Student Recruitment and Support Adviser - Welsh Speaking (Cardiff, ENG, GB, CF10 1AP)

Student Recruitment and Support Adviser - Welsh Speaking (Cardiff, ENG, GB, CF10 1AP)Salary: £26707.00

Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education. Find out more about us and our mission by watching this short video (you will be taken to YouTube by clicking this link).

About the Role

More than 16,000 students from communities right across Wales are currently studying with The Open University, and more than two thirds are in employment while they study. The OU works with businesses, charities, unions and public bodies in Wales to help them develop their staff, and encourage more people into lifelong learning, regardless of their background. The OU has students in every single constituency in Wales.

We have an exciting opportunity for a customer service professional to join the frontline team in our Student Recruitment and Support Contact Centre. This is a busy and varied role, where you’ll help our students – and people who are looking to study with us – make decisions about their learning.

Our Student Advisers are the first point of contact for prospective and current students seeking information about study at the OU. The team support students by ensuring they have the information they need to make the right study choices for them, and are able to enrol and pay using their chosen method. The team work with colleagues across the University to support students and enquirers.

The role involves significant telephone work, both inbound and outbound, to provide support to students through their study journey as well as email, letter, webchat and other mediums as necessary. You will need to be confident working with multiple systems, information and databases to maintain student and enquirer details. You will ensure that prospective and current students are given accurate information and you will work with colleagues across the University to provide support. We offer a fully bilingual support service to enquirers and students so that they can communicate with us in their preferred language. These opportunities are for customer service professionals who are confident in their abilities to communicate in either Welsh or English through all channels.

You will receive full training for the role from our existing experienced Advisers who will use high quality materials, followed by regular support, coaching and development from your Team Manager and established team members to build your confidence and knowledge within the role.

We are an innovative organisation and working to develop the support we offer our Welsh language colleagues and learners. As part of your training, you will learn about the bilingual service we provide and how you will be involved in supporting our learners who chose to communicate with us in Welsh. There is a network of Welsh speaking colleagues within the University, and you will be supported and encouraged to use the Welsh language in your day-to-day work.

This role is full time working 37 hours and successful candidates will be required to work to a flexible working pattern which will be between the current opening hours of 8.00am – 6.00pm Monday to Friday.

Please note: leave will be restricted during the initial training period, August, September, October and January as this is the peak operational period.​

Key Responsibilities

Multiple Channel service providers

• Provide information to both enquirers and students using Welsh or English dependent on preference of the learner, and supporting them with registration processes, funding enquiries and general information about The Open University via predominantly inbound/outbound phone calls and emails.
• Proactively transfer calls to specialised teams for further advice and guidance where appropriate as part of an Information, Advice and Guidance model.
• Using your experience and initiative you will navigate and respond to issues, interpreting and applying procedures and guidelines as laid out within agreed policies.

Operational processes and standards

• Carry out any administrative tasks or processes associated with student and enquirer requests in a timely manner.
• Capture student contact and review and update records using University systems.
• Work to a rota as part of a team to ensure that all activity is dealt with promptly and effectively and within agreed Service Levels.
• Meet and strive to exceed the expected service standards as set within our quality framework, delivering a positive experience for all students and enquirers by putting them at the heart of everything you do.

Continuous Improvement and Development

• Embrace our culture of continuous improvement, for example, by engaging with quality initiatives and contributing at team meetings.
• Recognise and celebrate successes, whilst taking ownership to act upon feedback, doing things better with enthusiasm and commitment.
• Seek out opportunities that will stretch and challenge you, openly talking with your Team Manager about your own performance, striving to become a champion in your area of expertise.
• Attend training events and briefings to ensure you have access to accurate and up to date operational information so you are able to adopt correct and evolving business practices and procedures.
• Attend and actively engage in team meetings whilst proactively contributing to business improvement ideas and initiatives to optimise service provision.
• Positively engage in the support and development of new team members.
• Share knowledge and best practice with others across faculties and departments.

About You

Essential

• Ability to communicate confidently in Welsh and English both verbally and in writing.
• Commitment to delivering excellent customer service, with a “can do” attitude and in a professional manner.
• Experience of answering and actioning diverse queries, using a wide range of information sources.
• Good communication skills, both oral and written e.g. effective telephone techniques, use of plain English to explain policies and processes and to write clearly, succinctly and correctly.
• An ability to deal with and follow documented information and procedures: using initiative in problem-solving, whilst recognising boundaries.
• Proven IT skills, including use of Microsoft Office packages.
• Experience of working effectively in a team, and working to meet personal, team and organisational targets
• Good organisational skills including the ability to meet deadlines, working productively and accurately in a high-pressure environment.
• Flexibility including the ability to adapt to changing circumstances (home and office working), duties and work practices.
• Evidence of demonstrating a commitment to ongoing development.
• Ability to carry out the role in a way that is consistent with equality legislation and University policies.

Desirable

• Experience of working in a hybrid model and communicating remotely.
• Experience of working within a higher education environment.
• Experience of working in a multi-channel complex customer services environment and coping with high volume telephone calls, emails and correspondence.
• Experience of working with a customer relationship management system.
• NVQ level 2 or 3 in Customer Services or Information, Advice and Guidance.

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email [email protected] quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

Work Location

It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Cardiff Office, it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be up to 2 days per week, but this could be more often if business needs dictate.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

Interview dates are to be confirmed.

Early closing date notification

While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications has been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented.

If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.

How to apply

To apply for this role, please submit the following documents:

• CV
• A Supporting Statement of up to 1000 words. You should set out in your statement why you are interested in the role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the essential criteria for this role as detailed above.

Applications may be submitted in Welsh, and an application submitted in Welsh will not be treated less favourably than an application submitted in English.

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.