JOB DESCRIPTION

Employment status and working hours

Fixed term for six months, full time.

Full time hours at the University are 35 per week with the standard working pattern Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:00.

Organisation structure

Chief Operating Officer, Finance.

Your line manager will be Gurdeep Mudhar, Finance Manager.

Place of work flexibility

The majority of your working week will be spent at our office in Reading and the rest at your home*. The exact split of days/hours is negotiable but must include a minimum of three working days each week in Horizons on the core days (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). The office closes on Fridays. You can attend the office on Mondays if you have worked the three core days. *Working from home is only possible if your environment is suitable.

High level summary of job role

As the Finance Assistant, you will have the opportunity to be involved in a number of processes within the Finance team. You will primarily support the Accounts Payable function, but you will also be responsible for various other finance process such as student/employer invoicing, income recognition, and student registration.

This is a great opportunity for someone looking to continue advancing their career in Finance, as you will be given the opportunity to stretch your skills, take initiative and continue gaining hands-on experience.

Specific job role accountabilities and responsibilities

• Ensure the smooth running of the Accounts Payable function, which involves checking purchase orders are correctly raised and authorised, invoicing is matched, coded and processed accordingly, and suppliers are paid to terms.
• Reconcile supplier accounts and ensure any queries are dealt with in a timely and efficient manner.
• Support the busy Autumn and Spring student registration periods by providing information, advice, and guidance to students.
• Assist in administering employer sponsorship; be responsible for processing sponsorship agreements and liaising with the Business Development team to address sponsorship-related queries as and when required.
• Support the invoicing of various employer charges, particularly in respect to the apprenticeship provision.
• Resolve queries raised by other teams relating to student finance and fees, ensuring high-quality customer service throughout.
• Respond to day-to-day telephone, email, and Student Central enquiries, escalating these to the relevant team members when necessary.
• Undertake other duties of a similar nature which fall within the scope of the role which may be required from time to time.

Other important features of the job role

Line management responsibilities: None.

Budget responsibility: None.

In this role you will liaise with the following: Suppliers, Employers, Finance team, other employees across the University, especially budget holders.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

E = Essential person requirement; D = Desirable person requirement

How the person requirement will be assessed:

A = Application; I = Interview; T = Test or other assessment

Please be aware that as part of onboarding processes, we will seek original documentary evidence of the relevant academic and/or professional qualifications which you include within your job application. This is all part of our comprehensive pre-employment screening which also includes checking your identity, right to work, criminal record history (basic disclosure), and three years employment history.

Qualifications and training

Accountancy (AAT) qualified or equivalent experience (D, A).

Previous experience

Experience in a similar role (E, A, I).

Experience of working in a busy HE/FE support department or similar (D, A, I).

Skills, knowledge, and aptitudes

Digital skills confidence: We use MS Office which includes Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and several other systems/technology (E, I, T).

Proven ability to work under pressure and to deadlines (E, I).

Ability to provide excellent quality of information, advice and guidance, in all aspects of dealing with colleagues and key stakeholders (E, A, I).

Strong communication skills; confidence when speaking on the telephone and professional email writing ability (E, A, I).

Ability to work both individually and as part of a team (E, A, I).

Other requirements or special requirements

Alignment to the University’s core values of Passion, Integrity, Excellence and Support; all employees are expected to demonstrate our values at work (E, I).

Commitment to delivering positive outcomes for our students; we want our students to be successful (E, I).

You must be prepared to undertake mandatory online training should you be appointed including Data Protection, Health and Safety, Safeguarding, Prevent, and EDI (E, I).

A commitment to CPD and a desire for a career in Finance (E, A, I).

PAY AND BENEFITS

Salary: £26,000 to £28,000 per annum.

Holiday: 26 days paid holiday (rising to 28 with service) plus paid bank/public holidays plus up to five paid closure days (typically between Christmas and New Year); all per holiday year Full Time Equivalent. Our holiday year runs from 1 August to 31 July. We also have a holiday buy and sell scheme in place. Sometimes the University does not need to close for five days per year and any balance (for example one day), can be used as a paid Wellbeing Day to take time out for your own physical or mental health.

Pension and life assurance: Pensions auto-enrolment to the People’s Pension which is a default salary sacrifice scheme. You may opt out of salary sacrifice but remain in the scheme, or you may choose to opt out altogether. We provide life assurance (death in service) cover as standard to all employees.

Family-friendly policies: Policies in place for all types of family-friendly statutory leave with enhanced pay available from day one of employment for some leave types. Access to Tax-Free Childcare (Government scheme).

Wellbeing: Full access to the Employee Assistance Programme as well as the Thrive Mental Wellbeing app. Several employees are trained Mental Health First Aiders and can support staff. We have a wellbeing policy and we focus on five pillars of wellbeing.

Sustainable travel: Cycle to Work and Electric Vehicle salary sacrifice schemes.

Parking: We have locked sheds for bicycles. For cars, for Horizons based roles, we may in the future be able to offer parking on site however you must not assume this will be possible. Every now and then we may have a spare parking space become available and you can ask to join the waiting list. The University is keen wherever possible, to encourage staff to commute as sustainably as possible.

Other health related benefits: Employer-funded Health Cash Plan (Simplyhealth) and voluntary dental insurance (Unum).

Other valuable benefits:

• Charity giving options available including one voluntary paid day, per annum.
• You will have access to Microsoft Office 365 applications for personal use.
• You will have access to range of lifestyle discounts and everyday savings.
• We offer learning platforms including LinkedIn learning.

On the Join the team page of our website, you will find the full list of employee benefits.

APPLICATIONS - THINGS TO CONSIDER

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Gurdeep Mudhar on 0118 467 2252 or email g.mudhar@ube.ac.uk. For any other enquiries please contact HR on 0118 467 2454 / 2433 or email recruitment@ube.ac.uk.

Did one of our employees recommend you? If you apply on the recommendation of an existing employee, please make sure to mention their name within your application.

We're passionate about sustainability and we have a five-year strategic plan: We expect job seekers to be curious about who we are and what we do. We point you towards a couple of resources about who we are and sustainability.

Closing date and next steps

We will receive applications until the advert closes on Monday 29 September at 17:00. We will not consider late applications. Our ATS does not screen applications, we humans do. Applications may be reviewed prior to the closing date and occasionally, you may be invited to interview ahead of the closing date.

Interview details

 Dates for interview will be advised to you later in the process. We'll ask you to tell us about any dates you cannot make, up to 4 weeks from the closing date; this helps us to plan interviews should you be shortlisted, prior to contacting you.

Interviews are normally carried out over Microsoft Teams or Zoom. Depending on the job role and place of work, your interview may be at our Reading or London office. Please be prepared for a two-stage interview process, held on different dates. As part of the interview process, you will likely meet a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

Note for internal candidates

If you are an existing employee, we request you inform your current line manager of your intention to apply for this role.

As this is a fixed term role, if you were (in the future) to be offered and accept this role, it would mean relinquishing your contractual permanent employment status with the University. Following the expiry of the fixed term period, your employment with the University would cease, unless an alternative role is secured. If instead you would like to apply for this role on the basis of it being a secondment (i.e. not relinquishing your permanent status), please discuss this with your current line manager. Only your line manager can consider and agree to a secondment because this impacts the resourcing in your current team. Please contact HR if you or your line manager need to discuss this further.