Corporate Services Officer at British Council in Ukraine

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.

We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications.

Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.

British Council Pay band:  4 / H

Department:   Teaching / Corporate English Solutions

Contract type: One year FTC

Closing Date:  Tuesday, 10th December, 2024 (23:59 GMT)

Location: Ukraine, Kyiv

You must have the legal right to work in the stated location.  You are not required to relocate.

British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working, subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service.  This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.

Role Purpose:

The Corporate Services Officer (CSO) co-ordinates the details of service delivery execution for corporate contracts and leads on financial management and customer care duties towards our corporate clients from the B2B, B2G and B2I sectors.

The postholder is involved throughout the customer journey from the initial signing of contract through the delivery stages and finishing with the organisation of end of course customer reports and feedback. This is then followed by further engagement with the client and the cluster Sales Account Manager on future agreements and details of repeat and/or new business.

Liaising effectively with Operations and Customer Service teams locally and regionally, the CSO will engage frequently with contracted corporate clients to ensure delivery standards are maintained and the financial management of each contract is carried out compliantly and to agreed deadlines.

The role is a critical one as the postholder leads the back-end processes once sales opportunities have been closed with our growing number of corporate clients.

Role Context:

Over 70% of our Adult students taking English training with the British Council are professional workers aged 25-39. The need to improve language levels, demonstrate workplace skills in English and obtain qualifications remains a priority for public and private sector employees globally. The British Council English division offers face to face, online and blended solutions to companies and organisations across our global network to help meet these needs.

The corporate sector has been one of the more resilient sectors in terms of continued demand for training since the onset of the pandemic. To better meet this demand, we have broadened our range of quality products and now provide a mix of solutions to clients in keeping with the changing demands of young professional workers and their employers.

Alongside the new portfolio of products, we are investing in prospecting tools and increased levels of targeted B2B marketing campaigns to improve levels of lead generation for our Sales and Account managers to oversee and close.

The CSO role will work closely with the other key corporate services related posts including the cluster Sales and Account Manager, and the Business Development Executive. There will also be a need for regular interaction with Teaching Operations colleagues and members of the Academic and Customer Management teams to ensure high standards of delivery.

The CSO role will be required to work together with their counterparts within the cluster (Black Sea and Wider Europe) in coordinating the delivery of various teaching projects, including cross-border ones, as well as supporting Corporate English Solutions (CES) colleagues across cluster in operational tasks related to B2B, B2G and B2I sectors.

Main Accountabilities/Responsibilities but not limited to the following:

Finance and Resource management

• Invoices clients in line with financial compliance
• Manages corporate payments and monitors debt as part of debt control team in country/cluster
• Organises legal documentation and keeps accurate records of government support schemes and funding organisation scholarships linked to corporate contracts
• Runs essential SAP and TCMS reports on agreed financial timetable to support monitoring of corporate income and maintenance of audit trail

Customer Support

• Works closely with Customer Management team in the registering and onboarding of customers (including B2B placement/testing)
• Liaises with Customer Management team to manage changes/amendments to B2B and B2B2C class lists
• Informs Delivery team of concerns flagged by clients to help make improvements in customer experience

Service and product delivery support

• Leads on process for end of course reports and certificates for B2B clients –liaising effectively with Ops and Delivery teams, and ensures all deadlines met
• Runs feedback/ Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system and collates results for presentation to client and sales colleagues

Relationship and Stakeholder management

• Listens to client needs and requests regarding future cohorts and new courses
• Works closely with Sales & Account Manager to provide accurate and timely data to the client as well as building opportunities for repeat and new business

Managing self and others

• Tasks and coordinates others (e.g. internal colleagues or external contractors/suppliers) to complete time-limited, straightforward activities, within established procedures, to ensure efficient delivery of services. Monitors task completion to agreed quality and time standards

Role Specific Knowledge and Experience:

Minimum/Essential:

• Experience in customer management experience and operations
• Familiarity with Salesforce or use of similar CRM
• Proficiency in MS Office applications
• Local language (Ukrainian) at fluent level for speaking and writing. English level at minimum of C1 level speaking and writing
• University degree in a relevant subject or discipline

Desirable

• Proficient user of SAP or equivalent financial software
• Sales related experience in large sectors (e.g. financial services, media, pharmaceuticals tourism etc)
• Experience working with governmental institutions
• Sales or Customer Management qualifications

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement

The British Council is committed to policies and practices of equality, diversity and inclusion across everything we do. We support all staff to make sure their behaviour is consistent with this commitment.  We want to address under representation and encourage applicants from under-represented groups, in particular, but not exclusively, on grounds of ethnicity and disability.  All disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria are guaranteed an interview and we have Disability Confident Employer Status. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.

The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.

We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.

Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.