Assistant Country Examinations Manager at British Council Nigeria

The British Council is the world’s leading cultural relations organization and creates opportunities for people in the UK and worldwide to understand each other, to work together and learn from one another. We see this as crucial to building secure, more prosperous and sustainable futures for us all. We build trust and understanding between different countries and cultures and develop strong international links that are of benefit to people in Britain and the rest of the world.

We are recruiting to fill the below position:

Job Title: Assistant Country Examinations Manager

Location: Abuja
Reports to: Country Examinations Manager, Nigeria

Purpose and impact of job

• To provide strategic and professional leadership towards the achievement of an Abuja exams business strategy, and support the wider Nigeria Exams strategy.
• To be responsible for the growth and effective delivery of the exams business in Abuja in line with exams quality standards and awarding body requirements.
• To ensure excellence in customer service standards, and implement an operational development programme for more effective and efficient working.
• This post is responsible for the administration of teacher management, service delivery and business development of newly planned IELTS preparation courses in Nigeria.
• Principal areas of responsibility include business development - mainly IELTS preparation courses, people management - with an emphasis on developing management capacity in Abuja; compliance with quality, security and customer service standards (Teaching & Exams Quality Standards and Quality & Compliance Assessment requirements) and financial management.

Context and environment

• Nigeria, a tier 1 country, has the largest project, programme and exams operations in SSA.
• We operate from 4 main office locations. Individually, the Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt Exams offices alone are the 1st, 3rd and 4th largest exams businesses by income in SSA respectively.
• There are currently 34 members in the exams team, 8 of whom are in the Abuja office.
• We operate a hub-and-spoke system in Nigeria with the main support functions (BSS and customer services) located in Lagos.
• The Exams business in Nigeria has grown significantly in recent years. In 2013/14 we delivered 65,000 examinations, this financial year the target is 78,000 exams on a turnover of £7.5m, and by 2016 we expect to double on 2013 figures to 120,000 exams. We have shown initial successes with a cross-SBU project on school quality in Nigeria, and we are developing a second cross-SBU project on skills and employability.
• We have a number of challenges namely: management capacity, national social tensions, security risks and infrastructure which we are addressing through organisational change, capacity increases and technological solutions.
• The GNOME and Global Financial Change projects are critical to our business plans.

Accountabilities, responsibilities and main duties
Examinations Delivery:

• Quality standards, security and compliance
• The ACEM will ensure that the Abuja centre is consistently complaint in its examinations delivery.
• This involves performing reglularly EQS and other examination board-specific checks and implementing procedures and training for staff to ensure these standards are understood and met.
• The post holder will ensure that each member of staff is actively a persuing points of excellence and will promote and disseminate best practice among centres in Nigeria and the region.
• The post holder will assist with assessing risk in examination delivery and make contingency plans for examinaiton delivery during times of security threats or social unrest.

Customer service:

• To improve customer service in Abuja by leading customer service team in embedding the Customer Management Framwork and other customer relationship management processes. 
• To ensure that customer feedback is regulalry gathered, analysed and acted upon by all exams product managers in Abuja. Corporate targets for customer service are met.

IELTS Preparation Courses:

• To manage the design and launch IELTS prep courses in Nigeria. These will be delivered through our 4 regional offices to TQS standards.
• To monitor delivery of preparation courses across Nigeria; and recruit and manage the team of teachers employed to deliver them.

Relationship management:

• To assist with developing and managing exsting and future relationships with examination boards, clients and other stakeholders.
• Business development and management
• To assist the Country Examinations Manager (CEM) in developing and implementing examinations business plans for Nigeria.
• To implement these plans and monitor and report on performance on a monthly basis.
• This involves analysing the market, assisting with develping a marketing action plan and financial plan.

Procurement:

• This post assists with reviewing and monitoring procurement processes in the examinations department to ensure that due dilligence is followed and procured goods and services represent good value for money.

Financial Planning and Management:

Planning and forecasting:

• To produce a financial plan for IELTS preparation courses in Nigeria and to assist with preparing financial plans for exams activity in Abuja.
• To cost activity, including cost benefit analysis where appropriate, and construct pricing structures. To use forecasting as a tool to identify patterns/trends in expenditure/income.

Monitoring and reporting on exams budgets:

• To monitor and provide monthly assurance on budgets, income reconciliations and business plans for Abuja.
• To analyse and interpret financial data in order to make appropriate recommendations/proposals to business plans/projects.
• To report directly and appropriately with internal and external stakeholders on financial matters.
• To ensure capacity for growth and development of the exams business and preparation courses (which are delivered though the Exams SBU).
• To explore and implement means of improving efficiency and reducing delivery costs

HR, Line Managment and Building Management Capacity:

• To mentor two examination managers in Nigeria to develop and position them for more responsibility.
• Currently there are 34 staff members working in the Examinations Department in the British Council in Nigeria. The ACEM for Abuja will line manage up to six people according to British Council HR standards.
• The ACEM will assist the CEM in planning and resourcing the annual Nigeria Exams training plan.
• The ACEM will assist the IELTS BDM with IELTS examiner recruitment.

Other management duties:

• To deputise for the CEM in his/her absence.
• To perform other managerial/operational duties by agreement with line manager.

Key relationships (include internal and external)

• Country Director and Deputy; Country Examinations Manager; DCEM (Compliance); Centre Managers: Abuja and Port Harcourt; Communications Manager, Nigeria; REgiaonal Exams Team; Country and Regional English Team, Nigeria; Country and Regional Finance team; Regional Examinations team; Nigeria- and UK-based examination board representatives; Country, Regional and E+E HR BPs.

Other important features or requirements of the job (e.g. travel, unsocial/evening hours, restrictions on employment etc)

• Examination deadlines are absolute, so evening and weekend working may be required in order to meet deadlines.
• Travel to teaching and examination venues across the whole of Nigeria for quality and security standards is necessary. As some examinations take place on Saturdays, occasional weekend working will be required to monitor these sessions.
• Travel to develop the business, aminatin exisitng stakeholder relations and meet new clients is required in Abuja and wider northern Nigeria – where travel resrictions allow.
• Attendance at some annual meetings in the region, the UK and elsewhere is required.

Requirements
Qualifications:

• A first degree or equivalent (substantial work experience in a related field may be considered in lieu of a first degree).
• TEFL-Q (E.g. DELTA, DTEFLA, Dip Tesol or equivalent qualification) plus two years’ post qualification experience in aspects of Teaching Centre management.

Behaviours:

• Working together (more demanding)
• Making it happen (more demanding)
• Shaping the future (more demanding)
• Being accountable (more demanding)
• Creating shared purpose (more demanding)
• Connecting with others (more demanding)

Skills and Knowledge:

• Business Management and Development Level 1
• Financial Planning and Management Level 1
• Marketing and Customer Service Level 2
• Teaching skills Level 3
• Computer Skills Level 2

Experience:

• Managing aspects of teaching operations to quality standards and business targets.
• Recruitment, management and training of EFL teachers to quality standards.
• Experience of reviewing business processes and implementing efficiencies/enhancements to these.

Remuneration
££ 25,150 per annum

Application Closing Date
15th December, 2015

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

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