IELTS Administrator 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: IELTS Administrator

Location: Lagos
Region: Sub Saharan Africa
Department: English & Exams
Job Category: Exams
Pay Band: Pay Band 7
Reports to: Head of Examinations Operations, Nigeria

Purpose of Job

• Ensure the highest compliance with regulations in the delivery of IELTS in Nigeria.
• Meet challenging business targets and ensure quality British Council Customer Experience is delivered consistently at test sessions across Nigeria.
• Regularly evaluate the quality of service provided through customer feedback, self- and external audits and make improvements accordingly.
• Lead the IELTS delivery team, demonstrating the values, behaviours and knowledge required by examination delivery professionals.

The following are particularly important in the way we work:

• We are completely compliant in all aspects of examination delivery. we are entrepreneurial in seeking and exploiting new opportunities;
• We focus on delivering excellence to the customer in order to achieve maximum impact;
• We work with and through partners to ensure that our work is relevant and to increase impact and sustainability;
• We are forward-thinking in our use of new technologies to communicate with our audiences and to deliver services;
• We are clear and confident about our offer to partners and customers: access to UK excellence; our reputation as a trusted partner and provider; our ability to work across sectors; our access to international networks;
• We put our values - people, creativity, mutuality, professionalism, integrity - at the heart of our work. We are committed to equal opportunity and to the celebration and promotion of diversity and inclusion.

Context and Environment
Current:

• Nigeria, a tier 1 country, has the largest project, programme and exams operations in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We operate from 4 main office locations. Individually, the Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt Exams offices alone are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd largest exams businesses by income in SSA respectively. There are currently 36 members in the exams team, 22 of whom are in the Lagos office. We operate a hub-and-spoke system in Nigeria with the main support functions, Business Support Services (BSS) and customer services, located in Lagos.
• The Exams business in Nigeria has grown significantly in recent years. We doubled our income and volumes between 2011 and 2013. In 2014/15 we delivered 90,000 examinations, this financial year the target is 100,000 exams on a turnover of £8.5m, and by 2016 we expect to double on 2013 figures to 120,000 exams.
• An investment in over 15 new posts in the exams team in Nigeria, of which this is one, will support our doubling ambition and address the issues highlighted below.
• We have a number of challenges namely: team capacity, quality of delivery, security risks and infrastructure restraints which we are addressing through organisational change, capacity increases and technological solutions. The Global New Operating Model for Exams (GNOME) and Global Financial Change projects are critical to our business plans.
• We are a global leader in a cross-SBU project on school quality and engagement in Nigeria, and we are developing a second cross-SBU project on skills and employability - again, a first for the British Council global network.

Accountabilities

• Business development: to assist with growth of the Nigeria IELTS business by assisting with setting and managing the IELTS country business strategy with CEM, Head of Marketing and Head of Operations. Lead on capacity building and enhancement within the IELTS team.
• Financial control, monitoring and reporting: to manage the IELTS business to target by monitoring and reporting income and costs on a monthly basis
• Reliability and Risk: to ensure examinations are delivered securely according to board requirements. To identify risk areas in test delivery and draw up and implement contingency and mitigation plans.
• Quality: to manage a high standard of customer service to our candidates and clients. As measured by our own Quality and Compliance Standards and IELTS partner standards.
• Impact: to achieve impact for the UK and the BC through providing access to quality UK qualifications
• Leadership: to manage and motivate the IELTS delivery team to achieve challenging objectives.

Main Duties
IELTS Test Delivery:

• Responsibility for the full cycle of operations of IELTS tests in Nigeria. To ensure that IELTS tests in Nigeria are delivered to examination board, partners’ and QCA standards. To assist in delivery at peak times.
• Compliance: To manage inspection visits from examination boards as well as for carrying out regular inspections to examination venues across Nigeria, monitoring security processes against standards set by the examination board and QCA. Good recordkeeping is essential of all visits made.
• To lead on conducting spot checks of service delivery where necessary to ensure readiness for unannounced audits. Arrange and conduct self-audits ar required, and devise and implement appropriate service improvement plans.
• To respond to and implement appropriately recommendations from exam boards, partners and QCA reviewers.
• To identify areas for increased efficiency and security in examination delivery and prepare plans to implement these.
• To ensure training of venue staff in Nigeria for IELTS examinations is appropriate and takes into account feedback from partners and quality checks. To lead on recruitment of examiners and clerical markers and that the Professional Support Network standards are adhered to in terms of monitoring and training of these staff.
• To assist with implementation of GNOME-related innovations.

