View Vacancy - ROK - Pro Consul A2
To provide a full range of consular services to British nationals in South Korea. To support and work alongside the Vice-Consul on the full range of assistance case work - see below for further details.
The Pro Consul will be working within a small team and will be expected to deliver customer services to a high professional standard with empathy, flexibility and resilience. This is a challenging but rewarding job which will allow the job holder to improve and develop customer service skills, gain experience of supporting people in difficult circumstances and work in an international English language environment.
The team works within a supportive Asia Pacific Consular region and works closely with colleagues to provide wellbeing and resilience to all consular staff.
Assistance provided is through modern and efficient consular services in line with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Consular Services Strategy, Consular Guidance and Customer Charter, local procedures, guidance and performance standards.
Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve?
Providing consular assistance to British nationals who are travelling or resident in South Korea - 50%
• Visiting detained British nationals in police stations and prisons, explaining procedures and monitoring welfare, writing visit reports for family and taking follow-up action with the Korean authorities and London Consular teams as required;
• Leading on straight forward assistance cases and supporting the Vice-Consul (VC) on more complex casework. Assistance work includes issues such as victims of crime, hospitalisations, parental child abduction, mental illness, rape and sexual assault, missing persons and arrests or hospitalisations of potentially vulnerable individuals;
• Explaining procedures and assisting bereaved family in the event of a death;
• Providing consular assistance during crisis.
Outreach to local authorities and partner organisations - 20%
• Liaison with central Ministries and local authorities; maintain and build a network of contacts with the Korean authorities (e.g. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, police stations, detention centres, prisons, hospitals, airports, immigration);
• Active outreach to partner organisations (embassies, NGOs, charities, churches and other civil society groups) to establish further sources of assistance for British nationals;
• Help organise visits, seminars and events to engage stakeholders on key areas of policy;
• Assist with informal translation and interpreting.
Provision of fee-bearing notarial and documentary services in line with Consular Guidance - 10%
• Lead on providing fee bearing services, ensuring the appropriate fees are taken;
• Issuing marriage affirmations and affidavits;
• Preparing same-sex marriage and Civil Partnership registrations;
• Providing other documentary services;
• Processing Emergency Travel Documents (ETDs) to replace lost, stolen and expired passports.
• On a monthly basis review and complete budget sheets for consular fees and credit card payments.
Assistance with South Korea network crisis preparations/corporate contribution - 10%
• Participation in Embassy consular crisis team; support organisation of crisis exercises; use and support non-consular colleagues on the Crisis Hub platform (the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s consular database for use in crisis);
• Lead on one area of the consular crisis response.
Staff and resource management, and personal development - 10%
• Using 70:20:10 model focus on own learning and development in line with a Personal Development Plan;
• All staff are expected to take on a specific corporate responsibility in support of wider Embassy goals.
• Computer literate, working with Microsoft Windows
• Ability to follow guidelines and plan and prioritise effectively;
• Ability to work well with others and to build and maintain relationships with customers and stakeholders;
- Understanding of how local authorities in Korea operate would be an advantage
- Previous customer service experience
This vacancy is for a 1 year fixed term contract which may be renewed at the end of the contract period.
The British Embassy in Seoul offers a full range of L&D opportunities, including learning sets, e-learning and face-to-face classes. Online courses and on the job learning will form the core of the jobholder’s induction into embassy work and these may be enhanced by an additional induction course in the UK. Every member of staff is entitled to 5 L&D days per year.
While some evening work and travel overseas (which might include weekends) and within Korea is required, we promote family-friendly flexible working opportunities, where operational and security needs allow.
Learning and development opportunities (and any specific training courses to be completed):
- A mandatory week long core training course in the UK
- Consular online learning courses
- Regional training courses available to support skills development
- Embassy learning and development fund available for bids for non-job specific training
No accommodation or relocation expenses are payable in connection with this position. The applicant must have or be able to obtain work authorisation in Korea in order to apply. Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy Seoul are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local Korean employment law.
All applications must be received before 28 November 2018 at 23:55 Korea Standard Time.
Incomplete application forms will not be taken into consideration, so please ensure you provide the information requested. We regret to advise that we will only be contacting short-listed candidates. Applicants called for an interview will be assessed on the core competencies listed above.
The successful candidate should be able to start as soon as possible.
While most of the consular casework is in Seoul and the wider area, the jobholder will be required occasionally to travel in South Korea at short notice to provide assistance to British nationals.
Opportunities to support the wider Asia Pacific consular network in the region as part of a resilience network may also be available.
As the Global Response Centre (GRC) in London handles all out of hour’s consular cases, the Embassy has no consular duty officer. In practice, most out-of-hours calls are dealt with by London and any action by the Embassy is taken the next working day. However, if the GRC judge a case requires an emergency consular response, the jobholder – if they are available – may be asked to assist out of hours. A “cold call-out” payment will be made in these circumstances.
This opportunity is closed to applications.
