We’re one of the largest housing providers in the UK, our 44,000 homes give 90,000 people in London, the South East and the Midlands, somewhere affordable to call their own.

This is a Fixed Term Contract until September 2020.

It’s an exciting time to join us!  We’re expanding with ambitious plans to increase housebuilding and support people into jobs and enterprise. Our new Increase VS Programme is a flagship project supporting residents with training to get into enterprise and trading.

The 3-year project, funded by the Interreg FCE Programme of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) will help 6,000 participants, supporting 3,000 into enterprise and jobs. Optivo is driving social innovation by leading a cross channel partnership of UK and French housing and specialist enterprise development training agencies.

We’re looking for a Project Coordinator to lead our ‘Legacy’ component, you will be responsible for the following:

• Inspire and support newly trained small businesses/ entrepreneurs across different areas
• Develop and maintain community groups of new businesses to develop peer support
• Support a group of programme participants, and local businesses to become mentors for new businesses in Kent and Sussex
• Work with specialist training providers and partners in England and France to develop a common approach

We’re seeking a Project Coordinator with:

• A relevant professional qualification or work experience in the fields of community development or enterprise (SME) development.
• Experience of working in small business start-up and/or business mentoring projects OR personal self-employment experience
• Experience of delivering externally funded schemes, particularly output-related projects.
• Experience of project management, monitoring and evaluation.
• Effective communication skills and ability to build successful relationships and partnerships.
• Effective organisation and administration skills including use of Word, Excel, Power Point.
• Ability to work on own initiative.
• Ability to draft clear and concise reports.

You will require a UK Driving License and access to your own car as you will be responsible for travel across your respective counties.

As well as this extremely rewarding job, you will also have 27 days annual leave, an extra day leave to celebrate your birthday, company pension, access to private medical and continued development and career opportunities throughout your employment with Optivo.

Equal Opportunities

At Optivo our aim is to have a diverse and inclusive workforce where people are respected for who they are. We embrace and celebrate cultural diversity in the workplace and value the strengths it brings us as an organisation. We believe that everyone deserves to be treated with respect irrespective of age, caring responsibilities, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. We treat everyone we house, serve, employ and work with fairly and expect and encourage others to do the same.