Student Success Associate: Dell Young Leaders

Student Success Programmes

(Twelve‑month fixed‑term contract)

Centre for Learning and Teaching Enhancement

Student Success Programmes

Student Success Associate:
Dell Young Leaders (Post Level
9)

(Twelve‑month fixed‑term contract)

(Stellenbosch Campus)

/039/0226

The Dell Young Leaders programme empowers university students from low‑income backgrounds to overcome their barriers to success and realise their role as leaders in their communities and careers. Getting to university graduation and into a meaningful career is not always easy, that’s why the Dell Young Leaders programme offers relationship‑based support and personalised advice and resources in four areas: academic, financial, wellness and career.

The programme serves more than 1,200 active students (and growing) at three university partners and has an active alumni community of more than 1,300 graduates (and growing year‑on‑year). The goals of the programme are to ensure that at least 86 % of students on the programme make it to graduation and at least 98 % of graduates are placed in the world of work or career‑enhancing further study within three months of graduation.

The Dell Young Leaders programme currently has an open position for a Student Success Associate based at Stellenbosch University (SU). We are seeking an individual who is passionate about delivering support services directly to students to support achievement of the programme’s ambitious goals for graduation and placement outcomes. The incumbent should have the ability to engage directly with students, demonstrating deep commitment to understanding students’ unique circumstances and needs, and case‑managing them to ensure they stay on track to graduate and be placed into graduate employment opportunities as programme alumni.

High energy and empathy, as well as the ability to take on varied student support workflows to deliver on the programme’s vision is a non‑negotiable in this role.

This position seeks an individual who is self‑motivated, connected to the programme’s impact mission, enjoys meeting deadlines and targets, is agile to respond to the changing needs of students, and takes a collaborative approach when working in a small but high‑impact team. The incumbent should have an interest for leveraging technology to drive student support interventions and workflows.

• Implement student risk mitigation and retention strategies and interventions: leveraging programme technology and data to identify students at risk and implementing case management to ensure students are supported to get back on track and meet their university goals; understanding university services to refer students as appropriate; supporting continuous development of the student support offering and resource development and identifying mechanisms to drive efficient coverage of support at scale.
• Deliver academic, wellness, and career readiness advice to Dell Young Leaders students: building strong rapport and trust with students and ensuring that students receive timely assistance across the programme’s support pillars; proactively problem solving for students’ needs to deliver tailored resources and personalised interventions; managing a calendar of consultations and incoming and outgoing student communications.
• Support application, selection and onboarding of Dell Young Leaders students to the programme: ensuring potential applicants are provided with information relating to the programme and participating as a panelist for the interview process to select students who meet the programme’s criteria; delivering onboarding support to ensure students have a clear understanding of the programme offering, building strong programme buy‑in; effectively supporting students to manage the transition to university.
• Maintain contact with Dell Young Leaders students who have transferred universities or have become inactive from their studies: delivering outreach campaigns to inactive and transferred students twice a year; supporting students with plans to return to further studies or other post‑secondary school programmes that can provide…