IELTS Business Development:

• Marketing: To ensure that quantitative and qualitative information about IELTS in Nigeria is regularly collected and analysed. To assist with developing and managing appropriate marketing strategies for IELTS and communicate this to IELTS teams across Nigeria. To raise awareness of IELTS in relevant sectors for the purposes of IELTS examiner recruitment.
• Planning for IELTS Growth in Nigeria: Responsibility for increasing the number of IELTS tests as outlined in the Marketing Action Plan: working with CEM and other managers on the IELTS section of the MAP and planning targets for future years, monitoring monthly income received against activity through the financial reconciliation process.

IELTS Preparation Courses:

• To assist the ACEM in delivering preparation courses in Lagos. This includes: assisting with timetabling, room and teacher allocation.

Team Leadership and Management:

• Effectively lead, engage and line manage IELTS officers by providing regular and timely feedback on performance in compliance with all aspects of British Council performance management as set out by HR policies.
• This post is responsible for leading a team of up to 30 examiners, 20 clerical markers and 100 venue staff.
• Recruit for excellence in accordance with corporate recruitment standards, PSN standards and employment law.
• To contribute to Nigeria Exams team objectives by attending and contributing to staff meetings.
• To substitute for management team members.

Service Delivery and Improvement:

• Lead on the implementation of the IELTS delivery improvement plan.
• Manage internal stakeholder relations including implementation of Service Level Agreements with key departments, review and revision of these as appropriate. Agreed standards are met and stakeholders are kept up to date through regular reports and/or meetings.
• Manage the team to ensure appropriate staffing levels are maintained at all times in line with IELTS standards and customer needs.
• Map the Customer Journey, measuring the Customer Experience regularly to make improvements.
• Communicate the branded Customer Experience to IELTS staff, venue staff and examiners. Evaluating service performance and continuous service improvement.
• Regularly evaluate the level of customer service being provided and use the results to implement improvements to IELTS test takers. Evaluate through: Scorecard, customer satisfaction questionnaires, Customer Comments, Net Promoter questionnaires, Mystery Shopping results, customer focus groups QCA and conversations with test takers and members of staff.
• Work with the Customer Service Manager and Head of Marketing to evaluate customer feedback with a view to service improvement and to identify new markets.
• Communicate improvements, customer insights and success stories to customers and staff; including the global IELTS network.

Continuous Professional Development and Performance Management:

• Recognise learning gaps and address these with training, coaching or shadowing and address performance issues quickly, effectively and in line with HR policy.
• Ensure the continual professional development of the IELTS Team, venue staff and Examiners by putting development plans in place and offering quality induction, training and coaching required allowing them to fulfil their duties to the highest standards.
• Ensure that own professional development and training is continued
• Line manage up to 6 members of staff according to essential HR standards.
• Manage overtime, time in lieu and annual leave in line with financial control standards and in order to minimise costs.

Staff Management:

• Direct: Assistant IELTS Administrator
• Indirect: IELTS Officers in Kano and Port Harcourt.

Key Relationships:
This list is not exclusive but demonstrates that the range of internal relationships reflects the range of external ones.
Key internal relationships include:

• Nigeria Exams Senior Management Team
• Examinations Managers
• SBU leads - especially Education and English
• Examinations Services staff
• Examiners
• Venue staff

Key external relationships include:

• Regional IELTS Management Team
• Regional Exams Team
• Examiner trainers and co-ordinators
• UKVI, UKTI, DFID
• Educational agents
• Tuition providers
• British Council Schools Network (BCSN)
• NUC
• Heads of English Language departments at colleges of Higher Education
• NCE

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

• Travel to monitor test day delivery and to lead training and promotional events in centres outside of Lagos is required; therefore, occasional out of hours working including overnight and weekend stays is required.
• Examination deadlines are absolute, so early morning stars and evening working may be required.

Skills and Knowledge

• Business Management and Development - Level 1
• Computer Skills - Level 2
• Marketing and Customer Service - Level 2
• Financial Management - Level 1
• English Language proficiency to IELTS band 8.0 in all areas (or equivalent).
• Good presentation skills.
• Knowledge of the education and qualification systems in the UK and Nigeria.

Experience

• Two years' experience at middle management level of line managing a geographically dispersed team.
• Two years' experience of leading a customer service-orientated team to meet challenging targets.
• Two years' experience of monitoring service to quality standards; devising and implementing improvements to these.
• Experience of regular event management for audiences of over 200 people.
• Experience of managing an examination delivery team.

Qualifications

• Education to degree level or equivalent.
• A business-related degree.
• A qualification in customer service or examination delivery.
• A teaching qualification.

Application Closing Date
6th July, 2015.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Click here to download job details MS Word

Click here to download BC Core Skills (pdf)

Click here to download BC Behaviours (pdf)