School Link Worker For Education Social Enterprise

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Job Title: School Link Worker (Cork Region)

Contract Type: Full-time, fixed term, term-time only (Oct-May).

Location: Cork Based/Hybrid: work remotely and conduct school/community visits as required

Company Overview:

jumpAgrade is an award-winning social enterprise seeking to level the education playing field by providing free access to additional tuition and guidance supports, empowering learners from disadvantaged backgrounds to thrive in school and beyond. We support students from underserved communities through free, high-impact academic and guidance programmes that build confidence and unlock opportunities. Since 2019, we have worked with over 3,000 students in schools across Ireland; the majority located in areas ranked as disadvantaged on the Pobal HP Deprivation Index.

Our model blends personalised 1:1 and group tuition and student supports including wellbeing, guidance counselling, and college-readiness workshops. All programmes are delivered outside school hours and co-designed with students, families, and teachers to ensure local relevance and flexibility.

jumpAgrade is seeking to develop their team and recruit a School Community Link Worker within the Cork region. This link worker will be the face of jumpAgrade on the ground in our network of 10+ schools, working closely with school staff, students, and community partners to ensure that local needs are being met in a relevant, meaningful way. This role requires a physical presence in schools throughout the academic year, as well as support via phone and email.

Purpose of the Role

To act as the local face of JumpAgrade in Cork, building strong relationships with schools, students, and communities, while also leading the design and delivery of the career, college, and life skills aspects of our new online student success programme. THRIVE. This hybrid role blends school outreach with guidance leadership, ensuring students from underserved backgrounds have both the personalised support and structured guidance they need to achieve their potential.

Key Responsibilities

1. School Outreach & Link Work

Relationship Management

• Be the primary JumpAgrade contact for 10+ Cork schools.
• Build strong relationships with school staff, guidance counsellors, and leadership teams.
• Act as a support link for students referred into JumpAgrade programmes.

Student Engagement

• Meet students individually or in small groups to identify aspirations, challenges, and needs.
• Provide check-ins to monitor progress, wellbeing, and engagement with THRIVE.

Community & Resource Mapping

• Identify and connect students and schools with local resources in the community (mentoring, workshops, work placements, supports/signposting).
• Feedback & Impact Tracking
• Collect feedback from schools and students.
• Maintain accurate data on student progress, satisfaction, and outcomes to feed into impact reports.

2. Programme module lead (Approx. 35%)

• Lead the design and delivery of the career, college, and life skills modules for the new THRIVE programme (topics might include career mapping, pathway identification, needs analysis, college readiness, life skills etc).
• Align programme content with the needs of Cork schools while ensuring scalability for national rollout.
• Career & College Guidance

Deliver/ source volunteer facilitators for: group workshops and online sessions

Mentoring & Student Pathways

• Provide tailored advice to students with higher needs, ensuring they have a clear and supported progression pathway.
• Recruit and mentor guidance volunteers/trainees to support the delivery of guidance activities.

Evaluation & Reporting

• Develop impact measures for the guidance component of THRIVE (e.g., increased awareness of career/college options, improved application success).
• Contribute to overall THRIVE evaluation and reporting to funders and partners.
• Play a role in jumpAgrade advocacy; gathering stories, sharing impact, and joining our campaign for a fairer Ireland!

Essential Experience, Skills and Attributes

• Experience working with young people from under-represented backgrounds -providing guidance, tuition, mentoring or counselling support.
• Experience in community work or volunteering
• Compassionate, friendly, and approachable personality
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, able to develop and maintain relationships with multiple stakeholders.
• Passionate about social change and education equality
• Experience working with diverse communities of all ages and abilities
• Local knowledge of the specific challenges and needs faced within our partner schools and communities
• Car and full driving licence
• Dedicated home office with excellent wifi.
• Strong digital communication skills - comfortable to deliver online workshops and group sessions.

Qualifications

Applicants should hold qualifications in one or more of the following relevant areas: education, social work, guidance counselling, mental health, community development, programme management.

Desirable but Not Essential

• Understanding of the access barriers to education.
• Event management/social media/fundraising experience
• Knowledge of government policy and inclusion schemes (HEAR, DARE etc.)

jumpAgrade is an equal opportunities employer. Diversity and inclusion are core values for jumpAgrade, and as such we particularly welcome applications from people belonging to our target beneficiary groups: people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage, disabled people, people from migrant backgrounds, members of the Traveller/Roma community, and members of the LGBTQI+ community.

Job Types: Full-time, Fixed term
Contract length: 8 months

Pay: Up to €35,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Work from home

Work Location: On the road