Student Services Officer/Receptionist

To be responsible for general reception duties including: Meeting and greeting visitors, students and suppliers in a friendly, professional and efficient manner, including dealing with initial sales enquiries from walk-in clients; directing visitors to relevant staff; general reception duties such as ensuring reception signage and noticeboards are up to date; ensuring the reception area is presentable and neat. Managing the switchboard in a customer-friendly manner, receiving incoming calls and directing calls to relevant staff. Assistance and administration with student’s visa renewals and extensions; monitoring student’s visa expirations and assisting in processing their extension/ renewal applications; assisting students in communicating with and/or liaising with visa issuing authorities to ensure visas are issued on time. Sourcing and administering host family accommodation; liaising with the Client Service & Sales Manager to ensure adequate host family homes are available for bookings. Assistance with student’s medical insurance needs and requirements; ensuring all students have the relevant medical insurance cover, and where necessary, providing the necessary/additional coverage; assisting students with general health needs through providing on-site first aid, as well as assistance with booking doctor’s and/or hospital appointments. Promoting and managing LAL Cape Town’s Leisure and Travel programs through selling and booking of excursions on behalf of students with our various tour operators and providers; be accountable for reception petty cash. Providing transport booking assistance to students with regards to airport transfers, taxi’s, busses, car hire, etc. for local travel requirements. Liaising with the Client Service & Sales Manager to confirm and book accommodation for all students, including amendments to existing bookings. Preparation of student arrivals and departures, including preparing and issuing students’ welcome packs; assisting in administering the student orientation process. Ensuring that all students’ relevant documents including passports are copied and securely stored; capturing of students’ records on LAL systems and drives. Assisting the Operations Manager with the planning and preparation of the Young Learners programs and groups, including arrival, welcome, induction, enquiries, excursions and operational issues. Ensuring that testimonials and photos from learners are recorded and stored. Updating the company’s social media platforms’ content. Dealing with general enquiries and assistance to all visitors and students at reception and referring them to the relevant department if necessary. Any additional duties as required by the business. Person Specification: The letters in brackets denote how LAL will establish if you meet our criteria and how that will be determined. The letters have the following meaning: (A) = Application Form, (I) = Interview, (R) = Reference and (T) = Test. E.g. General Office administration experience will be determined by the information provided by the candidate on the application form (A) and through questions at Interview (I) Essential Education, Training and Knowledge a) Matric or equivalent (A) Relevant Work Experience a) General office administration experience (A/I) b) Experience in customer service role for small sized company or larger (A/I) c) Experience of use of Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel (A/I) Skills and abilities a) Excellent level of spoken and written English (A/I) b) Accuracy and attention to detail, particularly when working to tight deadlines (A/I) c) Ability to work on own initiative as well as part of a team (A/I) Other attributes a) Willingness to work non-standard hours when necessary (A/I) b) Proactive attitude towards complaint resolution (A/I) c) Excellent communication skills (A/I) d) Clean police record e) Willingness to undergo a polygraph test Desirable Relevant Work Experience a) Language School Experience (A/I) b) Experience working in a similar position (A/I) Skills and abilities a) Ability to speak and write in languages other than English (A/I) b) Driver’s license (A) How to apply Please ensure that you meet the requirements in the Job Description and Person Specification before applying. You can apply on-line using the link below, or download and complete an application form. On-line application form You can apply online by clicking the button below: Apply Online PDF application form Apple Mac Users please note: We love Apple Macs, but Apple’s Preview program will not save data you enter in our forms. You have two choices: Use Adobe Reader to open, complete and save our application forms Use Preview, print the completed form to PDF using Print > PDF > Save as PDF…, then send us the new PDF you have created. Application Form (163kB)