Now Hiring: Service Design Assistant
ONELAB | East London | Freelance, Term Time Only
Support Young Creatives.Apply Service Thinking. Help Reimagine What Education Can Be.
AtONELAB, we are building a different kind of college - one where creativity, care, and courage shape the future of education for young people with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities).
Based in Tower Hamlets, East London, ONELAB is aspecialist creative collegefor learners aged 16 to 25 working towardsUniversity of the Arts London (UAL)qualifications. We offer a radically human model of education - one that blends art, design, strategy and social justice to unlock the full potential of every young person who walks through our doors.
We are now seeking aService Design Assistantto join our growing team - someone who will workdirectly with learners in sessions, while bringing aservice design mindsetto help shape how we teach, collaborate and create meaningful learning journeys.
This is afreelance,term time only,onsite and in personrole, Monday to Friday.
The Role
As a Service Design Assistant at ONELAB, your primary focus will be tosupport learners in creative sessionsas they develop ideas, build portfolios and work towards their UAL qualifications.
What makes this role different ishowyou show up: you bring a systems-thinking lens, a curiosity for how people engage with services, and a desire to improve not just what we deliver, but how we deliver it.
You will support learners to reflect on their own experiences, understand the systems around them, and develop their own ideas for service based projects that explore equity, access, and social impact. You will also support staff to embed service design tools - like mapping, co-creation and prototyping - into the studio environment.
This is a unique opportunity toapply service design thinking inside a living, breathing, creative college model- not just as a strategy exercise, but as a way of being with and for young people.
Key Responsibilities
* Provide hands on creative and practical support to young people in learning sessions and project work
* Help learners develop their design thinking, storytelling and problem solving skills through a service design lens
* Support delivery of real world briefs and collaborative design challenges that may include identity, access, equity, belonging and systems change
* Introduce tools such as journey mapping, insight gathering, experience prototyping and systems diagrams to enrich learning
* Collaborate with designers/educators to support learners working towards UAL accredited qualifications
* Bring fresh thinking to how we structure, deliver and document our curriculum and studio experience
* Model curiosity, care and experimentation in your day to day interactions with learners and the wider team
About You
* A developing or early stage background in service design, social design or human centred design
* Experience working directly with young people in any context - education, youth programmes, creative workshops or community settings
* A strong communicator who knows how to support, not direct - who listens well and works with care
* Comfortable facilitating and documenting processes like journey mapping, service blueprints or design sprints
* Familiarity with inclusive practices and an understanding (or willingness to learn) about SEND education
* Enthusiastic about workingin person, in real time, with learners and staff every day
* Creative, flexible and up for co creating a new model of creative education from the inside out
The Essentials
* Contract type: Freelance
* Schedule: Monday to Friday, Term Time Only
* Location: ONELAB College, Tower Hamlets, East London
* Start date: Monday 18 th August 2025
Why ONELAB?
* Be part of a trailblazing college where design, justice and education meet
* Apply your service design thinking in a live, inclusive, creative environment
* Work alongside an interdisciplinary team of designers, educators, and young disruptors
* Help shape a learning journey that is relational, experimental and deeply human
* Make an impact not just in the studio - but in the systems that shape lives
How to Apply
If you are a service design thinker who wants to bein the room with learners- not just working on frameworks, but supporting futures - we want to hear from you.
Application Deadline: Monday 14 th July 2025
Interviews: Held on a rolling basis
Come support the next generation. Come design education that works. Come join ONELAB.
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