View Vacancy - Pro Consul / Community Liaison Officer (KAZ469)

The British Government is an inclusive and diversity-friendly employer.  We value difference, promote equality and challenge discrimination, enhancing our organisational capability. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status or other category protected by law. We promote family-friendly flexible working opportunities, where operational and security needs allow.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Consular Roles)
Consular

The British Embassy in Kazakhstan is part of a world-wide network, representing British political,economic and consular interests overseas and is now looking for a Pro Consul / Community Liaison Officer.

The main focus of the job is to provide assistance to British Nationals and Eligible Persons within Kazakhstan, across the full range of consular assistance cases including amongst others death, hospitalisations and custodial matters, in line with Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Consular) guidance and local conditions.

Pro Consul (75%):

  • Ensure all cases are accurately are recorded onto the operational back-office casework system, support the issuing of Emergency Travel Documents (ETD’s) and provide Notarial/Documentary services for British Nationals while ensuring Consular Business Targets (CBT) are met;
  • Assist British Nationals (BN’s) who have been arrested, hospitalised, detained or died in Kazakhstan;
  • Maintain contacts with local authorities such as MFA/Police, Immigration Officials and liaising with hospitals, families, police, insure companies and other relevant organisations;
  • Deal with cases involving surrogacy, adoption, mental illness, rape/assault and parental child abduction;
  • Provide advice to distressed BN’s who visit the British Embassy and respond to telephone and written  inquiries from and about BN’s who have welfare concerns, are victims of crime or who are “missing”;
  • To maintain/update Local Provider Lists, essencial information and provide input in the Consular content of Posts websites and use social media channels to push out important consular messages;
  • Keep regular contact with Embassy’s Warden’s Network and attend local EU and other co-ordination meetings;
  • Contribute to the Embassy’s Crisis Management Plan (CMP) and in crisis/emergency situations work to fulfil the role as Consular Manager to fully support the Embassy response (sometimes on a shift pattern working unsociable hours);
  • Provide administrative support to the Consular Regional Operations Manager (CROM), HM Consul, Line Manager and London Consular Casework Team.

Community Liaison Officer (CLO) (25%):

  • To be an advocate for and provide support to UK based staff and families on family and community issues, primarily in the areas of information gathering, welfare and communication;
  • Completion Spouse and Partner's reports and conducting annual Cost of Living and Post Hardship returns;
  • Arranging Russian language lessons for UK based officers and spouses/partners;
  • Assisting with Arrival and Departure of diplomats to the Corporate Services Section.

Resources Managed (Staff and Expenditure):

  • Small travel and business entertainment budget.
  • Excellent command of written and spoken English and Russian languages;
  • Experience of handling casework by following policies, practices, guidelines and completing timely, accurate written reports;
  • Excellent listening and communication skills;
  • An experienced problem solver, preferably in a Customer Service role;
  • An ability to deal with distressing or difficult situations in a sensitive manner and maintain a high level of customer confidentiality;
  • Approachable, empathetic with very strong customer care skills;
  • A self-starter that can work well both individually and in a team;
  • Strong analytical and judgemental skills;
  • Good self-management and organisational skills with an ability to plan and prioritise effectively with competing workload under pressure;
  • Ability and willingness to work flexibly and sometimes to be called out of hours;
  • IT proficiency using MS Office, Outlook, SharePoint and ability to learn FCO systems.
  • Experience in living in or understanding of the UK;
  • Previous Consular and Project Management qualifications and experience;
  • IELTS level 6.5 or above for verbal English (or TOEFL equivalent);
  • Good spoken and written Kazakh would be an advantage, but not essential.
26 September 2017
Administrative Officer (AO)
Full-time, Fixed term, with possibility of renewal
36
Europe, Eastern Europe & Central Asia
Kazakhstan
Astana
British Embassy
1
USD
973.85
1 October 2017

This is a full-time position of five working days 36 hours net per week, excluding lunch hours, for an initial contract period of 12 months, which may be extended by mutual agreement. Salary will be USD 973.85 per calendar month (gross). A 13th month salary is payable at the end of the year. Please note that it is the employee’s responsibility to pay individual income tax.

Employees are entitled to 25 working days leave per calendar year at the beginning of service. In addition, the Embassy observes up to 14 days public holidays marking different Kazakh and UK holidays.

The Embassy provides medical insurance for employees and dependants.

All applicants should have the right to live and work in Kazakhstan. The British Embassy does not sponsor for work permits.

The successful candidate will be subject to professional background and security clearance. The successful candidate must have pre-existing work authorisation for the Kazakhstan in order to apply.

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.

Please note that the deadline for applications is 23:55 on the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”.

We advise you to allow enough time to complete and submit your full application, since only applications completed and submitted before the deadline will be considered.

Please be aware that the deadline for submitting applications is considered to be the time zone for the country where the vacancy has arisen.

Please be advised that the British Diplomatic Missions 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 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.