Designer Initiatives and Membership Assistant

Overview

Job Title: Designer Initiatives and Membership Assistant  

Department: Designer Initiatives and Membership

Reports to: Senior Designer Initiatives and Membership Manager

Location: Hybrid Working – Home and Fora, 33 Broadwick Street, Soho, London W1F 0DQ

Type: Full Time

Start Date: ASAP

Working Hours: 37.5 hours per week

The British Fashion Council (BFC) is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to further the interests of the British fashion industry and its designer businesses by harnessing and sharing collective knowledge, experience, and resources of the sector. Formed in 1983, the BFC is funded by industry patrons, commercial sponsors, and the government including the Mayor of London and the ERDF. It leads the industry through creative influence and is strategically repositioning British fashion in the global fashion economy.

The BFC encourages a culture which empowers, values, nurtures, supports, and rewards its employees and promotes a positive environment with a focus on team collaboration and open communication.

The BFC is committed to being an Equal Opportunities Employer. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. They’re more than just words. We are inclusive. We celebrate and champion multiple approaches and points of view. We believe diversity drives innovation. So together we’re building a culture where difference is valued. Our commitment to inclusion drives us forward every day internally and externally. Everyone is welcome, as an inclusive workplace the BFC encourages our employees to bring their true self to work and we commit to develop your skills and advance your careers in a culture of creativity

BFC VALUES:

• We are forces of change: We challenge ourselves and inspire others to be responsible and take action for positive change
• We are united: We champion diversity and inclusion and work together to deliver our mission to strengthen British Fashion
• We strive for excellence: The designers are at the heart of everything that we do. We are purpose led and make the right choices to deliver excellence
• We are innovative: We are committed to creativity and innovation to deliver growth

About the role:

The Designer Initiatives and Membership Department is looking for an ambitious and highly motivated Assistant to provide administrative support to the department to deliver designer and education program support, events, and initiatives across the year. The Assistant will work with the Designer Initiatives and Membership Team to deliver the BFC’s designer support and education programs of webinars, seminars and workshops, organise initiatives, education and scholarships judging days, the Industry Mentor Hub, Fashion Business Network, National Saturday Clubs, build and maintain existing external relationships, and liaise with the different departments within the BFC to ensure deadlines are met.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Admin

• Support the team in the delivery of webinars, seminars, workshops and other events and activations relating to Education and Designer Initiatives programmes
• Support the team through keeping organised records of the above activity, for monitoring and reporting purposes
• Prepare presentations, reports, correspondence, and documents where appropriate
• Support the team in the building and delivery of the BFC’s Colleges Council programme and the BFC’s Membership programme
• Manage the BFC’s internal database, ensuring the data is kept up to date (e.g. scholars, mentors, key organisations contacts etc.)
• Project administration including updating CRM tools, calendars, and project software
• Create meeting agendas, take minutes, and circulate minutes following team/department meetings
• Ensure the team’s critical path is circulated, updated and deadlines are being met
• Ensure that any client, potential client, or referrer documentation/contact information, both paper and electronic, is organised and stored correctly and securely, in line with the company’s data protection policy
• Ad hoc office and admin support

PEOPLE

• Actively liaise with designers and Colleges Council contacts, scholars etc, sending out contracts, collating data, and being a day-to-day liaison for BFC departments and external individuals and organisations
• Attend designer and Education meetings where appropriate and ensure follow-up actions are completed by the team
• Work with Fashion Business Network and Industry Mentors on delivering aspects of designer business support
• Work with the BFC finance team to ensure invoices coming in are signed off by the DI&M team and sent to finance to be paid in a timely manner
• Liaise with BFC marketing team to create invites, event listings, social posts etc and ensure consistency and high level of quality across all assets for DI&M department
• Work with BFC commercial team to bring opportunities for projects that are in line with departmental objectives
• Provide team updates on Facebook Workplace to keep the company updated on department activity
• Represent the BFC and act as an ambassador at events and provide support to staff responsible for the co-ordination of events (departmental, e.g., seminars, education or initiatives events, and wider BFC, e.g. London Fashion Week, The Fashion Awards etc)

RESEARCH

• Proactively research opportunities to connect with external individuals and organisations to develop the network of webinar, workshop and seminar speakers and hosts for designer support and Colleges Council programmes
• Research any potential networking events, speaker opportunities, collaborative events in line with departmental plans
• Monitor and research changing fashion, business and education environment to shape support to designers, students and Colleges Council members accordingly

Requirements & Key Attributes – Skills & Requirements

• Excellent level of written and spoken English is essential
• Strong IT skills (excel)
• Proven experience of supporting events
• Exceptional organisational skills, with the ability monitor critical paths and follow through on all details whilst maintain bigger picture
• Excellent relationship (internal and external) , communication and negotiation skills
• Ability to trouble shoot when necessary and escalate to senior management
• Ability to work under pressure in a fast-moving environment, managing very tight deadlines and multi-tasking
• Proactive support to department and solution-focused, bringing streamlined processes into action
• Open to learning with a positive outlook and enthusiastic approach
• Commercial and budget awareness
• Ambassador of the BFC

Salary & Benefits

• Job type: Full time, permanent
• Salary: Subject to experience
• 25 days holiday + Bank Holidays + Christmas Eve
• Summer Working Hours (July & August)
• Standard company working hours are 09.30 to 17.30, flexibility and non-standard hours are required during events

How to apply:

• Candidates should apply with a CV and covering letter, highlighting your experience for this role and salary expectations to job@britishfashioncouncil.com with ‘Designer Initiatives and Membership Assistant’ in the subject
• Application closing date: 21^st April 2023
• Candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK
• Successful candidates will be notified by email and invited to a first-stage interview
• Upon application, please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments for the interview
• Due to the high volume of applicants, we are unable to provide specific feedback should your application be unsuccessful