Address
Salary Overview:
Do you want to be part of an organisation that supports Students Higher Education through funding? We are looking forward to hearing from candidates who want to be part of our SAAS family, supporting you through your modern apprenticeship journey too.
About us
SAAS is an executive agency of the Scottish Government and responsible for assessing and paying student awards for Scottish domiciled students in Higher Education throughout the UK. We administer budgets of around £1.4 billion each year, making payments to both educational institutions and over 190,000 students a year. We are committed to recruiting a diverse workforce that is representative of the clients we serve. More information on SAAS can be found on our website https://www.saas.gov.uk
These posts are diverse and interesting, covering a wide range of duties with a primary focus being delivering excellent internal and external customer service. The role will provide you an opportunity to work across a variety of business areas in SAAS, including Operations and the Corporate Office, helping manage priorities, competing seasonal demands and business support activities. Responsibilities:
Competencies
Teamwork
Customer Service
Improving Performance
Communications and Engagement Qualifications:
Essential Criteria
1. Experience of applying or using guidance (including data security) to inform decision making in a customer service setting.
2. Proven ability of being a team player who is able to work flexibly with others but also independently with the minimum of supervision.
3. Effective interpersonal and organisational skills with an ability to develop strong and constructive working relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders, both internal and external.
4. Strong communication skills (verbal and written) confidently dealing with a range of customers and stakeholders at all levels.
Location:
If you are successful in this role and not based in the UK, you must to be willing to relocate to within a reasonable distance of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Interview and Assessment:
Dates to be confirmed
Minimum Time in Post:
You will be expected to remain in post for a minimum of three years unless successful at gaining promotion to a higher Band or Grade.
Further Information
For further information on this vacancy please download and review the “Person Specification” which you will find below.
Person_Specification_Band_A Updated Oct23 (V3)
How to apply:
To apply please submit a CV outlining your relevant skills and experience for the role (no more than 2 sides of A4) and a personal statement (of no more than 750 words). When considering how your experience relates to the role, please tailor your CV and personal statement to reflect the role and the essential skills/criteria as described in the job description/person specification.
Please submit your CV and complete the personal statement in the box included, for this role you will also be asked to provide examples against the essential criteria.
Additional Information:
Some of these roles will involve dealing with customer queries through our helpline and webchat service and there will be a requirement to provide cover on a rota basis from 9:00am to 4.00pm Monday to Friday.
The post is a full-time role, but staff with different working patterns are invited to apply, and we will assess proposed working patterns against the business requirements for this post.
SAAS has separate arrangements from core Scottish Government for Public and Privilege holidays. After taking up post in SAAS you will take the Spring Friday and Monday holiday in late May/early June together with the September half day. SAAS office is fully closed between Christmas and New Year.
For information regarding this post please contact SAAS_resourcing@gov.scot
Scottish Government's ambition is to be a world leading, diverse employer where people can be themselves at work. We want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. If you require any adjustments to our recruitment process, please let us know via scottishgovernmentrecruitment@gov.scot
As part of any recruitment process, Scottish Government and associated public bodies collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants and applicants for public appointments.
Personal information you provide in the recruitment process will be made available to Scottish Government and our additional data processors.
Do you want to be part of an organisation that supports Students Higher Education through funding? We are looking forward to hearing from candidates who want to be part of our SAAS family, supporting you through your modern apprenticeship journey too.
About us
SAAS is an executive agency of the Scottish Government and responsible for assessing and paying student awards for Scottish domiciled students in Higher Education throughout the UK. We administer budgets of around £1.4 billion each year, making payments to both educational institutions and over 190,000 students a year. We are committed to recruiting a diverse workforce that is representative of the clients we serve. More information on SAAS can be found on our website https://www.saas.gov.uk
These posts are diverse and interesting, covering a wide range of duties with a primary focus being delivering excellent internal and external customer service. The role will provide you an opportunity to work across a variety of business areas in SAAS, including Operations and the Corporate Office, helping manage priorities, competing seasonal demands and business support activities.
- Assess funding applications to establish students’ eligibility and entitlement to financial support in accordance with our regulations and instructions.
- Respond to queries from internal and external stakeholders including students, representatives, college/university staff etc regarding student funding in Higher Education. These queries may be via telephone, email or webchat.
- Establish and maintain a professional, helpful, and accurate service to college, university, Student Loan Company (SLC) staff and other external and internal stakeholders.
- Respond to change in priorities and the ability to be flexible to take on additional ad hoc (grade specific) duties as required. There will be a requirement to provide cover within other areas at short notice therefore maintaining knowledge in various SAAS processes/procedures is key.
Competencies
Teamwork
Customer Service
Improving Performance
Communications and Engagement
No specific qualifications are required for this post
Essential Criteria
1. Experience of applying or using guidance (including data security) to inform decision making in a customer service setting.
2. Proven ability of being a team player who is able to work flexibly with others but also independently with the minimum of supervision.
3. Effective interpersonal and organisational skills with an ability to develop strong and constructive working relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders, both internal and external.
4. Strong communication skills (verbal and written) confidently dealing with a range of customers and stakeholders at all levels.
Location:
This post is based in Saughton House, Edinburgh EH11 3XD. SAAS embrace a hybrid working style where all colleagues will spend time in our office based in Edinburgh. There is an expectation of 6 days per month.
If you are successful in this role and not based in the UK, you must to be willing to relocate to within a reasonable distance of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Interview and Assessment:
Dates to be confirmed
Minimum Time in Post:
You will be expected to remain in post for a minimum of three years unless successful at gaining promotion to a higher Band or Grade.
In the event that further posts are required, a reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for up to 12 months.
Further Information
For further information on this vacancy please download and review the “Person Specification” which you will find below.
Person_Specification_Band_A Updated Oct23 (V3)
How to apply:
To apply please submit a CV outlining your relevant skills and experience for the role (no more than 2 sides of A4) and a personal statement (of no more than 750 words). When considering how your experience relates to the role, please tailor your CV and personal statement to reflect the role and the essential skills/criteria as described in the job description/person specification.
Please submit your CV and complete the personal statement in the box included, for this role you will also be asked to provide examples against the essential criteria.
Additional Information:
Some of these roles will involve dealing with customer queries through our helpline and webchat service and there will be a requirement to provide cover on a rota basis from 9:00am to 4.00pm Monday to Friday.
The post is a full-time role, but staff with different working patterns are invited to apply, and we will assess proposed working patterns against the business requirements for this post.
SAAS has separate arrangements from core Scottish Government for Public and Privilege holidays. After taking up post in SAAS you will take the Spring Friday and Monday holiday in late May/early June together with the September half day. SAAS office is fully closed between Christmas and New Year.
For information regarding this post please contact SAAS_resourcing@gov.scot
Scottish Government's ambition is to be a world leading, diverse employer where people can be themselves at work. We want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. If you require any adjustments to our recruitment process, please let us know via scottishgovernmentrecruitment@gov.scot
As part of any recruitment process, Scottish Government and associated public bodies collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants and applicants for public appointments.
Personal information you provide in the recruitment process will be made available to Scottish Government and our additional data processors.
