Exams Officer (Professional and Educational Exams) 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: Exams Officer (Professional and Educational Exams)

Location: Port Harcourt
Reports to: Centre Manager Manager, Nigeria

Purpose of job

• To support Examination Services in Nigeria in delivering Schools exams and to maintain them at the highest professional standards as set out in the British Council's EQS (Examination Quality Standards), examinations boards and partners.

Context and Environment (e.g. dept description, region description, organogram)

• Nigeria Exams is the largest British Council exams business in the Sub Saharan Africa region.
• It administers exams in four subject areas: Schools, Professional/Vocational, Educational on behalf of UK institutions and IELTS. In 2011-12 we will deliver roughly 65,000 exams to 25,000 candidates.
• The team comprises 19 people and are based mainly in Lagos with two in Abuja and three in Port Harcourt.
• The SSA region delivers exams in over 20 countries from its offices in 16 of these countries. In 2010, we delivered a quarter of a million exams to over 100k candidates.
• Growth in the region is robust, but our challenges are many. Nevertheless, Exams teams are making solid gains in our 4 strategic priority areas, namely: improving business performance, improving quality, improving financial compliance and increasing impact.
• The post holder will join of a team of 4 who administer the growing exams business in Port Harcourt ensuring quality and compliance as well as control of income and expenditure to deliver on target.

Accountabilities and Responsibilities (including people management and finance)

• As Exams Officer the post holder will be line managed by the Centre Manager of Port Harcourt.
• All administrative procedures are in full compliance with examination board regulations and EQS standards.
• Reliability: to ensure examinations are delivered securely according to board requirements
• Quality: to deliver a high standard of customer service to our schools and their candidates. As measured by our own Exams Quality Standards and the inspection visits from Examination Boards.
• Finance: all British Council standards for managing finances are met with relation to income reconciliations, cash handling, managing POs, managing contracts and procurement.

Main Duties

• Pre-test administration for professional and educational examinations in Lagos.
• Booking venues and venue staff for examination sessions.
• Overseeing the taking delivery of examinations materials and checking them prior to exams commencing, packing and returning scripts daily, maintaining logs appropriately.
• Answering enquiries about tests and exams.
• Preparing candidate registration forms
• Exam registration procedures including receiving and collating registration forms, entering and retrieving data on board registration systems, payments and exams correspondence including dispatch of results.

Test delivery:

• Delivering examinations on test days as part of the exams team which includes:
• Supervision of venue staff
• Ensuring adherence test day procedures
• Post-test administration of examinations
• Shredding/disposal/despatch of examination materials while recording this in accordance with boardstandards and keeping accurate records of the movement of live materials
• Effective delegation of duties when absent on leave or through illness etc.

Stock keeping of materials:

• Maintaining logs of examination papers and other related materials
• Venue Staff and Clerical Markers Management
• To be part of recruitment, training and monitoring of venue staff to board and EQS standards.
• To manage venue staff creation and payment.
• To schedule venue staff for examinations sessions.

Finance:

• To prepare and submit income reconciliations to agreed timescales.
• To record income correctly on the FABS system and in a timely manner.
• To monitor income and expenditure budgets and report on these monthly.

Deputising/sickness or holiday cover:

• To deputise, by agreement, for other Examination and Customer Service colleagues in the Port Harcourt office.

Other duties:

• To discharge other centre-related duties and activities as directed by the Centre Manager.

Key relationships

• Internal: Outreach Schools Officer, Country Exams Manager, Deputy Country Exams Manager, Schools Exams Manager, Centre Manager Port Harcourt, Schools Officers in Port Harcourt and Abuja, Customer Service Staff Nigeria, Finance Manager Nigeria. Schools and ELT Project Managers.
• External: CIE, Edexcel, AQA UK and SSA representatives, School Principals, Schools examinations co-ordinators, AISEN and other professional teaching associations, venue staff, enquirers, candidates, Regional Exams Manager.

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

• Travel to administer/monitor examinations in centres outside of Lagos may be required.
• Overnight stays and weekend working may be required.
• Flexible working hours during peak periods (May/June & November/December) is required.
• Examination delivery deadlines are absolute; therefore, out of hours working may be required in order to meet these deadlines.

Person Specification
Behaviours:

• Working together (essential): Establishing a genuinely common goal with others.
• Being Accountable (more demanding)
• Connecting with others (essential): Making regular opportunities to understand others better.
• Creating Shared Purpose (essential)
• Shaping the future (essential): Look for ways in which we can do things better.

Skills and Knowledge:

• Proficiency in Using Microsoft Office Word and Excel.
• English Language proficiency to IELTS band 7.0 in all areas (or equivalent).

Experience:

• Dealing with customers and enquiries in a service environment.
• Providing and monitoring service within quality standards.
• Working quickly and accurately to tight deadlines.
• Experience of handling and reporting on payments from customers.

Qualification

• Secondary School education up to ‘A’ Level standard

Remuneration
2,972,137.00 NGN Gross plus allowances

Application Closing Date
12th December, 2014

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

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