View Vacancy - Consular Assistant A1, Palma (ESP81)

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 Consulate in Palma de Mallorca is looking for two Consular Assistants, to join their dynamic, and experienced consular team and ensure a high quality, professional and efficient consular service to visiting and resident British nationals to Palma.

With a customer base of over 300,000 British residents and over 15 million British tourists each year, Spain is the FCO’s busiest and highest profile consular operations.

The main purpose of the job will be to provide a high level of support to the consular team in a fully engaged and proactive member whilst, attending to members of public at the counter.

The successful candidate will also be responsible for processing Emergency Travel Documents (ETD’s) for British nationals whose passports have been lost or stolen, provide support in back office work and projects for the rest of the consular assistance team.

This will include filing, general administrative tasks, taking telephone calls and answering written enquiries by email or letter.

Main Duties / Responsibilities

  • Deliver first class customer service to British nationals approaching the Consulate for assistance, effectively dealing with the counter, emails and telephone enquiries.
  • Process Emergency Travel Document applications, ensuring production is accurate and timely. Also provide support to more vulnerable customers in completing the process.
  • Provide back office support to the consular team with tasks such as electronic filing, post, updating documents and producing basic MI reports, as well as programmes for external visitors.
  • Support the Prevention Champion for Spain North East in ensuring prevention objectives are met. This could include liaising with external partners or stakeholders, setting up meetings and assisting with the organisation of events, as required.
  • May also be required to 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 of assisting British nationals overseas.
  • Diary management/experience organising events.
  • Experience in statistics gathering and analysis.
  • An understanding of the issues that British nationals in Spain may face, both tourists and residents.
3 March 2017
Administrative Assistant (AA)
Full-time, Temporary
37.5
Europe, Eastern Europe & Central Asia
Spain
Palma de Mallorca
British Consulate
2
EUR
1,735.66
1 April 2017

Terms and Conditions

This is an indefinite position of 6 months every year on a recurring basis for similar periods each year, subject to a suitable performance appraisal. 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 and should be available to start working as soon as possible from April 2017.

The gross monthly salary is € 1,735.66 paid at a locally engaged A1 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.

Regarding taxation, the Consulate in Palma is part of the British Mission in Spain, and as such supervised by the British Embassy. The Embassy is a Diplomatic Mission with tax exempt status and does not collect taxes for other States. Employees are fully responsible for payment of Spanish income tax at the legally required rate. Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy in Spain are subject to terms and conditions of service according to local Spanish employment law.

Applications

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

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 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.