Commercial Officer – Teaching Centre – the British Council Retour vers les opportunités

Role purpose

The role will work closely with Operations leads to ensure country costs are controlled and with Customer Service and Academic teams to build sales capability and retention opportunities. Performance will be monitored on a monthly/quarterly/annual basis, against assigned targets.

The postholder will join a team of 3 Commercial Officers based in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, and report to the Commercial Manager for Maghreb Teaching Centres (based in Morocco).

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.

British Council priorities – MENA

Our vision is to help young people change their lives. Inspiring hope. Connecting with opportunity.

MENA’s enormous youth population presents both a significant opportunity and challenge. Many young people have limited prospects and trust in the systems that rule them which is leading to a breakdown in social cohesion and stability. There is also mistrust between many in the UK and the Arab World. But, equally, harnessing the youth dividend is the future of the region. By 2022, we aim to work mutually with 1 in 4 young women and men in the region who engage with and benefit from the UK’s culture and education. This cultural relations approach will help provide inclusive access to economic possibilities, social participation, and to spaces for creative expression, collective and diverse identities and shared heritage. It will build long-term relationships based on the reciprocal exchange of knowledge and ideas, helping a new generation seize opportunities, giving them a fair chance, a chance to be heard, a chance to make a difference

Geopolitical/SBU/Function overview:

Our vision is for the skills we teach to help every English language learner, that puts their trust in us, build their future.

We will continue to focus on promoting English language because it is both a key enabler of cultural relations, and a source of opportunity for our customers and stakeholders. Given our lead position in this field, we will build English language capability across the region, whether supporting learners, teachers or governments, through training, assessment and policy development. Our work in this field in MENA is dominated by our English teaching business in 11 countries, and our Exams business which operate in 16 countries.  Both businesses make a major contribution to our overall cultural relations impact and to securing our financial sustainability globally. Our focus will be on an ambitious strategy for diversification and growth of these businesses over the next three years.

Our strategic priorities are:

1. Topline growth in key markets with focus on YL by expanding our presence, delivering value for money and helping our students to attain their learning outcomes

2. Learning Excellence by reasserting ourselves as thought leaders in teaching, learning and assessment

3.  Enhancing efficiency and effectiveness

Teaching Centre priorities – Maghreb Cluster (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia)

Ambitions for income growth in the Maghreb are high, and demand is expected to continue to rise as the importance of English grows in political dialogue.

Our largest audience in Maghreb teaching are our Young Learners and their parents. Topline growth of YL income through rapid expansion in micro-sites strategically located in key catchment areas will be a key focus and priorities for this role.

In addition, developing a pipeline of corporate contract work and managing relationships with existing clients will be key to stabilizing income from our Adult teaching business. The Commercial Team will work closely with key leads across the cluster working in the Marketing and Sales, Teaching Operations, and Academic Management teams to ensure growth is delivered sustainably in a climate of limited investment.

Main opportunities/challenges for this role:

§  Support business expansion plans/implementation of commercial strategy in the Maghreb teaching centres; administering the project pipeline, managing contracts according to British Council finance/compliance standards, and providing regular reporting on business performance.

§  Support growth of commercial income by implementation and evaluation of retention activities with existing clients, as well as supporting proactive pursuit of new business according to agreed strategy.

§  Support business planning, monitoring and forecasting; pricing, product, and teaching premise profitability initiatives, tracking implementation, benefits and lessons learnt

Main Accountabilities:

▪       Implements a range of standardised, operational procedures and systems within a given work plan to achieve specified, clearly measurable targets

▪       Undertakes instructions and requests from senior managers and/or customers (internal or external), and plans and organises given resources accordingly to ensure that work is carried out efficiently and effectively

▪       Provides timely feedback on commercial operational issues and events to line manager and senior managers, enabling the adaptation of work plans where necessary and supporting continuous improvement in the efficiency/cost effectiveness/quality of service delivery/systems in the commercial unit

▪       Uses a range of standardised systems and processes to plan and coordinate effective, timely and cost-effective logistical support to enable the delivery of high-quality services to a range of customers (internal and/or external)

Customer service

▪       Accounts management – is first point of contact between prospective and existing B2B/G customers and partner premises providers and the Teaching Centre, takes responsibility for managing satisfactory contract completion, and timely resolution of first level complaints and issues, coordinating input from other colleagues/departments/managers as required to do so.  Ensures the customer is kept informed throughout the process.

Relationship & stakeholder management

▪       Develops good working relationships with appropriate colleagues throughout the BC to facilitate effective and efficient service delivery.

▪       As required, supports senior colleagues in hosting/attending external events or meetings, ensuring these run efficiently and effectively and that a positive, professional image of the BC is projected.

Risk & compliance                     

▪       Follows agreed corporate risk management processes and procedures when delivering services (e.g. child protection, security policies, anti-fraud measures) to protect the interests of the BC and its customers at all times.

Analysis & reporting

▪       Using standard procedures and templates, regularly records, analyses and reports on commercial activity levels and performance data, to support managers in making timely and effective business decisions that respond to business needs.

Commercial & resource management

▪       Operates and runs regular reports on range of standard, corporate financial processes and procedures to enable effective budget and resource management for the team, or project(s) – e.g. purchase order system, TCMS, SAP, procurement processes.

▪       Provides support as required to premises expansion projects

▪       Actively seeks to maximise value for money when acquiring resources, goods or services for the team, unit or project.

Key Relationships:

§  Commercial Manager, Maghreb Teaching Centres

§  For Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria:

§  Other Commercial Officers

§  Exams Business Development Managers

§  Head of Teaching Operations and Teaching Operations Managers

§  Heads of Teaching and Learning and other academic managers

§  Marketing Managers

§  Customer Service Managers and Advisors

External

Current and prospective partners and clients including:

§  those sponsoring students on public courses or closed ‘contract courses’

§  partner teaching venues