to work flexibly occasionally including evenings, weekends and other unsocial hours to fulfil the needs of the service. You are consistently finding ways to improve and evaluate services and experiences for people.

Knowledge and experience - nice to have

You are well connected to the youth sector in Bristol - you are connected to and able to draw on a wide range of contacts across education, youth, voluntary, and public sectors to deliver effective interventions and referrals for young people. You are able to build and draw on strong relationships with organisations to facilitate effective interventions to young people who need Babbasa’s support and can work with the Senior Service Lead to identify collaboration projects, mutual referrals, and other opportunities to help Babbasa achieve its organisational goals.  

Skills & Abilities

Essential

• The ability to encourage, motivate and inspire young people.
• Able to provide young people with appropriate information, advice, support and challenge, and refer them to specialist help when required.
• Able to develop and deliver effective employability and progression interventions including 1:1 sessions, workshops, talks, and skills sessions. 
• Able to manage a caseload of young people and offer effective interventions to ensure they meet their desired outcomes.
• Able to monitor and evaluate success across your caseload of young people, projects, workshops, and other information sessions you may deliver.
• Strong team working skills and a willingness to work flexibly including working evening, weekend, and other unsociable hours. 
• Strong communication skills including presenting, facilitation, and relationship building.
• Strong prioritisation and time management skills.
• Ability to work within a strengths-based framework.

Nice to have

• Teaching, youth work, or Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) qualification
• Advanced safeguarding practitioner knowledge or qualification
• Full driving licence and access to a car

Incentives/ Benefits

• Work in an inclusive environment working with a team which prides itself on ensuring staff feel seen, valued and heard.
• Access to an Employee Assistance Programme with a range of support offers available including free counselling.
• We aspire to nurture existing talent at Babbasa and recognise we all have something to bring to the workplace, we are a growing organisation and will work with you to find suitable progression and professional development opportunities.  
• Work for one of the few organisations in the UK honoured with Queen’s Award For Enterprise for Promoting Opportunity.
• Be part of transforming the lives of low-income and ethnic minority young people in Bristol, helping to make Bristol a more inclusive city.
• Have access to flexi and hybrid working arrangements.
• 31 days annual leave including public holidays.
• Access to Employee Assistance Programme and MediCash policy