Main purpose of job:
The main purpose of the role is to ensure delivery of professional and high quality front line consular services to British Nationals and other qualifying persons in Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi.
You will work in line with FCDO guidance as set out in our publication “Support for British Nationals Abroad: A Guide”. You will work with external partners to prevent consular cases such as hospitalisations, detentions, victims of crime and rape and sexual assault.
You will supply British Nationals with Emergency Travel Documents and lead on complex casework such as death, child welfare, mental heath cases.
This is an important role, which requires excellent policy knowledge, a proactive and confident approach and fluent English and Kinyarwanda. Knowledge of French is also desirable.
Roles and responsibilities
Assistance (30%):
- Assist with complex consular cases, maintaining communication with stakeholders externally (local authorities, NGOs, Civil Society and other Embassies) and internally including senior management and London.
- Working with our ETD Centres to provide a responsive Emergency Travel Document (ETD) service. Issuing ETDs to customers, advising on complex ETDs and facilitating interviews at the High Commission.
- Build and maintain a good base of contacts to assist with consular cases.
- Providing advice and support to British nationals who need our help. Working with colleagues across the High Commission, the West, Central and East Africa network, and in London, to make decisions about how we can help people, applying consular policy appropriately. Maintain good records of assistance cases in our case management system.
- Please note that consular assistance often involves talking to vulnerable or traumatised people – empathy, emotional intelligence and resilience are essential. You will be expected to visit people who have been arrested, are in prison or hospitalised; visit mortuaries; support bereaved families and victims of crime including sexual assault, and dealing with cases involving child abduction. You will be supported by a great network of colleagues, and expected to participate in a Wellbeing Supervision programme.
24/7 Services (30%)
- Responding to enquiries from customers about notarial services. Occasionally administering citizenship ceremonies.
- Responding to customer enquiries, over the phone and via email. Maintaining internal systems to ensure customers can reach consular support 24/7. Taking care of consular public areas (inside the High Commission) to maintain a professional appearance.
- Assist the Deputy Head of Mission and Consular Regional Operations Manager in building knowledge of consular issues within the High Commission.
Prevention: (20%)
- Build a network of contacts to help you resolve assistance cases, including local authorities, the tourism industry, airlines, NGOs and other diplomatic missions.
- Updating and publishing content on gov.uk to ensure British people can contact us and can access services online. This includes writing local guidance on issues like bereavement or sexual assault, and collating information about local service providers (lawyers, hospitals etc) on our website.
Crisis (10%)
- Maintain consular crisis equipment
- Be prepared to deploy in a crisis situation to help British nationals.
You will be an integral part of 2 teams: your time will be divided 50/50 across 2 High Commissions. Your immediate team will be based at the British High Commission in Kigali. You will provide remote support to the Consular team in the High Commission in Dar es Salaam. You will also be part of a network of consular officers across West, East and Central Africa.
You will be expected to make a corporate contribution to the High Commission Kigali, as well as participating in regional consular team meetings. There will be opportunities to travel to the UK and within the region, for training and regional resilience.
You will join a supportive, diverse team with a culture of continuous improvement and taking responsibility for personal learning and development. We value a diverse range of skills and backgrounds.
- Empathy, emotional intelligence and good listening skills.
- Experience with Microsoft Office.
Able to prioritise in a fast-paced work environment, working largely unsupervised, delivering to deadlines and agreed targets;
- Experience in a customer facing role
- Experience working in an international environment or in the UK
- Experience working with distressed or traumatised people
- Administrative experience
Good understanding of the Rwandan government institutions and legal system.
1 August 2023
Administrative Officer (AO)
Permanent
Working hours per week :36 hours
Africa Country/Territory
British High Commission
1
The nature of the job may include tasks that some may find distressing, such as prison, hospital and morgue visits. The successful applicant will need to have a high level of resilience.
It is very important that the jobholder be able to work without supervision and feel empowered to ask questions if they need further information.
Because of the unpredictable nature of consular work, additional hours will sometimes need to be worked. Where staff work beyond their conditioned hours, they are entitled to claim time off in Lieu (TOIL) or overtime, depending on the nature of the work and subject to approval.
Learning and development opportunities :
You will be expected to do a range of reading, self-led e-learning, and training courses (both virtual, and in London) during the first 6-8 months of the role. These courses are focused on consular assistance and services.
After the first year, a wider range of learning & development opportunities will open up – both focused on building increased expertise & skills in consular delivery, but also across a range of other subject matter areas subject to the candidate’s interests and career focus including (but not limited to) self-development courses, line management, first aid, budgeting and online publishing. Mentoring and coaching opportunities are part of our standard offer to all staff.
Working patterns:
We support flexible working, balanced with our need to be there when our customers need us. The hours set out below may be flexible for the right candidate.
Working from the High Commission Kigali is preferred, however, we are happy to support hybrid working patterns. You need to be able to access the office to administer Emergency Travel Documents and be responsive if a crisis or urgent consular case arises. You should expect to travel a few weeks per year. See “learning and development” opportunities.
This is a full-time role. Normal team working hours are 0800-17:00 Monday to Thursday and 0800-1200 Fridays
- Please complete the application form in full as the information provided is used during screening.
- Please check your application carefully before you submit, as no changes can be made once submitted.
- The British High Commission will never request any payment or fees to apply for a position.
- Employees recruited locally by the British High Commission in Pretoria are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local employment law in South Africa.
- All candidates must be legally able to work and reside in the country of the vacancy with the correct visa/work permit status or demonstrate eligibility to obtain the relevant permit.
- The responsibility lies on the successful candidate to:
- Obtain the relevant permit
- Pay fees for the permit
- Make arrangements to relocate
- Meet the costs to relocate
- The British High Commission do not sponsor visas/work permits except where it may be local practice to do so.
- Employees who are not liable to pay local income tax on their Mission salary may have their salaries reduced by the equivalent local income tax amount.
- Information about the Civil Service Success Profiles can be found on this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles. Please note: AA=A1, AO=A2, EO=B3, HEO=C4, SEO=C5
- Reference checking and security clearances will be conducted on successful candidates.
- Appointable candidates who were unsuccessful may be placed on a ‘reserve list’. If during the reserve period of 6/12 months the same or a largely similar role becomes available, that role may be offered to the second or subsequent candidate”.
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