Department for Education
Customer Service Assistant (Apprenticeship)
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Darlington, North East England, DL1 5QE
Job Summary
To provide efficient, customer-focused Service Desk support service to data providers and partners which conforms to Departmental and data Operations standards and procedures. To ensure all Data Operations performance indicators, service level agreements, security standards and responsibilities under Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR are met. To collect and process complex survey returns, analysing origins of errors in returned data. Contacting relevant data providers to explain problems and obtain corrective information. This must be completed according to Data Operations procedures and quality standards, in order to ensure the delivery of datasets to the quality and timescales specified by internal customers in their requirements.
Job Description
Job Responsibilities:
- Responsible for interacting with external customers (local authorities and schools).
- Performing tasks such as taking calls, making telephone calls (at peak times this can be extremely high volumes) dealing with Service Request Forms (SR Forms) from external customers and trying to resolve their queries, escalating any issues to their manager.
- To provide efficient, customer-focused Service Desk support service to data providers.
- To collect and process complex survey returns, analysing origins of errors in returned data. Contacting relevant data providers to explain problems and obtain corrective information. This must be completed according to Data Operations procedures and quality standards, in order to ensure the delivery of datasets to the quality and timescales specified by internal customers in their requirements.
- To provide support to additional (temporary) administrative staff brought in to manage peaks in periods of operational activity. Ability to work flexibly due to the nature of the work on the Service Desk.
Apprenticeship
Business administrator / Skills England
As this role includes completion of the Business Administrator Apprenticeship (Level 3) please check the eligibility requirements below using the apprenticeship standard: Business administrator / Skills England
- You must have lived in the UK for 3 years prior to apprenticeship start date and not be undertaking another apprenticeship at the same time.
- You must not already have a substantial amount of the skills and knowledge that is covered in the contents of the apprenticeship standard.
- You must not have already worked in a similar role, or your previous learning, and/or work experience covers the contents (Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviours) of the apprenticeship standard.
Please Do Not Apply If:
- You already have all the skills and knowledge that is covered in the contents of the apprenticeship standard.
- You have already worked in a similar role, or your previous learning, and/or work experience covers the contents (Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviours) of the apprenticeship standard.
- You have a degree (or equivalent) in business administration.
At the enrolment stage, the individual's eligibility will be checked by the training provider.
Please Do Not Apply If:
- You already have all the skills and knowledge that is covered in the contents of the apprenticeship standard.
- You have already worked in a similar role, or your previous learning, and/or work experience covers the contents (Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviours) of the apprenticeship standard.
- You have a degree (or equivalent) in business administration.
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At the enrolment stage, the individual's eligibility will be checked by the training provider.
Person specification
Essential Criteria:
- Excellent customer service skills and a desire to go above and beyond to assist our customers.
- Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, tailoring all communications to suit the audience.
- Ability to work at pace and prioritise and manage a varied caseload.
- Ability to understand and analyse data.
Desirable Criteria:
- Knowledge of MicroSoft CRM/COLLECT.
Desirable criteria will only be assessed at interview, in the event of a tie break situation, to make an informed decision.
Languages
English language
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Managing a Quality Service
- Delivering at Pace
Alongside your salary of £29,015, Department for Education contributes £8,405 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.
As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.
You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.
We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role.
Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.
As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.
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Application
To apply for this role, you will be required to provide a Statement of Suitability.
Your Statement of Suitability (max 500 words) should demonstrate how your experience meets the essential criteria listed above.
Sift
We will use your Statement to assess your suitability for the role against the essential criteria listed in the person specification section above.
To confirm, the maximum word count for the statement of suitability is 500. Please adhere to this limit as anything over 500 words will not be taken into account.
In the event of a large number of applications, we will sift on "Ability to understand and analyse data" only.
More guidance on personal statements can be found here – completing your application.
Interview
At interview you will be asked questions around the behaviours listed in the advert.
We will also ask you some strength-based questions.
For more information on the selection process, including guidance on how to write a personal statement, answer behaviour and strength-based interview questions, and the STAR approach click here: Top tips for acing the application.
Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
Other Information
Interviews may be via Microsoft teams or face to face; the vacancy manager will confirm prior to the Interview.
In your application, please don’t include personal information that identifies you.
This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - it's called name blind recruitment (opens in a new window).
Please ensure that you remove from your application, all references to your:
- name/title
- educational institutions
- age
- gender
- email address
- postal address
- phone number
- nationality/immigration status
We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a high volume or strong field of candidates.
Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas.
The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check maybe carried out.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks.DFE@education.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated.
A reserve list may be held for a period of 1
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