Job Title
EPALE NSS Support Assistant
Reports to
Ashfa Slater, EPALE NSS Team Leader
Job Holder(s)
Date
19 October 2015
T&Cs: 12 month temporary contract (1
January 2016 – 31 December 2016)
Starting salary: Band 2
Job Purpose
Overall Purpose
EPALE https://ec.europa.eu/epale/en
The Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe (EPALE) is an ePlatform initiated
and funded by the European Commission. It is a free, multilingual community platform
for adult learning professionals across Europe. Through participating in EPALE, users are
able to:
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Access high quality learning resources
Get the latest adult education news and developments
Search for adult learning events
Participate in online theme-based discussions
Share best practices with other adult learning professionals
Search for partners to carry out projects with and apply for funding
The NSS Support Assistant will:
 Provide day to day support to the EPALE NSS UK team across a range of
activities with guidance to meet agreed quality standards and budgets as set out
in the grant agreement.
 Deliver a helpline service for platform users and enquiries in the UK and
generally provide a positive, professional first contact for the Technical
Assistance Division.
 Co-ordinate translations of resources where necessary in line with an overall
multilingualism strategy.
 Keep auditable records of all aspects of delivery, meeting EACEA and ISO
standards.
Dimensions
Financial
Support the EPALE NSS Team Leader to deliver the contract within the fixed price
budget.
Staff
None.
Key Working Relationships and Contacts.
Other members of the EPALE UK NSS team. Frequent contact also with EPALE CSS team
Principle requirements
The post-holder will be required to manage their time efficiently between the varying
requirements of the work packages, and be flexible in taking on other duties appropriate
to the post as required. General requirements include:

Providing efficient administrative, communications and project support to
colleagues to ensure effective delivery of the EPALE UK NSS contract.

Provide a helpful and professional contact point for EPALE in the UK through a
telephone and email help line service: responding sensitively to variable queries,
logging responses and referring queries to appropriate team members.
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Being an effective team member, building strong relationships inside the team,
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with the EPALE CSS, EPALE users and content contributors.
Co-ordinate translations of priority content wherever necessary into the five
other principle EPALE languages (German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish) in line
with the overall multilingualism strategy and through sub-contracted translators
where necessary:
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Translate non-English text and documents (partly or entirely), defined by
the CSS or through other means (e.g. Google Analytics, user comments)
as being high-value content, in order to ensure that materials are
available and understandable to UK target groups.
Translate English language content to the five other main EPALE
languages using the identification methods outlined above.
Contribute to the glossary of used terms in adult learning to ensure that
the UK country context is reflected
Working with the CSS to identify items to translate, to provide support to
other NSSs with the quality checking of English translations that they
have commissioned.
Translate the outputs that we produce as a result of creating unique
resources for EPALE. These translations will concentrate on the five other
main EPALE languages.
Providing support to the UK NSS team to include:
- Maintaining office systems for the programme and records to an auditable
standard.
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Help report on use of the platform and effectiveness of NSS activity using KPIs in
order to provide a management overview of performance and progress to the
European Commission and Ecorys management.
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Providing support to the UK NSS team in preparing and running EPALE events.
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Assisting with the preparation and distribution of promotional materials for
externally hosted events.
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Processing EPALE user data and conducting basic analysis of information to
inform work planning. May also include some data entry.
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Help to ensure effective animation of online functions including discussion fora,
blogs, calendar and the resource library.
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Help to coordinate and quality check content uploaded to the platform by UK
users, in line with the EPALE themes.
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Help the EPALE UK Content Coordinator to effectively search and identify
relevant online content for digital publication on the platform (e.g. news articles,
events)
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Contributing to the awareness raising / dissemination functions of EPALE under
the guidance of senior staff.
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Providing cover for EPALE UK when other staff are out of the office.
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Any other duties appropriate to the post as required.
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This role requires a willingness to travel throughout England and work outside
normal office hours, including nights away from home.
Qualifications & Experience
Essential skills, experience, expertise and knowledge:
 Excellent interpersonal, communication and customer service skills
 Excellent IT skills: knowledge of MS Office – Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint,
Outlook Express
 Excellent organisational and administrative skills including attention to detail and the
ability to assimilate large amounts of information.
 Ability to format reports, interrogate databases, run mail merges, prepare
presentations
 Good English (written and verbal)
 Ability to work accurately to tight deadlines
 Ability to work on own initiative and as part of a team
 Ability to work flexibly and multi-task
 Good time management and prioritisation skills
 Willingness to travel throughout England and work outside normal office hours,
including nights away from home.
Desirable skills, experience, expertise and knowledge:
 Experience of operating helpline services
 Some knowledge of the adult learning agenda and sector in the UK and EU, as well as
of the wider lifelong learning agenda and Erasmus+.
 Some experience of marketing, communications, events and digital media.