Paid Student Placements – SAAS

Job Description

The Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) is part of the Scottish Government.  Our main job is to give financial help to students in Higher Education.  We employ around 240 people and deal with around 160,000 applications every year. SAAS are offering exciting opportunities to gain valuable working knowledge and experience through a variety of paid student placements within our Operations Directorate in the Contact Centre, Processing Teams and Mail Room.  These are excellent opportunities to work in a fast paced, service delivery environment as part of our teams who are delivering student support in Scotland. We are based at Saughton House, on Broomhouse Drive, in the west of Edinburgh. We have limited parking but it is easy to get here by bus, tram or train.

Interested individuals must currently be in further or higher education and be available from May/June until September 2020.

These are paid opportunities and the salary will be on the minimum A3 range, £19,314 pro rata. Please note that there will be shift work involved in the Contact Centre role.  Further details of the roles are covered within the Job Descriptions below.

Posts available:

Enquiry Officers

Our Enquiry Officers are based in the Contact Centre within SAAS.  As Enquiry Officers you will support SAAS in dealing with high volumes of inbound calls, emails and visitors to the agency.  You will also be responsible for supporting the running of the agency’s social media sites.

Often acting as the first point of contact our Enquiry Officers provide a professional and helpful service, dealing with general enquiries from students and other stakeholders, on a range of issues related to student funding in higher education.

You must be customer focused and take responsibility for producing accurate assessments and recommendations to meet demand.  You must be able to adapt quickly to changing priorities and procedures and be aware of how your actions may impact on others, particularly students and your immediate colleagues.

You will be required to provide cover on a rota basis from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm (4:30pm on Fridays).

Specific Duties:

• Deal with general enquiries from students and other stakeholders, on a range of issues related to student funding in higher education.
• Handle queries by telephone, in writing and sometimes in person.
• Deal with enquiries at our reception and via social media.
• Responsible for assessing applications to establish students’ eligibility for and entitlement to support in accordance with our regulations and instructions and will deal directly with students, their parents and college and university staff.
• Provide a professional, helpful and accurate service to all of our stakeholders and maintain the established network of contacts within these areas.
• Responsible for escalating more specific or complex queries to ensure that the caller receives the information they need as soon as possible.

EDM (Electronic Document Management) Officers

Our Electronic Management Team are based in your mail and print room within SAAS.  As an Electronic Management team member you will support SAAS in processing the high volumes of applications and mail we receive.  You must have an eye for detail be customer focused and take responsibility for producing accurate data input to meet our 100% target of all mail being processed within 24 hours of receipt.  You must be able to adapt quickly to changing priorities and procedures and be aware of how your actions may impact on others, particularly students and your immediate colleagues.

Specific Duties:

• Sorting daily mail received.
• Organising mail into correct batches for scanning.
• Registering all manual applications received ensuring accuracy when inputting data
• Adhere to Data Protection legislation, ensuring all student data is securely held and shared.
• Scanning all batches for different batch types.
• Validating batches that have gone through the scanning process.
• Must show discretion and good judgement as you will have access to personal information.

Part Time Fee Grant (PTFG) Caseworkers

Our Caseworkers are based in the Processing Teams within SAAS.  As Case Workers you will support SAAS in processing the high volumes of applications we receive for the payment of tuition fees only for students applying for the PTFG.  You must be customer focussed and take responsibility for producing accurate assessments and recommendations to meet demand.  You must be able to adapt quickly to changing priorities and procedures and be aware of how your actions may impact on others, particularly students and your immediate colleagues.

Specific Duties:

• Process casework in accordance with SAAS policy and guidance, to award eligible funding for PTFG.
• Handle enquiries via correspondence and email, providing a timeous response to meet published service levels.
• Re-assess eligible applications based on updated information received.
• Adhere to Data Protection legislation, ensuring all student data is securely held and shared.
• Must be customer focussed and able to deliver a professional helpful and accurate service to learners, learning providers and other appropriate bodies, seeking advice as necessary.
• Must show discretion and good judgement as you will have access to personal information.

If selected, candidates will be required to go through the security clearance process which will include obtaining a Basic Disclosure certificate.

To be considered for one of the opportunities please email a supporting statement, of no more than 300 word, demonstrating what skills and knowledge you can bring to the role(s) along with confirmation of your availability to SAAS_Resourcing@gov.scot  by close of play 28^th February 2020.