Student Communication Specialist

Job Title : Student Communication Specialist Faculty / Department : Communications Location : Oakville, Ontario, Canada Application Deadline : August 2, 2024 Job Number : J0624-1425

Preference will be given to qualified employees, as defined in the Full-Time Support Staff Collective Agreement. Should a suitable candidate not be found, external candidates will be considered.

The Student Communication Specialist works in an integrated way to support the development and management of communications related to the student lifecycle.

With a focus on current students, the successful incumbent will work within Sheridan’s central communications team.

The incumbent develops and coordinates key communications and marketing initiatives that primarily support student onboarding, the first-year experience and the full service-to-student continuum.

The incumbent works collaboratively with other divisional communications personnel and managers, including collaboration with the Student Experience and Enrolment Management (SEEM) division, to ensure clarity and continuity in messaging, so that the student communications experience flows as an integrated engagement with Sheridan.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Managing and contributing to a comprehensive communication activity schedule / content calendar to ensure alignment and integration across Sheridan’s student-facing channels;
• Supporting the creation of engaging and student-centric communications, including the weekly student newsletter, posts on Sheridan’s intranet, and social media content, by gathering information of interest to prospective and current students and stakeholders (e.
• g., current student promotions, alumni engagement);
• Contributing ideas and information to support the planning of communications and marketing campaigns for Student Affairs (SA), Career Integrated Learning (CIL) and the enrollment needs across SEEM;
• Supporting the development of Sheridan’s Student Knowledge Base and Comm100 platform;
• Contributing student-centric news releases and stories to the Sheridan Newsroom by interviewing and profiling key stakeholders, working closely with SEEM managers, and attending special events;
• Providing communications guidance and develops content in support of Sheridan’s emerging student experience integration model;
• Utilizing target audience personas and data intelligence to create communications content that is targeted with calls-to-action in a coordinated and brand consistent manner across Student Affairs, Career Integrated Learning and in all student engagement activities across the SEEM division;
• Reporting on communications and marketing campaigns using Customer Relationship Management suite (CRM), Google Analytics, email analytics, Facebook Insights, and other tools as appropriate;
• Performing other related duties as assigned.

About You

You will have excellent written and oral communication skills to elicit accurate information, conduct interviews with students, professors and the larger community with the ability to collaborate with and coordinate cross-functional groups toward the goal of engaging and relevant student communications.

You bring experience producing content across a range of media, including social media, print and digital formats along with excellent research and analysis skills that will help to facilitate the measurement, interpretation, and presentation of information in the most impactful way.

You bring excellent organizational skills to coordinate several projects with the ability to work independently to multi-task, prioritize, balance, and manage multiple complex and competing demands and changing priorities.

You have exceptional writing, proofreading, editing, and research skills that allow you to work effectively under pressure with high volumes of work.

The successful candidate will also meet the following qualifications :

• Post-graduate degree in Communications, Marketing, Publishing, English or a related field with an emphasis on written communication;
• 5 years recent related experience researching, writing, and editing copy and creating content across a range of media, including print, social and digital media (e.

g. email, website, online ads). Knowledge base within the specialized field of communications pertaining to rules, procedures (e.

• g. print or digital production) and methods (equivalencies to be considered);
• Experience creating communications for a post-secondary student audience preferred;
• Demonstrated interest in the post-secondary (PS) student learning experience and student success and success coordinating cross-functional groups;
• Demonstrated good judgement, initiative, and creative problem-solving skills to a team environment.
• Intermediate experience with content creation methods and best practices for varying channels (print, multimedia, infographics, web, email, blogs, social media);
• Intermediate to advanced skill working with MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, and Adobe Creative Suite (including Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat and Bridge) and email distribution software;
• Intermediate to advanced working knowledge of digital brand management template platforms (i.e. Canva);
• Intermediate to advanced skill with web search / navigation tools for keyword research, content management systems (CMS) customer relations management systems (CRM) ideally Salesforce and email service providers.

Who We Are

At Sheridan, we are passionate about the transformational role we play in people’s lives. Our graduates enjoy a well-deserved reputation for their ability to succeed in the workplace from day one.

This is a testament to Sheridan's dedicated and caring faculty and staff, who have strong ties to industry and ensure our students have hands-on learning experiences and the best possible preparation for their future careers.

We're building a new, groundbreaking model of higher education one that prepares graduates with the hard and soft skills to navigate change in a complex world.

As a member of the Sheridan community, you will have the opportunity to shape our teaching and learning experience and help prepare the future leaders of tomorrow.

Within Communications and Marketing and across the Division of the Student Experience & Enrolment Management we pride ourselves on being student-centric in all that we do, which starts by understanding the needs of our students and how best to support and service them.

Every member of the Sheridan community is passionate about the transformational role we play in people’s lives. Our strategic plan, Sheridan 2027 : Forging the Future () charts a path towards a new ground-breaking model of higher education that reshapes post-secondary education and better prepares students for the future.

We are committed to demonstrably advancing equity, diversity and inclusivity. Diversity is our strength and fuels our commitment to excellence.

Across our campuses, we’re making meaningful strides towards developing an equitable and inclusive community.