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Careers

Opportunities at The World of Glass

Role: 

Community Engagement Officer

 

Salary:

£25K to 28K dependant on experience

 

Application Deadline:

17th April 2026 11:59pm

 

Interview dates:

28th April & 1st May

 

Summary:

Funded with thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund, The Community Engagement Officer will play an integral role in the next 12 months at The World of Glass while we Prepare for the International Festival of Glass (IFoG) 2026, and beyond.

The focus of the Community Engagement Officer is to lead on project delivery, working with local heritage groups and communities, and driving engagement in the heritage of the borough, including increasing our team of volunteers, and creating a legacy of partnership relations and volunteers beyond the next 12 months.

 

Job Description:

The World of Glass is an Accredited Museum and visitor attraction in St Helens, Merseyside, which is the custodian of two important museum collections, The St Helens Borough Collections, and The Pilkington Glass collection. As well as being home to the Victorian Tank House No9 (Grade II* listed Scheduled Ancient Monument), a public hot glass blowing studio, art galleries, and a history gallery, it currently hosts St Helens Council’s Central Library, and Archives Service until 2028 due to renovations of the Gamble Institute.

Uncovering St Helens Heritage Offer will increase community engagement with local heritage, both on site at The World of Glass, as well as across the Borough, with local heritage groups, and at other important heritage locations. The project will coincide with the International Festival of Glass (IFoG) 2026, led by Glass Arts Society, and hosted by The World of Glass, bringing new and old audiences to the museum, and hence a prime time to expand our community engagement with St Helens heritage. The project will also engage communities in planning for future capital refurbishment of the museum to develop a comprehensive local heritage service.

Uncovering St Helens Heritage Offer is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players.

We are seeking an individual to join our busy Engagement & Programmes team, leading community engagement and building strong relationships with local heritage partners. You will also work closely with the Senior Engagement and Programmes Off

icer to enhance our volunteer offer and support increased volunteer recruitment.
The ideal candidate will have experience working with Accredited Museum collections and in facilitating meaningful engagement between community heritage groups, as well as with our museum collections.

 

Job Responsibilities: 

 

Project Management

  • Work with the Engagement & Programmes Manager to Develop and deliver a detailed Project Plan
  • Support the development and Delivery of an evaluation framework to continue to learn throughout the project and produce regular project reports.

Community Engagement

  • Lead on community consultation with local heritage organisation and groups to increase engagement.
  • Lead on the development and delivery of a programme of activities and events, both internally at The World of Glass, and externally within the community, including a pop-up external exhibition.
  • Support the Engagement and Programmes Manager with the recruitment and training of volunteers, including both new, long-term volunteers, and a team of temporary shorter-term volunteers for the IFoG 2026.
  • Manage relationships with local community and stakeholders throughout the project and put in measures to continue the relationships beyond the project.

 

Collections Care.

  • Support the Curator with collections care and conservation of both museum collections that we are the custodians of, The Pilkington collection, and the St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council Collection.

 

  • Lead on encouraging community engagement with our collection, including assisting with students, researchers, and members of the public with enquiries about the museum collections, and enquiries about collection acquisitions and donations.

 

  • Assisting with the maintaining of the museum gallery spaces, including environmental monitoring and cleaning of displays.

 

 

Administrative Support 

  • Organise and maintain project evaluation documents and feedback from groups in folders in a way that can be easily accessed from project reporting.
  • Assist in preparing reports and presentations for the funder, and for the Board of Directors.

 

How to Apply:

Email Senior Engagement & Programmes Manager Katie Holmes at katie@worldofglass.com for the full Job Description and Person Specification.

To apply, Please submit an up-to-date CV and a supporting statement to Katie Holmes, Senior Engagement & Programmes Manager. The supporting statement should be no more than two sides of A4. Alternatively, it can in another preferred format i.e. a video, visual, or portfolio, and should highlight why you are applying for the role and the skills and experience you feel that you would bring to our team.

 

 

VOLUNTEERS

At The World of Glass, no two days are the same, and we strive to provide visitors with an excellent experience and our team of volunteers is vital in helping us to deliver this.

Benefits to volunteering at The World of Glass:

 

  • Learn new skills
  • Expect a welcoming environment
  • Socialise with staff and other volunteers
  • Play your part in helping a local charity organisation
  • Reimbursed travel expenses up to £5 per day
  • References provided for future volunteer or job applications.

