About Public First
Public First is a public policy consultancy which offers solutions to complex policy problems faced by clients. We are a boutique, high end organisation that works in a few distinct areas of specialism and offers unparalleled expertise within these areas.
Education is one of the major areas of specialism for Public First. Many of the most senior team at the company have worked in and around government or the opposition in education policy for the last twenty years or more. Between us, we have advised Prime Ministers, Leaders of the Opposition, Education Secretaries and their Shadows, and numerous junior Ministers.
We work across all phases of education. Our clients include universities and multi academy trusts, national and local government, charities, foundations, trade associations, and businesses large and small who work in education. Across the practice, we have worked with some of the most well recognised names in the education space in the past three years.
We organise the practice into three main areas:
Schools: We work with individual schools, multi academy trusts, education charities, and foundations, with projects covering most areas of the schools policy landscape. Examples of previous projects include our Commission on Teacher Retention; the Youth Mental Health Coalition; and our work on the National Tutoring Programme.
Higher education: We work with a number of UK universities and mission groups, covering most aspects of post-18 education, as well as research and innovation policy, in UK HE. We are increasingly looking to grow and expand our profile overseas. Previous projects include our work on public attitudes to tuition fees, public understanding of R&D, polling on international students, and our evaluation of the Office for Students Uni-Connect programme.
Skills: We work on a number of projects across the broader skills landscape, for large corporates or regional and national bodies, across a broad range of sector areas. Previous examples include our work for Phoenix Insights on tackling economic inactivity; the Yorkshire Financial Services Commission; and our report for the Prince’s Trust on Green Skills
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We are looking for someone with an interest, and expertise, in one or more of these areas to join the team – either as an Associate Director (with 5+ years relevant experience), or a Senior Policy Manager (with 2-3+years relevant experience).
You are likely to be someone who has spent time professionally in education within a front line role, such as a teacher, or in a policy or public affairs role covering education such as in a university, in government, a think tank, or a charity, or a membership organisation, or in consultancy or private business. That said, please do not overly worry about if you have the ‘right’ level of experience or background. We recruit for skill and fit within the organisation – and will work with the people we make offers to, to ensure that they are supported within the company in a way that suits everyone.
Further information and a job spec for both roles can be found on our website: https://www.publicfirst.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Senior-Policy-Manager-_-Associate-Director-Education.pdf
Application URL: