Teaching Assistant

1

Role Title

Teaching Operations Assistant - Hourly Paid

Role Information

Role Type

Pay Band

Location

Duration

Reports To

Teaching Operations

NPW

Riyadh, Khobar &

Jeddah

1 year renewable

Teaching operations coordinator

Role purpose

To deliver high quality and efficient customer services to internal and external teaching centre customers, meeting customers’ needs and enabling the British Council to achieve its objectives. To support the Teaching Centre in the delivery of quality courses (especially Young Learners), in particular by assisting teachers to monitor young learners. To help the Operations team with administrative task that ensures day-to-day running of the teaching centre.

About Us

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to- face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

Geopolitical/SBU/Function Overview

The British Council Teaching Centres in Saudi Arabia provide English language training in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar to thousands of young Saudi men and women each year in our own premises and off-site at companies and in partner training institutes. All centres have public English courses in their teaching centres and deliver off-site training to corporate clients, which vary from government ministries to private companies. Around 1,000 young learners and adult students attend courses each term, studying General English and IELTS Preparation. There’s a growing off-site corporate programme.

The centre is usually open six days a week, but sometimes external teacher training sessions are held on Fridays. The busy centres run classes from 8:30 AM through to 10:45 PM daily. The majority of young learner classes are on Saturdays.

Equality Statement

The British Council is committed to a policy of equality and to valuing diversity and is keen to reflect the diversity of the societies in which we work at every level within the

organisation. We welcome applications from all sections of the community. We aim to abide by and promote equality legislation by following both the letter and the spirit of it to avoid unjustified discrimination, recognising discrimination as a barrier to equality of opportunity, inclusion and human rights. All staff worldwide are required to ensure their behaviour is consistent with our policies.

The British Council has Disability Confident Employer Status. We offer a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role. Applicants are encouraged to highlight any specific requirements or adjustments needed to enable participation in the recruitment process.

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.

Main Opportunities/challenges For This Role

• To support and assist the Teaching Centre’s operations and customer service, in the day-to- day delivery of quality courses.
• To deal with sometimes difficult YL behaviour, and to communicate professionally, appropriately and effectively with YL parents.
• To deal with customers, students and colleagues from a wealth of diverse backgrounds.
• As the teaching centers operate to customer demand, evening work will be expected.
  
  

Main Accountabilities

Young Learner Support

• Acting as a Young Learner Teaching Assistant to support teachers delivering classes to children. This will include monitoring and encouraging good learner behaviour in and outside of the classroom, ensuring Safeguarding and Health and Safety standards are met, supporting teachers in and out of the classroom as needed with Early Years, Early Primary, Primary, Early Secondary and Secondary students, acting as a translator for lower levels, etc.
• Assisting teachers in young learner lessons, for example supervising young learners who need to leave the classroom (e.g. to go to the toilet or if they are feeling unwell), as directed by the teacher, assisting in maintaining good classroom and behaviour management and supporting young learners in participating in learning activities.
• Liaising with YL coordinator, teaching centre operations team/Customer Services Manager in relation to absent young learners and, if necessary, adult students.
  
  

Customer Services

• Meeting and greeting and otherwise coordinating students on the first day of courses each term.
• Coordinating the customer flow during registration periods by assisting and ushering students through the customer journey.
• Assisting in answering first level enquiries, face-to-face or on the phones, relating to British Council activities in country to the satisfaction of customers and according to Customer Service Standards.
• Dealing with second level (specific) enquiries or referring them to the appropriate person within the office who can deal with them.
• Responding appropriately to email / letter enquiries.
  
  

Administration

• Working with Operations team and Customer Services to ensure waiting lists are fully monitored and updated according to the agreed standards.
• Working with the Teaching Centre and Operations team and Customer Services to contact and inform customers about new classes and courses and about any changes to class schedules.
• Ensuring that BC tests, registration forms, class fills, class lists, registers, timetables, and any other documents are handled to agreed information management standards.
• Participating in the delivery of the Teaching Centre’s agreed marketing and promotion strategy by assisting in the distribution, collection and collation of surveys, feedback forms, etc.
• Prepare and print YL and adult student reports
• Add YL students and Modules to LMS. Support and address issues with parents and students regarding LMS and share the LMS guidance video with parents. Help the parents to log in to LMS and guide them in steps.
• Assisting in office administrative and logistical tasks such as, but not limited to, clerical work, filing, scanning, archiving, updating documents and databases
• Maintains accurate records as they relate to the work area
  
  

Safeguarding

• Abiding by the British Council Safeguarding policy standards
• Actively monitoring young learners/Adults for signs of distress and promptly acting on concerns of abuse in line with dedicated British Council processes
  
  

Key Relationships

Internal

• Teachers & Senior Teacher
• Teaching Operations Team
• Customer Services Team
  
  

External

• Customers
• Parents/guardians of Young Learners
  
  

Role Requirements

Threshold requirements:

Assessment stage

Passport Requirements/ Right To Work In Country

The post holder should have the right to live and work in Saudi Arabia.

Shortlisting

Direct contact or managing staff working with children?

Yes

Appropriate police checks and three satisfactory references are mandatory

Person Specification

Assessment stage

Language Requirements

Minimum / essential

Desirable

Assessment Stage

B1 level English

B1 level Arabic

Shortlisting

Qualifications

Minimum / essential

Desirable

Assessment Stage

High School Certificate

University Degree or Diploma in any field

Shortlisting

Role Specific Knowledge & Experience

Minimum / essential

Desirable

Assessment Stage

Working/volunteering experience in customer- facing role

Intermediate command of MS Excel, Word and Outlook.

Experience of working in an educational institution

Experience of working with children

Shortlisting and interview

Role Specific Skills (if Any)

Assessment Stage

• Experience working in a multi-cultural organisation in an international context
• Ability to build effective relationships to achieve the delivery of high quality and effective professional services
  
  

Shortlisting and interview

British Council Core Skills

Assessment Stage

Communicating and Influencing (Level 1)

Listens to others and expresses self clearly, with grammatical accuracy and awareness of a diverse audience in speaking and writing.

Planning and Organising (Level 1)

Able to plan own work over short timescales for routine or familiar tasks and processes.

Using technology (Level 1)

Able, with adjustments, if necessary, to use office software and British Council systems to do the job and manage documents or processes.

Shortlisting AND Interview

British Council Behaviours

Assessment Stage

Making It Happen (essential)

Delivering clear results for the British Council

Working Together (essential)

Establishing a genuinely common goal with others

Being Accountable (essential)

Delivering my best work in order to meet my commitments

Connecting With Others (essential)

Making regular opportunities to understand others better

Interview