Contract Type: 3-month contract initially with strong potential for extension
Hours: Flexible (3 – 5 days a week) 7.5 hours per working day
Location: Street Child London HQ (minimum 3 days per week in the office and the remainder at home)
Pay: National Minimum Wage in place at the time
Street Child are delighted to launch the next round of our associate scheme, with several placements available for outstanding, highly motivated individuals looking to launch, or progress, a career in the humanitarian/development sector. The Street Child Associate programme is a fantastic entry-level opportunity to gain a breadth of experience whilst making a serious contribution to Street Child’s vital work. Prior professional experience is not required but is very much valued - this opportunity is highly-appropriate for candidates considering switching careers. Strong academic results and qualifications (e.g. a relevant Masters) are naturally a significant advantage – but we will absolutely consider all engaging, passionate applications. Candidates who demonstrate superb writing abilities will be prioritised.
This is not an internship where you ‘do the photocopying and make the tea’. You will be doing material, varied, hands-on work from day one. Moreover, Street Child has a strong track-record of rewarding outstanding Associates with permanent positions in the UK team; and/or the opportunity to be seconded to one of our country programmes, for those considering a field-career in humanitarian/development.
Associates will have the opportunity to build skills and experience across a breadth of core fundraising disciplines, as well as excellent exposure to the broader programmatic work of the charity, with opportunities for engagement. Key duties may include: research; proposal drafting, design and writing; supporter engagement; participant support & management (for our events & sponsored challenges); data management and administration; communication & social media support. Prior experience in any of these areas is not essential but would be beneficial. What is essential is demonstrating outstanding aptitude, passion, and the desire to make an impact and progress your personal development, fast. You will be supported and supervised well.
Associates are typically recruited into one of the core UK teams - communications; events; programme funding & philanthropy; public fundraising; corporate fundraising; operations & programme support. Opportunities to move teams once recruited are not guaranteed but often become available, especially for high-performers. When applying, is not essential to specify which teams you are especially interested in joining - but you are welcome to.
These are demanding roles (lots of adverts say this, to be clear: here it is true) - and are suited to passionate, ambitious individuals who enjoy being busy, stretched and working hard (actually – again these are not just trite advert lines; this opportunity is only appropriate for those for whom this is accurate!).
Associate roles are paid at the appropriate National Minimum Wage rate and are initially expected to work 3 – 5 days a week during the first 3 months. This arrangement may be positively reviewed at the 3-month stage, especially in the case of excellent performance.
You would be primarily working from our Central London office.
Key requirements:
About Street Child:
Street Child believes that every child deserves the chance to go to school and learn. Our projects focus on a combination of education, child protection and livelihood support to address the social, economic and structural issues that underpin today’s education crisis. We partner with local organisations and communities to deliver our locally rooted programmes, using evidence to drive learning and the refinement and scale up of programmes to create maximum impact for the most children at the lowest cost. We pride ourselves on being willing to go to the world’s toughest places where others won’t, including remote, hard-to-reach areas and fragile, disaster-affected states across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Ukraine. Since 2008 we have helped over 1,500,000 children to be safe, in school and learning.
How to Apply:
To apply for this fantastic opportunity, please send your CV and a compelling covering letter as a combined/single document (max 3-pages) link listed. Please also include a short, accurate statement on how you used AI to develop your application. CVs will be reviewed upon receipt.
Please do not apply if for any reason it is impossible for you to start in-person in Central London for a minimum of 3-days a week in March or April 2026.
Street Child works to see all children kept safe, in school and learning—especially in low resource environments and emergencies.
Our vision is a world where it is seen as unacceptable for a child not to be in education. But today there are 250 million school-aged children around the world who are not in education. Millions more children are in school but failing to learn.
Street Child believes that education is a fundamental right and achieving universal basic education is the single greatest step toward eliminating the inequality gap and global poverty.
We go to places where others don’t go, where we seek out remote, hard-to-reach, fragile and disaster-affected states that are forgotten about and ignored. It’s in these contexts where our pragmatic and cost-effective approaches can make a real difference to a child’s future.
Street Child works to remove the complex social, economic and structural barriers to education wherever they lie. We are there to close the gaps through which the most marginalised children can slip. Our work includes not only building schools and training teachers but also protecting children and livelihood support for caregivers to ensure they can afford the cost of their children’s education.
Wherever we work, we partner with local organisations and communities which allows us to be responsive and nimble. We use simple, low-cost and replicable solutions that allow us to create maximum impact for the most children.
We started out supporting 100 street-connected children in Sierra Leone in 2008. Since then, we have impacted one million marginalised children in over 25 countries around the world.
