Content Design Trainer

Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

1. Joining up public sector services
2. Harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. Strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. Elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. Funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. Committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need.

Job description

The GOV.UK Content Operations team supports nearly 3,000 civil servants (publishers and content designers) in GDS and across government to create, publish and manage high quality, accessible, user-centred content on GOV.UK.

We do this through:

• our content and publishing guidance and standards for cross-government publishers and internal guidance for GDS content designers
• training for publishers and inductions for new GDS content designers
• supporting government publishers with requests and queries on how to publish content on GOV.UK
• managing policies, tools, processes and workflows for publishing content on GOV.UK
• leading GOV.UK's plans and response for special events, including elections and government reshuffles

We work closely with other parts of the GOV.UK directorate to improve the experience for GOV.UK publishers.

We’re launching an ambitious professional development offer for GOV.UK publishers to increase their skills and capability to draft and publish high quality content on GOV.UK in a collaborative, accessible, user-centred, evidence-led way.

As a Content Design Trainer, you’ll research, design and deliver high quality learning experiences for publishers from a range of government professions and content designers. This could range from delivering interactive and engaging remote and in-person courses through to new and innovative learning experiences.

You’ll work closely with our Content Learning Designer (who leads our current self-directed online learning) and Content Product Lead for Content Operations as well as our Content Operations Coordinator and Content Operations Assistants who will support the logistics and delivery of new learning experiences.

You’ll be expected to travel to other UK locations as part of this role, for example to deliver sessions in other government organisations or GDS offices.

As a Content Design Trainer you’ll:

• design and deliver new learning experiences for publishers and content designers to continually develop their content design skills and increase capability
• continuously iterate and improve the design and delivery of learning experiences through research, user feedback and developments in content design or learning design
• work with the Content Learning Designer to iterate the existing self-directed online learning, including mandatory training for new GOV.UK publishers
• use research and data to spot trends in good practice and areas needing more support, to inform the design of learning experiences
• develop strong relationships internally at GDS and across government to co-design effectively, ensure a common approach to learning and anticipate future capability needs
• work with the team to design, test, iterate and launch new learning methods including large scale classes, online and blended courses, peer learning, and train the trainer models
• participate in Agile ceremonies like stand-ups and sprint planning, to ensure projects are completed within specific timescales, and be able to escalate problems when they occur
• contribute and support wider Content Operations team activities such as our regular communications and engagement with publishers

Person specification

Essential Criteria

We’re interested in people who have:

• practical experience as a content designer (or similar) and the ability to explain user-centred content design principles (for example user needs, accessibility) to others who may have little experience
  
• excellent facilitation, training, communication and influencing skills including an ability to manage and build a positive and inclusive working environment
  
• experience in designing and delivering a range of learning experiences online, remote and in-person (for example courses, workshops and presentations), and keeping learners focussed with mixed abilities and group sizes
  
• problem-solving skills with a high attention to detail, proactively removing blockers to ensure work is delivered
  
• experience of taking complex ideas and processes and making them simple to understand
  
• good knowledge of how data can inform the design of learning experiences
  
• flexibility and ability to adapt quickly to changing priorities in an agile environment, cope with complexity and change

Desirable Criteria

• experience in producing audio visual content, including video and audio software and equipment

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Changing and Improving
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,850, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £16,469 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-6