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The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office pursues our national interests and projects the UK’s role in the world.

We promote the interests of British citizens, safeguard the UK's security, defend our values, reduce poverty and tackle global challenges with our international partners.

Main Purpose of Job

We are seeking candidates with good literacy, numeracy and IT skills, who are motivated to provide high quality administrative services while gaining the skills and experience to become a business administration professional.

Successful candidates will deliver critical corporate and administrative services in support of colleagues throughout the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). You will have good organisation skills, take responsibility for your own work and be committed to high standards of customer service. You will have good literacy and numeracy skills, and experience and confidence in the use of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams and Windows 10.

You will work at our office in Hanslope Park, Milton Keynes, in a Home Civil Service role in the FCDO’s Finance Directorate while undertaking the Level 3 Business Administrator Apprenticeship. These roles support FCDO’s global network and cover all work streams: Finance Operations and Public Facing Services. We are not recruiting for a specific departmental vacancy; instead, we will place you into a role based on your skills and experience and business need.

The apprenticeship offers you a structured learning journey over 16 months and leads to a Certificate in Business Administration that equates to two `A` levels. It will consist of on the job learning in your FCDO role and apprenticeship training. You will spend a minimum of 20% of your paid hours on off-the-job apprenticeship-related training and assignments. You will learn topics such as effective communication and interpersonal skills in business, stakeholder management and will develop presentation skills too.
Throughout the programme, you will have ongoing support from your Apprenticeship Trainer and your FCDO Line Manager. We will also aim to allocate you a mentor who can offer you additional guidance.

Roles and Responsibilities

Administrative Officers (AO) provide professional office administration and support on
transactions processing, projects, budgets, customer services functions, and internal
and external communications. All roles are customer-oriented. These tasks, essential to
the ability of the FCDO to deliver its objectives, form the core of all AO job
specifications.

FCDO Departments will configure the roles to meet specific business needs but they will
typically include:

• Professional Office Administration/Support: Creating and maintaining electronic filing systems; databases and distribution lists; dealing with telephone and email enquiries; organising meetings/events and taking notes in meetings; maintaining stationery supplies; a corporate role such as fire warden or first aider, for which training will be provided.
• Project Management Support: Monitoring progress against objectives; ensuring project remains on schedule; anticipating and managing risks; maintaining accurate records.
• Budget Management: Budget monitoring, requisitioning and raising purchase orders, and manipulation of data using spreadsheets; assisting with budget forecasting; understanding commercial and procurement policies.
• Transactions and Receipts Processing: Checking invoices and identifying mismatches to ensure accuracy and efficiency; using different systems e.g. Internet banking and Oracle to process payments promptly in compliance with procedures; reconciling and investigating payments. Dealing with FCDO credit card issues and issuing invoices for services provided by the organisation.
• Public Facing Services: Directly supporting British nationals, other nationals and contributing to national security, you will check physical documents and confirm the signatures on them are genuine ensuring they can be used overseas: process overseas birth and death registrations; support other government departments in legal process (no legal knowledge is required); and approve applications for overseas students to study in the UK.

You must be a British Citizen at the time of application and, if invited to interview, you will need to bring your British Passport with you.

This role requires you to attain Security Check (SC) security clearance.

For more information about this process, click here. Attaining SC will require you to have been resident in the UK for two of the last five years. At least one year of this must have been a consecutive twelve-month period. Serving overseas with HM Forces, in some other official capacity as a representative of Her Majesty’s Government, or having lived overseas as a result of your parents’ or partner’s Government employment counts as UK residency for the purposes of security clearances.

It is essential in your application that you provide evidence and proven examples in each of the following Minimum Criteria and Behaviours as far as you are able to do so. These responses will be further developed and discussed with those candidates invited for interview.

Important: As part of the apprenticeship eligibility checks, successful applicants must have resided in the UK, the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland for the last three consecutive years, by 31 August 2023.

Minimum Criteria

• 
  A minimum of 5 GCSEs which include English and Maths at Grade C/4 or above, or equivalent. To check whether your qualifications are deemed to be equivalent to GCSEs, please email Government Recruitment Service with the details – (fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk). It is essential that you detail all qualifications that you hold, with the name and grades attained on your application form. Failure to do so will mean that your application will not be progressed to sift stage.
• Good literacy, numeracy, and IT Skills.
• Competent using IT packages including Microsoft 365 – Outlook, Excel, and knowledge of Microsoft Windows 10 and MS Teams.
• Good interpersonal, team-working and communication skills (oral and written).
• Good organisational, analytical and planning skills, with the ability to work to tight deadlines.
• Able to make effective decisions, identify problems and propose solutions to maintain a quality service.

As these are junior administration roles and this apprenticeship equates to two `A` levels, this campaign is not open to:

• Applicants who have a degree or a master’s degree in any subject.
• Applicants who have a level 3 qualification, an A level, an AS level or a higher qualification in business administration (or equivalent qualifications).

Degree graduates and those who expect to gain a degree may wish to explore the Diplomatic and Development Fast Stream.

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service
• Making Effective Decisions

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• You will be asked Motivation questions at the interview.

• A Civil Service Pension.
• 25 days Annual Leave per annum.
• 9 days Public and Privilege holidays per annum.
• Learning and Development tailored to your role.
• Free Annual Eye Test
• Flexible Bennefits
• In-Year Performance Awards Scheme

See the attached candidate pack.

Job contact :

Name :
FCDO Recruitment Team
Email :
fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email :
fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk