Student Support, Senior Adviser

Location: Milton Keynes  

Terms: Multiple Fixed Term Contracts available until December 2023, Full Time posts

Closing Date: 6 February 2023, 12:00

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.  

The Student Recruitment and Support Centre based within Student Support, Academic Services is responsible for the delivery of frontline services to students along with the ‘back office’ functions required to ensure that student support is delivered in an efficient and timely manner that meets appropriate quality standards. 

The role

You will work primarily within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Support Team; where you will provide proactive support through the provision of advice to students and potential students on a wide range of queries, enabling them to make study choices that will lead to successful progression, qualification completion and customer satisfaction.

An in-depth induction and training programme is in place where you will be provided with the tools you need to effectively assist our students via phone, email and our online Webchats and forums.

The contractual location of this role is Milton Keynes, and whilst the role currently has a choice of being predominantly home based or on site, you will be required to be on site as and when required.

Full Time roles are 37 hour per week worked to an agreed pattern to cover our opening hours which are currently Monday to Friday 8am-6pm.

Skills and experience 

• A good standard of general education including GCSE Maths and English at Grade C or above, or equivalent.
• Experience of answering diverse queries, using a wide range of information sources.
• Good communication skills: both oral and written, with effective telephone techniques and the ability to explain policies and processes in plain English as well as to write clearly, succinctly and correctly in plain English.
• Good interpersonal skills: including active listening skills and the ability to respond to identified needs through the use of varied questioning techniques.
• An understanding of team working and the ability to work effectively as part of a team.

For further information about the role including a full person specification, please see the attached job description.

If you would like to discuss the application or recruitment process before making an application, please contact Lauren Denton at Resourcing Hub on 01908 655544 or lauren.denton@open.ac.uk quoting the reference VRF 20691. 

What you get in return  

We have a strong commitment to providing training and development in and beyond your current role. This includes thorough induction into the organisation and regular reviews of your training and development needs. 

We also offer a great range of benefits that support our employees and their families for the long term. Staff Benefits include an attractive pension proposition and 30/33 days holiday per annum pro rata, plus Bank Holidays and Christmas closure days.

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