View Vacancy - Consular and Political Assistant A2 (08/21 MPT)

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Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Policy & Political roles)
Consular

Main purpose of job:

To provide a high quality and efficient consular service to British nationals in Mozambique in line with the standards set out in our publication "Support for British Nationals Abroad: A Guide” and Consular Strategy.

To support political work at the British High Commission with a particular focus on Commonwealth, human rights and open societies.

Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve?:

Consular Assistant (50%)

Responsible for providing consular assistance in Mozambique. This may include: visiting people who have been arrested, are in prison or hospitalised; visiting mortuaries; supporting bereaved families and victims of crime, victims of sexual assault and dealing with cases involving child abduction.

The successful candidate will also work closely with colleagues across the Sub-Saharan Africa network and in the UK in order to ensure excellent delivery and consistency of services. The candidate must be able and willing to engage on these challenging issues:

  • Providing support and advice to British Nationals in difficult situations, including at a high pace in times of crisi
  • Managing information, completing returns and other administrative tasks
  • Printing Emergency Travel Documents and assisting the ETD Centre with processing
  • Coordinate consular prevention activity. In Mozambique, this will include working with the comms team to design and deliver communications campaigns to the British community, and building contacts amongst local authorities, British companies, the tourism industry, airlines, wardens, consular correspondents, NGOs, other diplomatic missions etc
  • Act as Secretariat for the Consular Contacts group, including organising meetings and a regular newsletter. Contributing to crisis planning and response in Mozambique, and in the wider region for very serious crises
  • The successful candidate must be prepared to work out of hours if required (see below on time of in lieu/overtime)

Political Assistant (50%)

Support the Political Officer and other members of the Political, Governance and Communications team, and contribute to delivering the British High Commission Country Business Plan.

Maintain a good network of contacts including embassies, and Mozambican ministries and organisations.

Support cross-mission bilateral engagement through requesting meetings, translations, drafting diplomatic documents including letters, Note Verbals etc

Organise visit programmes for a wide range of official visitors, including supporting on logistics and protocol.

Gather relevant information from a wide range of sources, identifying, analysing, and then disseminating the information in an accurate and timely manner.

Draft reports and briefs on the political and social situation of the country.      

The successful candidate must be prepared to work out of hours if required on consular matters, and to cover-to-cover colleagues’ absences (see below on time of in lieu/overtime). There will be opportunities for essential training, and in wider Sub-Saharan Africa for job shadowing and regional resilience.

For many British nationals, the only contact they will ever have with a British mission will be through our consular services, often in times of great personal distress. As a customer-facing member of staff, the jobholder will need to have excellent communication skills and be able to deal with distressing situations in a sensitive manner and with empathy.

The successful candidate will need to be able to demonstrate the following key skills and attributes:

  • Ability to research and follow guidelines, and to plan and prioritise effectively
  • Excellent all-round communication skills to manage customer expectations and deliver difficult messages
  • Excellent customer service skills; ability to respond to a range of customer needs and cultivate strong relationships with customers and stakeholders
  • Calmness under pressure
  • Ability to work well with others - to build and maintain relationships with customers and stakeholders
  • Strong problem solving skills using own judgement
  • Ability to respond quickly to changing priorities, sometimes in pressurised environments
  • S/he should be prepared to react positively to change and ready to try new ways of working
  • Excellent IT and numeracy skills (a working knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Word and Outlook is essential)
  • Fluent in English and Portuguese
  • Understanding of social media
  • Political reporting skills
16 September 2021
Administrative Officer (AO)
Fixed Term, Fixed term, with possibility of renewal
35 hours
12 months
Africa
Mozambique
Maputo
British High Commission
1
USD 1,520.00
1 December 2021
31 December 2022

Learning and development opportunities (and any specific training courses to be completed):

As well as successful completion of relevant online learning for the role, the successful candidate will be required to complete an introductory training course in the first three months of the job.  There are also opportunities to job shadow at other British missions in the region.

Working patterns:

Monday – Thursday 8:00 – 4:00, Friday 8:00 – 1:00

The nature of consular work means that out of hours emergencies can occur.  TOIL (time off in lieu) is given subject to prior agreement by management.  Overtime payments are only made when consular officers are tasked outside office hours by the FCO in London.

The position is for a 12 month contract with possibility of renewable.

  • Please complete the application form in full. Failure to do so may result in a determination that you do not meet the requirements for the position.
  • Employees recruited locally by the British High Commission in Maputo are subject to the Terms and Conditions of Service according to local employment law in Mozambique.
  • All applicants must be legally able to work in Mozambique with the correct visa/status or work permit.
  • 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.    
  • Reference and security clearances checks will be conducted.
  • Any questions you may have about this position will be answered during the interview, should you be invited.
  • Information about the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Competency Framework can be found on this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-competency-framework
  • Successful candidates not resident in Mozambique will be personally liable for costs and arrangements to relocate.
  • Check your application and attachments before you submit your application, as you will not be able to make any changes once submitted.
  • The British High Commission will never ask you to pay a fee or money to apply for a position.

   


Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.

This opportunity is closed to applications.