Role: Summer Associate – Contact Centre Assistant
Location: Bedford College – Cauldwell Street Campus
Salary: £12.21 per hour
Hours/Weeks: 32 hours per week
Contract Type: Sessional – Hourly Paid
About the role:
We are currently seeking Contact Centre Assistant to join our Customer Services department at The Bedford College Group on a Temporary Summer Contract .
As a Contact Centre Assistant, you play an important role in the success of our students through:
1. Overall Responsibilities - Act as a single point of contact for customers and prospective students, offering triage services, support, and technical assistance; work effectively within the Marketing, Communications & Student Recruitment Directorate.
2. Main Duties - Provide high-quality triage service, handle enquiries via various channels, record interactions, liaise with stakeholders, manage customer complaints, signpost complex enquiries, advise on programme queries, book events, and withdraw applications accurately.
3. Enrolment Support - Assist prospective students with online enrolment, process confirmation forms, support conversion activities, troubleshoot issues, provide technical assistance, raise unresolved issues, and suggest improvements.
4. Additional Duties - Create student ID cards, prepare parking permits, meet and greet full-time learners, support conversion tasks, and carry out other duties as directed.
5. Statutory Duties - Promote and safeguard welfare, ensure equality and diversity, follow health and safety requirements, adhere to data protection, and participate in training and development.
About you:
6. Qualifications - Good standard of education, including GCSE Maths and English (grades A-C) or equivalent.
7. Experience - Fast-paced customer-focused environment, providing advice via various communication methods, high performance in previous roles, working with diverse backgrounds, handling multiple projects, and exceeding customer expectations.
8. Knowledge - Client confidentiality and GDPR, equality and diversity principles, understanding customer needs, and technical issues diagnosis.
9. Skills - High-level communication, multitasking, promoting reputation, effective communication with stakeholders, quick assimilation of information, general administrative skills, excellent IT skills, and good organizational skills.
10. Attributes - Self-motivated, enthusiastic, flexible work patterns, ability to work evenings and Saturdays, willingness to travel, and responsibility for safeguarding welfare.
For a more detailed breakdown of the job role and the requirements, please see the Job Description attached to this vacancy.
Interviews to be held: 06 May 2025
Successful candidates must also be able to demonstrate alignment to our organisational VISION values:
11. Valuing Teamwork - We are one team who by working together can achieve great things, respecting the opinion and valuing the contribution each of us makes.
12. Improving Continuously - We challenge ourselves to always do better by trying new things, sharing knowledge, reflecting on practice and learning from others.
13. Student Centred - At our heart is always doing what is best for our students. We consider students in all of our decision making to create positive outcomes and memorable experiences for every student.
14. Inclusive - We celebrate differences and diversity, recognising that we can learn from each other.
15. Open and Caring - We care about the wellbeing of our staff, our students, our community and wider society, creating an environment built on trust where we listen, engage with and support each other.
16. Nurturing Education Excellence - We promote educational excellence by delivering programmes that challenge our students to achieve their ambitions.
What is an Associate?
Associates work on a short term basis as assigned. They teach or provide support services and they work with and are supported by core staff. As an Associate you will be issued with an Associate agreement, under this Agreement period you will be eligible to work on assignments offered to you. Typically an agreement runs from January to December and may be renewed thereafter.
About The Bedford College Group
The Bedford College Group was formed in 2017 following the merger of Bedford College and Tresham College and is now the largest provider of education in the South East Midlands, with over 15,000 students passing through our doors each year.
Today, the Group is made up of a family of colleges across Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire: Bedford College, Central Bedfordshire College and Tresham College in the towns of Bedford, Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard, Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough; Shuttleworth College, a specialist land-based college; The Bedford Sixth Form, (the only dedicated sixth form in Bedford); The Corby Sixth Form, (opened in September 2023); and the National College for Motorsport alongside Silverstone race circuit. To widen accessibility to education and training, the Group also has community-based Learning Centres in Bedford, Corby and Kettering which offer IT training.
Safeguarding our Students
The Bedford College Group is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The successful candidate will be subject to thorough vetting process which includes, an enhanced DBS check and satisfactory references.
This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Exceptions Order 1975, provides information about which convictions must be declared during job applications and related exceptions and further information about filtering offences can be found in the DBS filtering guide. The Bedford College Group's policy on Employment of Ex-Offenders is attached to this vacancy.
Candidates who are barred from working with children are reminded it is a criminal offence to apply for this post.