Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Consular Roles)
Consular
Main purpose of job:
To provide a full range of consular services to British nationals in South Korea. To support and work alongside the Vice Consul on the full range of assistance case work – see below for further details.
The Pro Consul will be working within a small team and will be expected to deliver customer services to a high professional standard with empathy, flexibility and resilience. This is a challenging but rewarding job which will allow the job holder to improve and develop customer service skills, gain experience of supporting people in difficult circumstances and work in an international English language environment.
The team works within a supportive Asia Pacific Consular region and works closely with colleagues to provide wellbeing and resilience to all consular staff.
Assistance provided is through modern and efficient consular services in line with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) Consular Services Strategy, Consular Guidance and Customer Charter, local procedures, guidance and performance standards.
Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve?
Providing consular assistance to British nationals travelling/resident in South Korea
- Visiting detained British nationals in police stations and prisons, explaining procedures and monitoring welfare, writing visit reports for family and taking follow-up action with the Korean authorities and London Consular teams as required;
- Leading on straight forward assistance cases and supporting the Vice Consul (VC) on more complex casework. Assistance work includes issues such as victims of crime, hospitalisations, parental child abduction, mental illness, rape and sexual assault, missing persons and arrests or hospitalisations of potentially vulnerable individuals;
- Explaining procedures and assisting bereaved family in the event of a death;
- Providing consular assistance during crisis;
- Providing cover for Vice Consul as needed.
Outreach to local authorities and partner organisations
- Liaison with central Ministries and local authorities; maintain and build a network of contacts with the Korean authorities (e.g. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, police stations, detention centres, prisons, hospitals, airports, immigration);
- Active outreach to partner organisations (embassies, NGOs, charities, churches and other civil society groups) to establish further sources of assistance for British nationals;
- Help organise visits, seminars and events to engage stakeholders on key areas of policy.
Provision of fee-bearing notarial and documentary services in line with Consular Guidance
- Lead on providing fee-bearing services, ensuring the appropriate fees are taken;
- Issuing marriage affidavits;
- Preparing same-sex marriage and citizenship ceremonies;
- Providing other documentary services (e.g. certified copy of passport);
- Printing Emergency Travel Documents (ETDs) to replace lost, stolen and expired passports;
- On a monthly basis review and complete budget sheets for consular fees and credit card payments.
Assistance with South Korea network crisis preparations/corporate contribution
- Participation in Embassy consular crisis team; support organisation of crisis exercises; use and support non-consular colleagues on the Crisis Hub platform (the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s consular database for use in crisis);
- Lead on one area of the consular crisis response.
Staff and resource management, and personal development
- Using 70:20:10 model focus on own learning and development in line with a Personal Development Plan;
- All staff are expected to take on a specific corporate responsibility in support of wider Embassy goals.
- Previous experience of working in an English-language environment;
- Computer literate, working with Microsoft software and apps (Word, Excel, Teams);
- Ability to follow guidelines and plan and prioritise work effectively;
- Ability to work well with others and to build and maintain relationships with customers and stakeholders;
- Ability to keep working hours and meet deadlines.
- Language requirements: Fluent (written and spoken) English and Korean
- Understanding of how local authorities in Korea operate would be an advantage;
- Previous customer service experience.
Making Effective Decisions, Managing a Quality Service, Delivering at Pace, Demonstrating Resilience
5 September 2021
A2 (L)
Fixed Term, Full-time, Temporary
36 hours per week
12 months
Asia Pacific
South Korea
Seoul
British Embassy
1
KRW 3,211,055 per month
1 October 2021
The position being advertised is a fixed-term/temporary contract of 12 months.
The British Embassy in Seoul takes learning and development seriously. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to develop many core and transferable skills through both formal and informal learning and development opportunities. Members of staff are encouraged to make use of the learning and development opportunities that the office has to offer.
Learning and development opportunities:
- A mandatory core training course (i.e. Virtual Essential Consular Work Course).
- Consular online learning courses.
- Regional/virtual training courses available to support skills development.
- Embassy learning and development fund available for bids for non-job specific training.
Standard working hours are from 0900-1715 Monday to Thursday and 0900-1700 Friday.
While most of the consular casework is in Seoul and the wider area, the jobholder will be required occasionally to travel in South Korea at short notice to provide assistance to British nationals.
As the Global Response Centre (GRC) in London handles all out-of-hours consular cases. The Embassy has no consular duty officer. In practice, most out-of-hours calls are dealt with by London and any action by the Embassy is taken the next working day. However, if the GRC judge a case requires an emergency consular response, the jobholder – if they are available – may be asked to assist out of hours. A “cold call-out” payment will be made in these circumstances.
Opportunities to support the wider Asia Pacific consular network in the region as part of a resilience network may also be available.
No accommodation or relocation expenses are payable in connection with this position. The applicant must have or be able to obtain work authorisation in Korea in order to apply. Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy Seoul are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local Korean employment law.
Employees who are not liable to pay local income tax on their Mission salary may have their salaries reduced by the equivalent local income tax amount.
British Embassy Seoul is committed to being an inclusive, diverse workplace and we encourage enquiries and applications from under-represented groups.
All applications must be received on or before 23:55 local time on the day of deadline indicated above.
Incomplete application forms will not be taken into consideration, so please ensure you provide the information requested. Only shortlisted candidates for interview will be contacted. Interviewees will be assessed on the core competencies listed above. Unsuccessful candidates will be notified via the system in due time.
The indicated start date is provisional and would depend on completion of necessary pre-employment and security checks.
To help us track our recruitment effort, please indicate on the application form /in your cover letter where (ngotenders.net) you saw this job posting.