Communications Assistant - Dubai Campus

Purpose of Role

The purpose of this role is to assist with all external and internal communications duties as required by the communications manager. The Communications Assistant is responsible for media outreach, extensive content writing, assisting with participation at media events, and distributing content to promote the Heriot-Watt brand and activities. The post holder will support our internal and external communications strategy, write and disseminate publicity material, and coordinate events.

Summary of Key Duties and Responsibilities :

• Work alongside the communication manager to support key stakeholders support development of an effective and proactive communications strategy based on our target audience and business goals. Should support and promote company goals, social media content creation, internal communications and media outreach.
• To plan and create media content to support courses part of the specified schools under the University to raise awareness and build brand reputation. This is to be done under the supervision of the communications manager.
• Prepare English drafts of content, including opinion pieces, interview briefing documents, articles, expert comments, video scripts and Q and A’s requiring translation into Arabic.
• Support the communications team with developing content including opinion pieces, interview briefing documents, expert comments, articles and Q and A’s for English media when required.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; excellent copy editing and proofreading skills – should be capable of writing, editing for the global newsletters and other marketing material that communicates our activities, products and / or services.
• Assist the communications manager with engaging University stakeholders effectively in order to be able to identify suitable news opportunities and leverage them as appropriate. He / she will ensure the delivery of frequent, relevant, interesting and engaging content to our target audiences.
• Prepare social media posts for media-related activities and liaise with the social media team.
• Should establish and maintain effective relationships with journalists, keep track of industry movements and maintain a media database.
• Assist communications manager in coordinating speaking opportunities and also seek opportunities to position faculty and management as spokespeople.
• Support the communications manager with arranging video shoots, developing scripts for the spokespeople for the video and ensuring the final quality of the video.
• Maintains awareness of industry news and events. Should keep track of industry news and developments and provide insights and advice for HW’s communications strategy based on the same.
• Assist with research and collation of data for external media content and internal documents such as briefing books.
• Should be able to respond to media inquiries, arrange interviews, and draft materials on behalf of spokespeople with approvals from the communications manager.
• Maintain records of media coverage through the media monitoring service.
• Also responsible for other administrative marketing related tasks which may crop up from time to time.
• Assists with the timely planning and delivery of communications projects for the Marketing team as required.
• Manage and oversee photo shoots for University spokespeople end to end.
• Manage and oversee finance-related matters such as following up with vendors for invoices, invoice booking in the ERP system and following up with finance on payments.
• If requested by the communications manager negotiate with suppliers regarding prices and deliveries to increase financial efficiency.
• Take complete responsibility for drafting court reports.
• Act as cover for manager when manager is on annual / sick leave.

Education, Qualifications & Experience :

Essential

Bachelor’s degree at a minimum

Excellent English copywriting skills, as the role calls for extensive content creation

Some experience of working within a similar environment

Basic computer skills

3-5 years of experience

Ability to work quickly, flexibly, and accurately in a dynamic, changing, and pressured environment. Must be proactive, capable of multitasking, and working with deadlines and schedules

Ability to research, analyse and present information effectively with good attention to detail

Good organisational skills with the ability to prioritise major developments and to function effectively in a pressured environment

Demonstrable professional and proactive approach

Speak and write English at a native speaker level

Desirable

Experience of working in Higher Education

Past experience in Internal Communications

Some experience in utilizing social media platforms

Heriot-Watt University Values

With a history dating back to 1821, Heriot-Watt University has established a reputation for world-class teaching and professionally relevant, leading-edge research, which has made it one of the top UK universities for business and industry.

We are a vibrant, forward-looking university, well known for the quality of our degrees with employers actively seeking out our graduates. Heriot-Watt is also Scotland’s international university with an unsurpassed international in-country presence. We deliver degree programmes to circa 30,000 students in 143 countries around the world, have a further overseas campus in Dubai and boast the largest international student cohort in Scotland.

At Heriot-Watt we’ve created an environment that nurtures innovation and leadership - where our researchers, staff and students can realise their potential and develop their ambitions.

We are proud of our collegiate atmosphere and integrated teaching and research approach which has helped to build a community of committed academics and highly motivated students. Our focus on careers delivers results and we’ve an excellent reputation for graduate employability.

In addition to the Edinburgh campus, we currently have campuses in the Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai and Malaysia. For all of our campuses we aim to provide stimulating, supportive environments conducive to effective learning and research, where staff and students can excel. At Heriot-Watt, we have an established set of values that help us to nurture innovation and leadership, and show our commitment to continuous improvement and development in all our activities.

Our values describe our deeply held beliefs and our community spirit. They characterise not only how we are as a higher education institution but also frame how we want to be.

Our values are :

Belong

Collaborate

Inspire

Celebrate

As learning, living and working institution, we use our values as the building blocks of how we go about doing our work and how we each conduct ourselves as members of Heriot-Watt University. They represent what binds us together as a University community and help us to become the best at what we do.