Scheduling and Placements Assistant

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Scheduling and Placements Assistant
School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Cardiff University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is one of UK’s longest established schools of pharmacy and among the world’s leading centres for research and education in pharmacy, drug discovery and medicines development. We are a constituent school of the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences, one of the most comprehensive faculties of health sciences and biomedicine in the UK.

The School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is looking to recruit a Scheduling and Placements Assistant. As part of this role you will provide an administrative service to the School, engaging and completing a range of routine tasks to meet operational and customer service requirements. You will also be providing support and guidance on Scheduling and Placements, ensuring the Education and Students team is supported and key duties are undertaken.

This post is available on a part-time basis 17.5 hours a week (0.5FTE), and is available for a fixed term period to 31 October 2025.

Salary: £20,092 - £22,254 per annum, pro-rata (Grade 3).  Please note that appointment will normally be made at the bottom of the grade.

Date advert posted: Monday, 1 November 2021

Closing Date: Monday, 15 November 2021

This post has previously been advertised to employees of Cardiff University only.  We now invite external applications.

Please be aware that Cardiff University reserves the right to close this vacancy early should sufficient applications be received.

Cardiff University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We believe this can be achieved through attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse range of staff from many different backgrounds.  We therefore welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of sex, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, trans identity, relationship status, religion or belief, caring responsibilities, or age.  In supporting our employees to achieve a balance between their work and their personal lives, we will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share arrangements.

Job Description

Key Duties

• Deal with a range of enquiries from internal and external customers in a timely and professional manner, establishing their requirements and adapting the standard responses accordingly.
• Establish working relationships with key contacts to help improve service levels.
• Undertake a variety of administrative duties to support the team and department.
• Gather data to update administrative systems with accurate information, identifying basic trends and patterns in any data submitted
• Maintain office systems and processes, suggesting improvement and contributing to their continued development.
• Contribute to the success of the team

Specific Duties

• Assist in the allocation of suitable placement learning opportunities for students, including providing advice and support for placement travel and accommodation, and collating expense claims where appropriate.
• Assist in the allocation of students to learning groups for scheduling.
• Assist in the creation of programme timetables, and related support systems, liaising with academic colleagues, the University Timetabling team and the School Taught Programme team.
• Assist in the preparation and distribution of information to staff, students and stakeholders relating to scheduling and placements, updating schedules on a regular basis and ensuring amendments are communicated to affected parties.
• Provide support for administering student OSCE assessments, including the entering of exams into Practique and processing results.
• Gather, maintain and analyse data to update administrative systems with accurate information, establishing basic trends and patterns in any data submitted, including:
  • Electronic Scheduling & Student Records
  • Placement feedback
• Plan, organise & service a range of meetings and committees
• Assist in the organisation and delivery of School wide events, including placements-related enrolment activities, assessments, open days and graduation
• Liaise with colleagues, University central administrative divisions, students and other external organisations to facilitate knowledge transfer and the sharing of good practice as required.
• Support the work of the Education and Students team, to contribute to team meetings, develop good practice within the team and assist colleagues in their work.
• Take a proactive approach to supporting our programmes, students and staff

General Duties

• As part of a team, deliver frontline services to students and staff, answering a wide range of queries, resolving issues and making referrals where needed.
• Ensure that an understanding of the importance of confidentiality is applied when undertaking all duties
• Undergo personal and professional development that is appropriate to, and which will enhance, performance.
• Abide by University policies on Health and Safety and Equality and Diversity
• Perform other duties occasionally which are not included above, but which will be consistent with the role

Person Specification

Essential Criteria

Qualifications and Education

NVQ 2/GCSE level A-C or equivalent qualification/experience

Knowledge, Skills and Experience      

Significant experience of working in an administrative or office environment

Proficiency in common office IT packages (e.g. MS Office)

Ability to set up standard administrative systems and procedures

Customer Service, Communication and Team Working

Ability to communicate effectively and professionally with a wide range of people

Ability to work as an effective team member, providing advice and guidance to other team members where necessary

Proven ability to deal with escalated requests for information or service, resolving customer issues where appropriate

Planning, Analysis and Problem Solving

Ability to plan, prioritise and organise own workload within established time scales with excellent attention to detail

Ability to use initiative in solving problems and responding to queries, ensuring compliance with standard procedures and practices

Other

A willingness to undertake further training and development

Desirable Criteria

A-Levels or equivalent.

Experience of working in a Higher Education environment.

Experience of scheduling and/or placement administration in a higher education environment.

Fluency in Welsh, written and oral

Additional Information

IMPORTANT: Evidencing Criteria 
It is the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences' policy to use the person specification as a key tool for short-listing. Candidates should evidence that they meet ALL of the essential criteria as well as, where relevant, the desirable. As part of the application process you will be asked to provide this evidence via a supporting statement.

Please ensure when submitting this document / attaching it to your application profile you name it with the vacancy reference number, in this instance for this post, 12767BR.

Where a candidate does not provide written evidence of meeting all of the essential criteria through a supporting statement, then their application will not be progressed. We welcome the submission of CV's to accompany evidence of the job-based criteria.

Additional Information
This post will require occasional extended working days to support the delivery of planned assessment events. Amended hours requirements are managed on a planned basis, with appropriate advanced notice and compensation for out of hours activity.

Job Category

Admin / Clerical