Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare's logo

Senior Project Officer (Education)

Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare
  • Full time position, hybrid work model
  • Salary commensurate with experience, range: $92,000-$100,000 plus superannuation
  • Attractive employee benefits including salary packaging

About the Role

Working closely with a wide range of stakeholders, the Senior Project Officer (Education) is responsible for supporting the implementation of the Out-of-Home-Care Education Commitment: A Partnering Agreement and the Early Childhood Agreement for Children in Out-of-Home Care. An exciting part of this role is working closely with partner agencies, the Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young People’s Alliance, VACCA and LOOKOUT Centres, to support professionals and carers with community service organisations to build their understanding of the agreements, and confidence in advocating for the best interests for children and young people in care.

Out-of-Home Care (OOHC) professionals and carers play a crucial role in supporting the safety and development of children and young people who are living in care. This project aims to complement and strengthen current initiatives across the sector, and to improve the educational engagement and outcomes of children and young people in care. The role offers a lot of variety with responsibility for managing individual projects, and working with colleagues, government, and community stakeholders to identify and coordinate the most relevant and engaging workforce capability building activities including training and resource development.

Benefits of working at the Centre

  • Up to three days additional leave over Christmas/New Year period
  • Family friendly flexible working arrangements
  • A flexible hybrid work-from-home arrangement
  • Paid parental/carer/study leave
  • Ongoing training and professional development opportunities
  • A supportive and positive work environment
  • Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
  • Leave loading of 17.5%
  • Attractive not-for-profit salary packaging (this boosts your income by reducing the amount of tax you pay), with Meal/Holiday accommodation benefit

Organisational Accountabilities

The Centre is committed to the health, safety and wellbeing of its staff. The Centre and its staff must comply with a range of statutory requirements including equal opportunity, occupational health and safety and privacy. The Centre requires staff to comply with its policies and procedures and related statutory requirements. Appointees are accountable for completing training on these matters and making sure their knowledge is up to date.

Key Accountabilities

As outlined in the Service Agreement, the role will undertake the following:

  1. Support and build the capacity of the Centre’s members and their staff, including foster, kinship and residential care program staff and case managers, to understand the education and early childhood systems, the LOOKOUT program and Partnering Agreements
  2. Support and build the capacity of the Centre’s members and their staff, including foster, kinship and residential care program staff and case managers, to understand and implement ways to support educational engagement for young people in protection & care, assist with transitions between early childhood sector, primary school, secondary school and out of school, and address barriers to engagement in education
  3. Support the Centre’s members to build the capacity of their carers to understand the education and early childhood systems, the Partnering Agreements and how best to assist the children in their care with their education
  4. Work with LOOKOUT, the Centre’s members and with VACCA to improve educational outcomes for children in residential care and Secure Welfare Services
  5. Provide input, as requested, into LOOKOUT training programs and resources, particularly in relation to engaging with the community sector
  6. Support, advise and deliver LOOKOUT program training content in consultation with the program governance group
  7. Develop approaches to support carers and case managers to effectively engage in Student Support Groups and Educational Needs Analysis processes
  8. Build the capacity of carers and caseworkers to act as advocates for the educational needs of children and young people in care
  9. Support the LOOKOUT program to understand how to engage effectively with Community Sector Organisations
  10. Build case manager and carer awareness of what schools need to know – placement changes, access arrangements, legal guardianship, transfer of information (reports/assessments), consent arrangements etc.

OTHER

  • Support other team members in periods of high demand and during periods of absence.
  • Participate in project groups and attend events
  • Undertake other duties as directed

Key Selection Criteria

  • Strong understanding and experience of working in Community Sector Organisations and/or Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, preferably in the children and families sector
  • Strong understanding and experience of working in the education sector
  • Strong understanding of the Victorian child protection and out-of-home care system
  • Effective interpersonal and communication skills
  • Capacity to support, advise and deliver high quality training for carers, caseworkers and educators
  • Capacity to develop effective resources
  • Demonstrated understanding of and respect for Aboriginal culture

Qualifications

  1. A relevant tertiary qualification (and/or experience within the community services sector)

Conditional Employment Requirements

  1. National Police Check
  2. Working with Children Check
  3. Current Australian Driver’s Licence (Desirable)

For any queries, please contact Dr Michele Lonsdale on [email protected], using the subject line: Senior Project Officer (Education) enquiry via EthicalJobs, or on 0408 083 238.

To apply - please submit your CV, a covering letter and a response to the key selection criteria. Early applications are encouraged, they will be reviewed as they are received.

A position description is attached.

How to apply

This job ad has now expired, and applications are no longer being accepted.

Email me more jobs like this.

Daily