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