View Vacancy - Visits, Immersion Programme and Support officer (Political Section)
Note : All applicants are required to mandatorily fill the complete online application form including the employment and educational details, motivational segment and the competency based questions. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Please Note: This is a fixed term position for a period of 12 months.
Main purpose of job:
This role is at the heart of the political section and High Commission, working to plan and deliver high quality VIP and senior visits that further UK / High Commission objectives and meet customer expectations. The Delhi visits schedule is one of the most varied and high profile in our overseas network - calmness under pressure, creativity, confidence in dealing with senior stakeholders and decision-making skills are crucial. In return you will get a high level of exposure to senior leadership and witness diplomacy in action.
You will also be responsible for managing a refresh of our approach to immersion programme for senior staff, working with our network of DHC teams to put in place relationships to ensure a sustainable approach to immersion programmes. You will work as part of a small team supporting visits, events and business management for the political team.
Roles & Responsibilities:
Visits, Events and projects
- Work with the Head of the Visits unit and across the Mission to plan and deliver VIP visit programmes that support wider High Commission objectives, including through innovative visit events and site visits.
- Provide on the ground support and act as visit lead during VIP visits when necessary, managing logistics and programme.
- Commission briefing for visits and quality control the standard of briefings from across the mission.
- Provide administrative support (e.g. write official correspondence, book travel, process payments) for Ministerial and other official VIP visits and events.
Immersion Programme
- Coordinate high quality cross-India immersion programmes for UK-based diplomats joining the India network.
- Review and design new immersion guidance,processes and promotional material, by developing sustainable relationships and partnerships with external contacts and providers (e.g. language schools and voluntary schemes) ensuring that these meet procurement guidelines and demonstrate value for money.
- Quality control: monitor and ensure a high standard of programme content and logistics.
- Liaise directly with senior incoming staff and the immersion coordinator in London.
- Manage a budget of INR 1,300,000 per year and provide regular reporting on immersion spend accounting for value for money
Financial and Office Management
- Manage the immersion budget – tracking spend against forecast and regularly reporting to team heads
- Process payments for the Political Team
- Maintain the team’s IT filing system and ensure folders are correctly set up, labelled and archived as required.
- Update and maintain database of political contacts and visits calendar.
- Assist the Political Team with other ad-hoc administrative tasks such as scanning, travel/transport bookings etc.
- Flexible support to the Department on priority projects/goals.
What we do:
This position will provide the successful candidate with excellent experience in a pivotal role in the Political team, one of the busiest teams in the mission. A large number of VIP and official visits are managed by the Political Team each year, as well as regular high profile events and ongoing bilateral projects and programmes.
What we want from you:
This is a fascinating role working at the heart of the British High Commission. The successful candidate will work on a range of high profile tasks, including delivering creative visits, immersion programmes and supporting the political team delivering across a range of interesting objectives. There will be opportunities for the job holder to develop their own and use their initiative and creativity to meet their goals.
The successful candidate will be a key part in a large team, and must establish relationships with colleagues in both the High Commission and the network across India, as well as external contacts. Therefore strong interpersonal skills are essential. This will be especially important in managing the Immersion Programme where the candidate will be required to use their own initiative in setting up interesting and useful programme elements for new UK staff with a range of external organisations and contacts.
The candidate will need to manage administrative, budgetary and logistics processes to the highest possible standard. The successful candidate will need to be systematic and thorough in their approach to tasks, have strong initiative and excellent attention to detail, a ‘can do’ attitude and resilience under pressure. They should have a strong focus on achieving value for money and efficiency.
Strong IT skills will be essential for the candidate to perform their role effectively as well as supporting other members of the team.
The successful candidate will also be fully involved in many of our high profile VIP visits, providing crucial admin and budget management support, as well as being involved in delivering various elements of the visit programme. The successful candidate will need to have strong problem solving skills and be able to deliver at pace to provide effective on the ground support to VIP visits.
We are looking for someone who is enthusiastic, a good team-player, a self-starter who is keen to use their initiative, deliver quickly and efficiently, and can produce a high quality immersion programme.
Working at the heart of the British High Commission, the job will particularly suit someone with a strong interest in politics, international affairs and the UK.
The British High Commission offers an excellent package of structured training, mentoring, job-shadowing and supports staff to have a good work/life balance.
Security clearance required:
Please note: The role will involve access to and handling of classified or sensitive information. All applicants must therefore be able to achieve the UK’s SCE level of security clearance or already hold it.
Because of the security clearance requirement mentioned above, only nationals of the following countries are eligible to apply:
UK, EU, EEA, Canada, Australia, USA, New Zealand
Essential on arrival:
- 1-2 years of relevant experience
- Expeirence in Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint
- Previous office skills – including experience of working in a busy office environment and team working
- Experience of prioritising and using own initiative to deliver work in an office environment
- Experience managing budgets and processing payments
- Basic Graduation
For British High Commission (BHC) candidates, the Local Staff BHC Terms & Conditions will apply.
For other than BHC candidates, salary will be INR 62,826+ Security allowance (80%) + 18% of basic in lieu of PF and SAF
Additionally the BHC offers a great benefits package that includes annual domiciliary medical cover, plus a Group Hospitalisation Scheme with Rs. 500,000 floater cover for your immediate family.
The BHC is recognised as a good employer, with a robust, fair and transparent performance management & appraisal system linked to increments and staff bonuses. We have a 5-day working week, plus annual leave, public holidays, maternity leave provision, special leave, paid sick leave provision; ample development opportunities, travel opportunities, a good organisational culture, and excellent work/life balance.
Around half of our work force is women. We treat people with respect and equality and have a policy of zero tolerance for any form of discrimination, bullying, or harassment.
This is a good opportunity to be part of a strong, diverse team, working in the biggest network that FCO has anywhere across the globe. We are aiming to make it the best.
'Note : All applicants are required to mandatorily fill the complete online application form including the employment and educational details, motivational segment and the competency based questions. We will be thoroughly reviewing the application forms only for all the required details. Forms that are incomplete in any respect will not be considered while shortlisting for the next stage.’’
Security clearance required:
Please note: The role will involve access to and handling of classified or sensitive information. All applicants must therefore be able to achieve the UK’s SCE level of security clearance or already hold it.
Because of the security clearance requirement mentioned above, only nationals of the following countries are eligible to apply:
UK, EU, EEA, Canada, Australia, USA, New Zealand.
To Apply:
Please note applications without (a), (b) will not be considered.
a) Complete the Online Job Application Form.
b) Complete the motivation segment in the Online Application Form and the competency questions.
‘‘Internal candidates applying for this position need to upload their appraisal forms for the previous 2 years (if applicable). They should also inform their current line managers, and check for the eligibility clause if on probation, else the applications will not be considered.’’
We will accept only online applications by “24 Jan 2020” midnight.
- Applicants who do not have the required qualification & experience should kindly abstain from applying, as their applications will not be considered.
- Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and no telephone enquires will be dealt with.
- The appointment will be subject to Police Verification and other checks including references, educational and professional.
Note : All applicants are required to mandatorily fill the complete online application form including the employment and educational details, motivational segment and the competency based questions. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
We welcome all applications irrespective of age, race, colour, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief or creed. We are also open to applications from people who want to work flexibly.
This opportunity is closed to applications.
