BBC Education exists to transform lives through learning and education. That clear vision drives everything we do as we lead the overall education strategy for the BBC.


Our aims are

Provide every child in the UK with a personalised learning experience through BBC Bitesize
Support and Inspire classroom learning with world-class, curriculum linked programming
Help ensure children and young people have resources and opportunities they need to thrive through campaigns such as BBC Microbit and 500 Words


BBC Education is recruiting a Producer to deliver BBC 500 Words 2025-26 the UK's most successful children's story writing competition, which celebrates creativity and imagination rather than spelling, punctuation or grammar. Since it was first launched by the Radio 2 Breakfast Show in 2011 the competition has received over a million stories.


500 Words is now a pan BBC initiative run by Bitesize for Teachers, hosted by The One Show and supported by other programmes across the BBC. The competition is made in collaboration with a wide variety of external partners who help not only deliver the prizes but help increase the reach and impact of the competition.



Main Responsibilities


You will be responsible for delivering the competition, ensuring it runs smoothly, is fully compliant and within BBC editorial and legal guidelines.
You will be responsible for ensuring the competition website has all the relevant competition information, inspires children of all abilities to enter, reflects our diverse audience and supports teachers in the classroom.
You will be responsible for working closely with a wide variety of partners (internal and external) to ensure the competition is not only successful but reaches children of all abilities and backgrounds.
You'll lead, motivate, and support a small team, ensuring that the editorial vision is communicated and understood.
You'll be responsible for project management and timeline of the competition, working closely with the Production Management to ensure it is delivered within budget.


Are you the right candidate?


Experience of developing or delivering educational campaigns for young audiences
Track record of producing, commissioning and complying content for a school aged audience - e.g. films and articles
Demonstrable experience of managing and curating digital content for a website with strong editorial judgement and excellent attention to detail
You'll be extremely collaborative, possess strong negotiating and influencing skills and have extensive experience in working with high profile partners both internal and external to ensure projects are not only impactful but have a wide reach
You'll have the ability to lead and motivate teams to develop creative content which is not only inclusive but engages diverse audiences as well as actively managing team performance
You'll have extensive project management skills with the ability to manage several areas of work at one time, prioritising, delivering consistently to deadlines and reacting positively to changes and conflicting priorities.