View Vacancy - Consular Officer A2, Palma de Mallorca (ESP236)
The British Embassy in Spain is part of a global network representing British political, economic and consular interests overseas and is now recruiting for a Consular Officer position in Palma.
With over 300,000 British residents and 15 million British tourists annually, Spain is the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s busiest consular operation globally. The selected candidate will assist the dynamic and professional team based in Palma, in providing a high quality consular service to vulnerable British nationals abroad.
Full induction and training will be provided to the successful candidate.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
- Deliver first class consular assistance and support to vulnerable British Nationals, with a high volume of often complex casework including hospitalisations, deaths, detentions and cases of rape or sexual assault. Examples of the support required may include:
- Visiting patients and providing support to emotional families in cases of serious hospitalisation;
- Providing advice and support to bereaved families, including in cases of murder, suicide or violent/accidental deaths, accompanying to the funeral director as required;
- Providing advice to detainees, visiting prisoners or accompanying victims of sexual assault to court, police or hospital.
- Assist in the preparation and response to a crisis situation involving large numbers of British nationals, such as forest fires, large scale accidents or natural disasters.
- Liaise and attend meetings with local Spanish stakeholders, such as funeral directors, police, courts and social services, as well as local town halls and charities providing support and assistance to British nationals.
- Support the completion of prevention and influencing objectives for Spain North East, helping to reduce preventable consular cases.
- Provide some office support as required, including issuing Emergency Travel Documents, some Information Management duties, including producing basic statistical reports and IT support.
- Proven experience in a Consular or Customer service handling;
- Excellent communication and customer service skills, including an ability to support customers in traumatic or difficult circumstances;
- Excellent interpersonal skills, ability to work collaboratively with colleagues in Spain, Wider Europe Network and the UK;
- Ability to liaise with and manage external stakeholder relationships;
- Attention to detail, strong analytical perspective and problem solving skills;
- Ability to work at pace and prioritise, managing an often heavy workload; excellent organisational skills;
- Fluency in both English and Spanish (a minimum of C2 level**);
- Good IT skills (use of Outlook, PowerPoint, Word and Excel essential);
- Key qualities are flexibility, empathy and resilience;
- Full driving licence
- University degree;
- Experience in a social work or welfare support setting;
- Experience in statistics gathering and analysis;
- An understanding of the issues that British nationals in Spain may face, both tourists and residents;
- Project and event coordination experience.
Terms and Conditions
This is a full-time permanent contract. The working hours are 37.5 hrs per week.
The successful candidate is subject to a confirmation of a background check, security clearance and the successful completion of a probationary period of three months.
The gross monthly salary is € 2.185.14, paid at a locally engaged A2 level.
The successful candidate will be enrolled in the Spanish Social Security Scheme and will therefore not be entitled to any gratuity from the Embassy/Consulate based on gross annual salary.
Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy in Spain are subject to terms and conditions of service according to local Spanish employment law.
Please be advised that Consular positions at the FCO entail dealing with casework in situations that may involve death, detention, rape, assault, post-mortems, prison visits and highly distressed customers. Candidates should therefore have a high level of resilience to trauma.
All applicants should have the right to live and work in Spain. The British Embassy does not sponsor work permits.
Please be advised that the Embassy will not be able to meet the travel costs incurred when travelling to the interview, nor the costs connected with relocation if offered a job.
Please note that you should allow yourself sufficient time to fill in your application in order to be possible to submit.
Please note that this process is open for two vacancies, with different expecting start date: August 2017 and October 2017. Kindly mention your availability on motivation field.
This opportunity is closed to applications.