Communications Officer - SPARK Schools Support - 2024
SPARK Schools, South Africa
Job Description
Watch our Vision Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOU0TYnNsZo
Take a tour of our Website: https://sparkschools.co.za/
SPARK Schools is a social impact disruptor and is leading change in the education space through its network of affordable private schools. The SPARK Schools network provide transformational education innovation through Africa’s first blended learning model, which elevates student achievement and provides the tools teachers need to serve their students effectively.
The blended learning model, which combines classroom teaching and online instruction, allows teachers to anticipate student needs and equips schools to provide personalized education at an affordable cost. SPARK Schools is pioneering this transformative education model to ensure the accessibility of university and careers for all.
SPARK Schools has a culture of collaboration, because getting South Africa to lead global education takes a team effort. We are innovators who strive for excellence through persistence and a sense of urgency to achieve SPARK Schools’ vision, mission and social transformational objectives. Our work environment is vibrant/cheerful, fast-paced/dynamic, engaging/stimulating, tech-enabled and data driven.
SPARK Schools is a high growth, mission and values-driven, entrepreneurial organisation, operating 21 primary schools and 5 high schools and serving over 15,500 families. We are looking for dynamic people to join our team.
Purpose of Role:
The Communications Officer role exists to ensure that the organisation communicates with its stakeholders (employees, customers, board, shareholders and the general public) in a timely and comprehensive manner and is a pivotal part of building and sustaining the SPARK Schools brand.
The Communications Officer enables the departments of the organisation to deliver key communication to internal and external stakeholders in an effective and organised way (according to communication best practices). The role is also responsible for supporting schools in communications to parents to ensure that they are informed and ensure that all communications have an appropriate and consistent tone and content.
Reports To: Communications Manager
Responsibilities:
- Develop, write and edit marketing and communications materials, including but not limited to email (internal and external), press releases, blog posts and social media content.
- Ensure brand communications are aligned to the intended audience and that the audience’s communication strategy is applied consistently across all channels.
- Ensure organisational initiatives and projects are successfully communicated to employees and any other relevant stakeholders.
- Schedule the distribution of communications in alignment with company initiatives and project milestones.
- Conduct social media analysis (including competitor analyses) using social listening tools and deliver standardised as well as ad hoc custom social media reports.
- Manage the company’s public relations (PR) agency deliverables, ensuring quality control and that deadlines are always met.
- Collaborate cross-functionally, including with SPARK’s school leadership teams, to generate PR content and create coverage opportunities.
- Gather, draft and refine content to maximise PR opportunities as they arise.
- Collaborate with the organisation’s PR Agency and media to strategically address any crisis communication needs which affect SPARK’s reputation.
- Ensure the accessibility of communication tools to various stakeholders, e.g. presentation templates, email templates, and photography.
- Track analytics and create reports detailing the performance of communications campaigns.
- Design and develop effective communication processes, procedures and policies for various stakeholder groups, scenarios and objectives, including training materials as required.
- Research and analysis of trends and new technologies within the communications discipline and adoption recommendations.
Requirements
Qualifications:
The ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications:
- A degree or diploma in journalism, communications, public relations, marketing or advertising management.
Experience:
- 2-4 years of experience in marketing communications or a closely related field.
- Experience working with social listening tools and social media management tools is essential.
Skills and Mindset:
- Proactive
- Strategic thinker
- Good interpersonal and relationship-building skills
- Confidence in dealing with senior leaders and training on communicati