Almond Valley Heritage Trust is a charity with a mission to promote, celebrate and preserve the extraordinary heritage and environment of West Lothian for future generations. The Trust operate the Almond Valley Heritage Centre; a popular visitor attraction and rare breeds farm based in the historic setting of Livingston Mill, and the museum of the Scottish Shale Oil Industry. The museum is recognised as being of national importance to Scotland, whilst the farm benefits from accreditation from the Rare Breeds Survival Trust for our vital work to conserve and protect rare breeds including Clydesdale horses, Tamworth pigs, North Ronaldsay sheep & Bagot goats.

Almond Valley is a staple attraction for intergenerational family audiences throughout Central Scotland and beyond, welcoming over 130,000 visitors per year. This is an exciting period for the Trust, as we look towards deepening engagement in heritage and conservation through the expansion of our events and learning & engagement programme. We have big ambitions to enrich our visitor experience through the provision of a first class, creative learning & events programme, considering fresh perspectives on our collections and heritage and exploring forward facing narratives that inspire positive action in the area of climate change.

Working cross-sector, in collaboration, we aim to foster a spirit of discovery, to explore and champion our human potential, past, present and future, building a shared understanding of the value of our heritage and inspiring the next generation of history makers.

Role of the Learning & Engagement Manager

This is a new role, reflecting our ambitions to further amplify our work in the area of public and school learning and engagement and presents an opportunity for an ambitious L&E practitioner to play a lead role in shaping our work in this area.

Building upon our success to date, the Learning & Engagement Manager will work with internal and external stakeholders to create and implement a dynamic, highly innovative and imaginative STEAM based events and learning programme aimed at visitors and our growing network of schools who regularly frequent Almond Valley Heritage Centre.

Harnessing our unique collection, rich natural and cultivated environment and illustration of sustainable and non sustainable sources of energy you will be responsible for conceiving and delivering public facing events aimed at a diverse family visitor base. In addition, you will work in collaboration with schools to enrich our school learning programme, responding to national priorities, which aligns with the Curriculum for Excellence and Learning for Sustainability.

Working across the organisation and harnessing the diverse skill set of our workforce and engaging with artists, scientists, storytellers and community and corporate leaders, you will contribute significantly towards our long term strategy and inspire the imaginators and innovators of the future.

The key responsibilities of the Learning & Engagement Manager will include:

• Lead on the design and implementation of an innovative creative events programme for children and families, bringing to life our collections and wider work of the Almond Valley Heritage Centre
• Develop a long term strategy to engage primary schools, engaging directly with schools and Learning for Sustainability leaders to devise a STEAM programme that responds to the Curriculum for Excellence
• Work across the organisation to develop and maintain high quality learning resources
• Engage artists, science communicators, storytellers and craft makers to further enrich our events and learning offer
• Carry out appropriate outreach activity with community groups to build awareness and engagement with Almond Valley Heritage Trust
• Contribute towards the interpretation and displays within the historic mill and farm buildings, and extending the public use of these spaces
• Work with the Almond Valley workforce to ensure a shared vision of success in this area and a common understanding of our learning & engagement programme
• Implement a longitudinal monitoring and evaluation framework to ensure that we are consistently measuring our performance against agreed outcomes
• Manage expense budgets for the learning and engagement programme
• Cultivate and maintain relationships with educators, scientists, community groups, and artists for the purpose of enriching our programme
• Represent Almond Valley Heritage Trust at annual conferences and other professional meetings as required
• Work with the Director on relevant grant applications or other fundraising, and in relevant matters of the Trust’s public profile
• Support the preparation of event plans, media/press briefings and marketing assets
• Perform other related duties as assigned

Essential Skills

• Minimum of 3 years of recent and progressive designing and delivering integrated creative learning and engagement events/experiences within an arts, culture or heritage setting engaging schools and young audiences and families
• Thorough and current knowledge of national education priorities including Learning for Sustainability and an understanding of theories and practices of learning
• Demonstrable experience of working with schools and communities to facilitate learning and engagement and or co created programmes
• Ability to prepare, monitor and manage budgets
• Knowledge of, and contacts in, the arts, cultural and heritage sector and experience of working collaborative to devise imaginative events and learning experiences
• Experience of supporting safeguarding procedures
• Ability to effectively manage multiple projects concurrently and effectively
• An excellent communicator; having a wonderful way with words, pictures and other media, and a broad digital competency

Desired Skills

• Project management experience and familiarity with project/event management systems
• Experience developing Risk Assessments and Methods Statements for events

Personal Qualities

• The ability to connect with, inspire and meaningfully engage with a broad range of people
• A strong commitment to Equality and Diversity
• A genuine passion for learning and discovery
• Self motivated and responsible able to lead by example and work collaboratively as part of a team
• Resourceful, practical and able to problem solve effectively
• A willingness to embrace new ideas and ways of working

The working pattern for this role is flexible though we anticipate that it will largely be Monday to Friday with occasional weekend and or event work to support our growing engagement ambition. The post will be based at Almond Valley Heritage Centre.

Holiday allocation:

• 32 days per annum including bank holidays

Pension:

• Automatically enrol team members into our workplace pension operated by Royal London

Workforce Benefits:

• Free on site car parking
• Staff Pass provides access to the site for free.
• ASVA Card Access, Team members have access to The Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions card which allows free entry to a huge range of visitor attractions throughout Scotland.
• Discount in the tearoom and gift shop