Communications Officer

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is an international civil society movement made up of thousands of organisations, charities, activists and trade unions in over 100 countries.  We believe that everyone should have the chance of a good quality, free, basic, public education and together we campaign to ensure that every government takes the necessary action to ensure ‘Education for All'. This year GCE coordinated the Big Read, last year the World's Biggest Lesson and the Class of 2015, and GCE is now embarking on an exciting hard-hitting campaign for the football World Cup 2010.

Communications are essential for building a successful education movement and GCE is now looking for an excellent communicator to lead the way.  This post will work with GCE's member coalitions, in more than 100 countries, in GCE's official languages (English, French, Spanish and Arabic) and will be responsible for finding and communicating news and stories on education and campaign success.  This post will write GCE's regular e-newsletters, website updates, annual report, press releases and campaign leaflets and toolkits.

1. Source, write and edit articles for GCE's websites and e-newsletter

Working with the New Media Officer, this post will use the latest web and mobile phone technology to communicate with the campaign community.  This post will manage the accounts, and post regular updates on facebook, twitter, blogs and others.

This post will be responsible for keeping GCE's website and campaigners updated daily with progress towards Education for All (for example, abolishment of school fees, or increases in aid to education), as well the latest news from GCE's campaigners (the latest report, or organised marches and lobby meetings). Stories and news will be identified via online news feeds, national coalitions, members and through occasional story-gathering trips. An excellent English writing ability is essential to communicate with GCE's wide and varied audience. This post is also responsible for updating the website (via CMS), blogs and twitter and facebook feed. Although no previous experience is needed in this area - the person should be willing to learn.

2. Write and edit GCE's annual publications

This post will be responsible for writing and editing GCE's annual Big Book (a compilation of campaign efforts on education in every country) and annual report. The post will be coordinating the collection of content and images for these reports, copy writing the reports, and working with the designer on the report layouts and proof reading. The post will also coordinate and edit a range of policy papers that come out throughout the year.

3. To provide media support

This post will assist the Campaigns & Communications Coordinator with getting GCE picked up in the international media. This includes writing press releases, selling to the media and follow up with journalists. Ideally the applicant will have experience of working in media or with journalists and knowledge of what works well to gain media coverage.

4. Coordinate GCE's external and internal communications

This post is responsible for coordinating areas of GCE's communications and performing regular tasks that will ensure the effective smooth running and growth of GCE communications. These include monitoring and capturing GCE's media coverage, managing media and contact lists, working with GCE's translators, administrator and other staff members to ensure the distribution of timely communications to GCE's global audience in English, French, Spanish and Arabic. The post will also manage the GCE's story, photo and film footage library and input on GCE's creative for future campaigns and communications.

5. Assist GCE's members and national coalitions

Much of GCE's headquarters work is to serve the members and coalitions. This post will be responsible for assisting national campaigns as necessary with their communications work - through skill sharing, media assistance, writing resource packs and content as appropriate.

Person Specification:

This is an excellent opportunity for someone with journalist or communications experience, a self-starter who wants to work for a dynamic organization that brings about change and promote human rights. The most essential skill to bring to the organization will be a strong communicator, enthusiasm and a willingness to learn or explore new ways to communicate in order to bring about change and Education for All.

Job Details:

The Communications Officer annual salary range is ZAR 375,000-450,000 per annum (depending on experience) and benefits. (Equivalent to €32,368 - €38,594 or £28,586 - £34,346)

The Communications Officer will work in the global headquarters office in Rosebank, Johannesburg, with the expectation for occasional travel, weekend and evening work. GCE has a international staff team of 15. The Johannesburg office is a small, diverse team of eight staff members.

Application Details:

Apply by sending your CV and covering letter to jobs [at] campaignforeducation [dot] org by the 5^th June 2009. Interviews will take place 9^th - 11^th June 2009, consisting of a 30 minute interview and a 1 hour written exercise.

Applications will be shortlisted according to experience and skills that match the job description criteria, it is therefore advisable to tailor your covering letter include all relevant experience and skills that make you most appropriate to this job. GCE has a small team, with no full time HR capacity and are unfortunately only able to contact shortlisted applicants. We regret that if you have not heard from us by the 11^th June please assume that you have been unsuccessful in this application.