Cluster Risk Support Manager - MENA North & Mena West in London

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.

Role Purpose:

To monitor and report on risk management, governance, monitoring and mitigation support while providing advice to exams operations within MENA North & MENA West in the achievement, monitoring and embedding of risk management which includes audits such as Quality and Compliance Assurance (QCA), IELTS and other awarding body standards. The focus will be on understanding the broad range of standards and how they apply to a range of Exams policies and procedures and supporting operations in navigating a path through them to advise on appropriate solutions to target improvements and manage risk. To support centres on effective implementation of action points arising from Exams reviews. This role will own, manage, implement, and continuously improve the risk framework to proactively plan and mitigate risks and compliance breach. This role will also manage all incidents on Protect for all products except IELTS.

Main Accountabilities:

• Risk management ownership, consultancy, analysis & problem-solving
• To provide effective support to the Exams Operations team on Risk, which includes Compliance, Counter Fraud in MENA North & MENA West to ensure that the defined processes under these workstreams are operating effectively.
• To communicate effectively within Exams Operations and with relevant stakeholders/ department heads, the ROM, on the work related to above listed workstreams.
• To manage all tools and trackers used for effective operations of the above listed workstreams.
• Undertake several full self-audit QCA reviews on behalf of operations (i.e. self-assessments), largely within MENA North & MENA West and occasionally in other MENA geographies, providing clear, prioritised recommendations to support exams operations to mitigate risk and therefore improve compliance.
• Working closely with the ROM, build, own and maintain a risk management plan that perceives potential risks and outlines preventive measures and safeguards, captures past incidents, and derives meaningful outcomes to prevent them from repetition and clearly establishes ownership and accountability (as per the OD) for each incident type to ensure greater transparency and control on conduct of business.
• Support, develop, and guide exam colleagues in carrying out their self-assessments. Providing ongoing guidance and updates to exam colleagues regarding corporate and board-specific standards, requirements, and risk mitigation.
• Undertake spot checks, for example of test day procedures and CMR procedures, and in agreement with CL and ROM.
• Develop and apply professional knowledge and expertise of QCA, IELTS and Awarding Body standards, recognised best practice approaches and exams operational experience to support MENA North & MENA West exam centres in the monitoring of exams standards, advising to improve performance against the standards and/or put in place steps to tackle more complex areas of non-compliance or to mitigate risk, in agreement with the ROM.
• Support the ROM in building colleagues’ capability in MENA North & MENA West, in particular with reference to the understanding, and embedding, of Exams standards. Training may be delivered through a mix of telecoms, webinars and face to face.
• Provide key stakeholders (CL, CHOP, Ops Managers, the ROM) with regular updates and/or tailored country reports and findings on quality and compliance status, progress and issues ensuring risks are reported/escalated in a timely manner, in the format that is agreed with ROM.
• Take ownership of incident/malpractice reporting on Protecht for all Exams (except IELTS) within the cluster and investigations as required.

Internal customer focus

• Build an in-depth understanding of the specific operational context, opportunities and challenges facing MENA North & MENA West, and MENA generally, to ensure that the advice and support provided is based on informed insight into the business and operating context.
• Seek internal customer and other stakeholder feedback to monitor satisfaction with the standard of advice and support provided, following the new regional approach to this, and make recommendations to the ROM on areas of improvement.

Support to Business Assurance

• Provide support as necessary to Business Assurance contributing to the maintenance and improvement of Global Compliance standards, procedures and processes to ensure that they are aligned with changing Exam Board standards and best practice, ensuring the needs of MENA North & MENA West working context in particular are promoted.
• Support the communication and roll out of changes to QCA, IELTS and Awarding body standards, processes and procedures with operation teams.

About You (essential requirements for the role):

• Broad understanding of the breadth and range of examination distribution products and services delivered across MENA.
• Excellent computer skills.
• 4 years in an Exams Administration or similar role.
• Experience of conducting Quality and Compliance audits and/or quality reviews (including self-reviews) for example in an exams or customer focused environment.
• IELTS auditing experience, either internally or in contractor capacity.
• The British Council systems and global processes operate in English. Written and verbal proficiency in English is required.
• University degree or equivalent.