£19 per hour
Advertising End Date
30 Jun 2026

Role & Department Overview

Litcraft was created in 2018 by two academics at Lancaster University and became a Social Enterprise in 2024.  

It is run out of the department of English Literature in the School of Arts at Lancaster University.   

 This role is funded by a one-year grant from the Westminster Foundation to Litcraft. It is for one day a week, starting August 2026 and running to April 2027. 

 Litcraft is a multimodal resource that links reading to play in order to re-engage children with reading.  It aims to meet a significant real-world problem – falling reading ages resulting in lower educational outcomes.  

 The idea behind Litcraft is simple. We take a book with a map at the front (e.g. Treasure Island; Kensuke’s Kingdom); make an accurate scale map of the literary world in Minecraft; and then link reading the text outside the game world with in-game tasks.  These reinforce understanding of character and narrative and help children to understand by experiencing the world of the text for themselves.  

 The Minecraft user base is 166 million and the peak age group is 8-12.  The Litcraft resource is aimed at Years 5/6/7.   

 You can find out about it from our website: https://litcraft.org

 Location: On campus; online; work from home. Blended
 
Interviews: Week beginning 13th July 
 
 

Job Description

We are looking for an assistant project manager to work directly with and support Sally Bushell as CEO of Litcraft.  You will be involved in all aspects of running the small business This is your primary role.   

 

You will also help to oversee and administer a specific pilot project: Litcraft Clubs.  This project will run across the academic year in 2026-27 in at least four local schools.  Four postgraduates at Lancaster University will deliver the resource. You will assist with administration and organisation and can be as hands-on as you like.  

 

Should time allow you will also work on the social media identity of Litcraft to develop an infrastructure that can allow schools involved with us to share and develop their work as well as updating the website and improving our social media presence.

Person Specification

We are looking for someone with the following attributes: 

 
  • Experience of running a small business on a day-to-day basis

     

  • Experience of working with or running a Social Enterprise

     

  • Excellent administrative and organisational skills  

     

  • Good financial acumen 

     

  • Good communication and presentation skills 

     

  • Good social media skills  

     

  • Experience of working with children and in schools or libraries 

     

  • A love of reading and understanding of its importance to society
 
If you are interested in applying for this role please send your C.V. and cover letter to Sally Bushell via [email protected] 
 

The Employment & Recruitment Service is advertising on behalf of an external company not affiliated with Lancaster University.

Help and advice on making applications can be found on the Lancaster University Careers pages. Visit www.lancaster.ac.uk/careers.