WP Team Leader
Closing Date: 05/10/2025

Strengthening Lancaster University’s commitment to widening participation (WP) and communities underrepresented in higher education, the WP team are looking for current LU students with an interest in and enthusiasm for working with young people, to share insights into university life and support pupils to make informed decisions at every stage of their educational journey.  

You will have the opportunity to work with young people of primary age through to secondary and sixth form, taking a lead role in delivering widening access projects and initiatives. For example, this may include on campus events; in school workshops; overnight residentials and online activities.  

The WP team deliver the following programmes: 

For more information, please visit the WP webpages: Widening Participation - Lancaster University 

Please note: Roles marked with an * are recruited separately due to diversity and lived experience.

Diversity and lived experience  

The Widening Participation (WP) team promotes equality of opportunity within higher education, and we welcome applications from students from diverse backgrounds.

• To work with the WP Project Lead and a team of WP Team Members to deliver Lancaster’s widening access projects on campus.
• To travel to other locations/venues (i.e. schools, colleges and community groups) for WP events to promote Lancaster University.
• To supervise the travel arrangements of young people attending WP events at Lancaster University (i.e. by coach, train or taxi).
• To deliver pre-written session plans in accordance with the risk assessment, using your initiative to adapt content and make any reasonable adjustments needed.
• To work with a range of stakeholders including visiting teachers and pastoral staff and other internal LU staff to successfully lead/deliver WP activities.
• To identify and address concerns during daytime or online event delivery i.e. behaviour management or safeguarding and follow the associated procedures. For example, escalating to Project Leads, school/college staff or LU Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL).
• To provide effective supervision of young people staying on campus overnight, (where LU is in loco parentis), this includes triaging/addressing issues and escalating concerns to LU staff or DSL as appropriate.

• To emphasise the benefits of higher education and encourage young people (of all ages) to identify their strengths and personal qualities.
• To give an authentic insight into the Lancaster University experience, including accurate information, advice and guidance on a range of topics i.e. student finance, degree courses, student support and university life.
• To enthuse and motivate young people to facilitate learning (being a positive role model and displaying a ‘can do’ attitude is essential to the role).
• To make sure that young people are engaged in activities and understand session content, providing one-to-one or small group support as needed.

• To develop bespoke session content, resources, case studies or other materials at the request of the Project Lead, (this may include online content for social media purposes)
• To support the evaluation of widening access provision, including participating in focus groups or other initiatives to provide SA feedback.
• To complete designated training (including facilitating a campus tour) and an enhanced DBS check (where appropriate) prior to session delivery.
• To undertake duties in accordance with university policy relating to safeguarding, health/safety and equality, diversity and inclusion. 

You are required to submit a cover letter to support your application. Applications without a cover letter will not be considered.

Please note: Unless specified otherwise in the advert wording, this role is only open to individuals living in the UK.

Under the terms of this work, we endeavour to provide the advertised number of hours however, hours are not guaranteed and that work may cease if there is a fall in demand. 

Adverts that display a closing date should be treated as a guide. We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so we advise you to submit your application as early as possible to prevent disappointment.