Exam Manager at British Council Nigeria

The British Council is the world’s leading cultural relations organization and creates opportunities for people in the UK and worldwide to understand each other, to work together and learn from one another. We see this as crucial to building secure, more prosperous and sustainable futures for us all. We build trust and understanding between different countries and cultures and develop strong international links that are of benefit to people in Britain and the rest of the world.

We are recruiting to fill the below position of:

Job Title: Exam Manager

Location: Abuja
Department: English &Exams
Pay Band: PB6

Purpose of Job

• To support Examination Services in Nigeria in delivering examinations on behalf of UK examination boards.
• To provide high quality customer experience for our clients and to maintain these relationships at the high professional standards as set out by the British Council’s Quality and Compliance Standards (QCA), examinations boards and partner requirements.
• To manage day to operations of assigned product service portfolio and associated financial budgets.
• To line manage product team and monitor venue staff.

Accountabilities and Responsibilities (including people management and finance)

• Financial control, monitoring and reporting: to manage assigned exams services business to target by monitoring and reporting income and costs on a monthly basis
• Business growth: to support business growth through capacity enhancements and assist with setting country business strategy with Assistant Country Exams Manager, Country Exams Manager and Deputy Country Exams Manager. 
• Reliability: to ensure examinations are delivered securely according to board requirements
• Quality: to deliver a high standard of customer service to our candidates as measured by our own Exams Quality Standards (EQS) and inspection visits from exams boards.
• Leadership: to manage and motivate assigned exams team to achieve challenging objectives
• Establish and maintain positive relations with current and future stakeholders and partners in order to meet business targets.

Main Duties
Examination delivery:

• Responsibility for the full cycle of operations of relevant examinations.
• To ensure that these examinations are delivered to examination board, partners’ and QCA/EQS standards.
• Compliance: To manage inspection visits from examination boards as well as for carrying out regular inspections of examination venues/schools, monitoring security processes against standards set by the examination board and QCA.
• To conduct spot checks of venues/schools and venue staff where necessary. Good recordkeeping is essential of all visits made.
• To respond to and implement appropriately recommendations from exam boards, partners and QCA/EQS reviewers.
• To identify areas for increased efficiency and security in examination delivery and prepare plans to implement these. Oversee implementation of these plans across Nigeria.
• To keep a database of malpractice cases, to monitor these nationally and investigate cases further where necessary. 
• To work towards minimising cases of suspected malpractice.

Business Development, Marketing & Customer Service:

• Planning for Growth: support senior management in development and implementation of Marketing Action Plan (MAP) and other annual planning documents, as required
• To develop and manage a programme of visits to schools/tuition providers or professional bodies to build relationships with existing and potential clients to meet business targets.
• To issue a quarterly newsletter to all attached centres.
• To collect and analyse qualitative/quantitative marketing data in order to development activities
• Seek and use customer feedback to improve service delivery

Stakeholder Management, Training & Educational Projects:

• To support development and management of relevant stakeholders on assigned portfolio. 
• This will encompass either a network of teacher/schools, or portfolio of professional bodies
• To plan teacher training and schools co-ordinator development events for attached and potential attached schools, if required
• To work with exams and other British Council colleagues across Arts and Programmes teams in the planning and delivery of schools/partner-specific events 

Venue Staff:

• To oversee the recruitment, training and monitoring team for exams venue staff for Nigeria.
• To ensure appropriate training of venue staff in Nigeria for relevant examinations is done and takes into account feedback from partners and quality checks.

Budget Management:

• To assist Assistant Country Exams Manager/Heads of product services in planning activity and then to assist on monitoring and managing income and expenditure to agreed targets.
• To report on these targets monthly.
• To identify areas for budget savings while retaining value for money.
• Line Management:
• To line manage assigned staff according to essential HR standards.
• To proactively manage staff performance to ensure targets are met and delivered according to British Council behaviours

General Management:

• To contribute to Nigeria Exams team objectives by attending and contributing to staff meetings.
• To substitute for management team members.

Key relationships:

• Internal: Exams Officers, Customer Service Officers, Assistant Country Exams Manager, Country Exams Manager, Deputy Country Exams Manager, Operations Manager Port Harcourt; Facilities Manager and Assistants; Country Director; Programmes Team – Education, Arts Team. Regional Exams colleagues. UK based global exam colleagues.
• External: Exams Board representatives in the UK and SSA region; venue staff, enquirers, CIE, UK Professional Qualification Bodies, Partners School Global Network (PSGN), Teachers/Principals, test candidates.

Other important features or requirements of the job (e.g. travel, unsocial/evening hours, restrictions on employment etc)

• Travel to administer/monitor/promote examinations and training events in centres outside of Abuja is required, as are overnight and weekend stays. Examination delivery deadlines are absolute; therefore, out of hours working may be required in order to meet these deadlines.
• Assisting across all exams services as required during peak times.

Person Specification
Behaviours:

• Working together (essential): Establishing a genuinely common goal with others.
• Making it happen (more demanding):
• Being Accountable (more demanding)
• Creating shared purpose (essential)
• Connecting with others (essential)
• Shaping the future (essential)

Assessment Stage:

• Interview only

Skills and Knowledge

• Developing Business - Level 2
• Using Technology - Level 1
• Planning and Organising - Level 2
• Managing Accounts and Partnerships - Level 1
• Managing Finance and Resources - Level 2
• Communicating and Influencing - Level 2
• Managing People - Level 2
• Knowledge of the education and qualification systems in the UK and Nigeria.
• English Language proficiency to IELTS band 8.0 in all areas (or equivalent).

Assessment Stage:

• Short-listing and interview

Experience
Essential:

• Two year’s line management and/or leading a team.
• Demonstrated experience managing relationships with external partners and stakeholders
• Monitoring service to quality standards and implementing improvements.

Desirable:

• Three year’s work experience in a related field - exams delivery and/or customer service.
• Developing or managing IT solutions for distance learning and testing.
• Organising and delivering training events.

Assessment Stage:

• Short listing and Interview

Qualifications
Essential:

• Education to degree level or equivalent.

Desirable:

• A business-related degree.
• A qualification in examination delivery.

Assessment Stage:

• Short listing

Remuneration
Starting Salary per annum: NGN 4,946,060.00 Gross. (Negotiable)

Application Closing Date
19th August, 2016.

Start Date
Asap.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Click here to download job details MS Word

Click here to download BC Core Skills (pdf)