Outreach & Engagement Manager (Maternity Cover)

The vacancy

*This is 12 month Fixed term maternity cover contract*

Job purpose

As part of the communications team, reporting to the Events Manager, you will manage the College’s outreach and engagement activities with a particular focus on building engagement with veterinary and veterinary nursing students, new veterinary graduates, and recently qualified veterinary nurses. We will also need you to develop and lead on a programme of outreach and widening participation to raise awareness of careers in the veterinary professions amongst school pupils from all backgrounds.

Key responsibilities

There are three key areas of responsibility for this role:

1. Student and new graduate engagement

• Develop, implement and manage a programme of engagement activities for vet and vet nurse students that help to create and maintain positive relations with the RCVS from the earliest opportunity.
• Attend careers fairs at vet schools and VN providers across the country to represent RCVS.
• Build and maintain networks and work collaboratively with relevant veterinary schools and vet nurse colleges to develop learning material for students to help them understand the College’s expectations and activities. This includes ensuring new student focused web pages are up to date and relevant.
• Develop and manage a network of RCVS student champions/ambassadors with whom we can exchange ideas, information and feedback about both RCVS and student activities and expectations.
• Build a programme of student related events to support engagement with the RCVS and manage regular direct communications to students to raise awareness of our activities.
• Support the Education and Veterinary Nursing teams with any projects that help to support and engage with vet and vet nurses’ students, as appropriate.

2. Outreach and widening participation.

• With the support of the Communications, Education and Veterinary Nursing teams, curate and maintain relevant and up-to-date content about vet and vet nursing careers.
• Explore opportunities to collaborate with appropriate stakeholder organisations on a programme of outreach and widening participation to increase awareness of veterinary careers amongst school pupils of all backgrounds.
• Through our new student ambassador network, devise and manage a national programme of school outreach activities.
• Facilitate RCVS/VN Councils Members and RCVS Fellows in becoming STEM Ambassadors to support our goal of raising awareness of veterinary careers.

3. Wider engagement activities.

• Support the Events team with broader engagement activities that focus on the wider professions, as appropriate.

Essential Criteria

Qualifications

• Further qualifications in member engagement, outreach programmes or project management would be an advantage.

Required skills, knowledge and experience

We need you to have…

• Demonstrable experience in stakeholder engagement and outreach.
• Experience of volunteer management
• Experience of planning and managing (student-focussed) events
• Excellent project management and time management skills, with proven ability to multi-task and meet multiple competing deadlines.
• Good writing skills with a keen eye for engaging content.
• Ability to communicate with internal and external colleagues and partners at all levels.
• Willingness to represent the College appropriately and professionally in all situations.
• Patience, perseverance, sound judgement, and willingness to work as part of a team.
• Understanding of safeguarding policies around young people, providing support and training for those operating within these policies.

Desired skills, knowledge and experience

We would like you to have…

• Experience of working in a not-for-profit, membership or regulatory organisation.
• Experience of working in a student-focussed organisation.
• Experience in a widening participation/ outreach or skills-based role, delivering programmes for young people and specifically those from underrepresented groups.
• Experience developing risk assessments for activities involving young people.

Interview dates:

Week of 13 October 2025 (1st round - online)

Week of 20 October 2025 (2nd round – in-person)