If any of the following volunteer opportunities interest you, contact us at  Volunteering@worldofglass.com for an application form.

 

Gallery Volunteers

As a small team, we rely on volunteers to help us offer the best possible visitor experience to everyone who walks through our doors. As a gallery volunteer, your role will be to:

 

  • Support visitors as they navigate the site
  • Help visitors understand our collections and spaces
  • provide short tours to visitors when requested
  • Invigilate galleries during exhibitions
  • Assist in gathering feedback and data from visitors which is vital in shaping and improving our future work.
  • Assist with events throughout the year.

All training will be provided along with information about the galleries and exhibitions to ensure you are fully equipped to talk to visitors about the wonders of The World of Glass.

 

Visitor Engagement Volunteers

We are looking for volunteers to help deliver family activities, from crafts to object handling as well as assist with school visits.

 

One of the main focuses of this role will be to deliver our monthly Saturday Crafternoons, which are creative sessions for families held on the 3rd Saturday of every month, as well as assisting in the delivery of school holiday activities, seasonal events, and more.

 

Your help will ensure we give our younger visitors the best possible experience and encourage them to return time and time again. Interested? You should:

 

  • Have experience working with children and families.
  • Feel confident working independently as well as part of a team
  • Be enthusiastic about arts, crafts, education, and heritage.

 

All training will be provided, and you will be given any information needed for the activities you work on.

 

Repair & Care Volunteers

 

Here at The World of Glass, there is always something that needs repairing, from our 25-year-old building needing a bit of TLC, to litter blowing around the site, or young visitors being a little too hands-on while enjoying our galleries. If you’re interested in helping us created lasting memories by maintaining our spaces, you should:

 

  • Be a handy person who knows their way around a screwdriver.
  • Be enthusiastic about our Mission to be an excellent visitor attraction in St Helens
  • Be a friendly and approachable individual, happy to point out the toilets to a lost visitor, as much as you are repairing a broken interactive!

 

All Health & Safety training will be provided, and we have our own tools on site, so no need to bring your own toolkit!

 

Café Volunteers

 

Our café here at The World of Glass is the heart of our service, where many of our regular visitors like to spend their time. As a charity our team is small, so we are looking for Café Volunteers to help us keep the café ship shape, while offering our visitors a friendly face and a warm welcome. Interested? You Should:

 

  • Be a people person with a passion for making people smile.
  • Have a basic knowledge of food hygiene – although no prior experience of food service is required.
  • Have a helpful and outgoing attitude.

 

All training will be provided, and this role is an excellent way to build up skills to add to your CV!

 

Chatty Café Volunteers

 

The World of Glass has joined The Chatty Café scheme, which is an initiative to reduce loneliness by getting people chatting. We would love to offer a Chatty Café table in The Café here at the World of Glass and are looking for a few enthusiastic volunteers to help set up and host these sessions. Interested? You should:

 

  • Enjoy meeting and speaking to new people.
  • Have 1-2 hours a week to help promote and host the table.

 

To become a Chatty Café Volunteer, please contact Volunteering@Theworldofglass.com to speak to Katie – and also apply here Volunteer – Chatty Cafe Scheme UK

Work Experience

If you are a student interested in getting into creative careers such as arts and heritage, then The World of Glass might be the place for you.

 

We currently offer short work experience placements for high school students doing their work experience. Work experience usually lasts a week. If you are interested in doing your work experience with us, we encourage students to reach out to us themselves as this is an important part of learning about the world of work. Contact us via the email address below to enquire about work experience. Please be aware we can only take on 1 student per week for this kind of work experience placements so act fast to avoid disappointment.

 

If you require a longer work placement for college or university, please contact us on the email address below with the requirements of your course and we will be happy to discuss your placement needs. Please be aware we can only take on 1 student at a time for these kinds of placements, and we get lots of requests so get in touch with us early to avoid disappointment.

 

Interested in Work Experience at The World of Glass? We only have a few opportunities a year for this so act quickly to avoid disappointment:

Email Katie on Volunteering@worldofglass.com for more information and for application forms.

 

The World of Glass is a charity (no 1006990) and we work really hard to provide a great service for the people of St Helens and the wider city region. We are unable to do this without the support of our customers and our volunteers. We thank all of our volunteers for their amazing work over the years. THANK YOU!