Job Title: Senior Secretary to the Ambassador
The Dutch – all 16 and a half million of them – live in 41,526 square kilometres, little more than half the size of Scotland. This makes the Netherlands one of the world’s most densely populated countries. The Netherlands is best known for its tulips, windmills and clogs.
And for its low altitude and vulnerability to flooding. Less well known is that the Netherlands has the tenth largest economy in the world, and ranks sixteenth in GDP. Equally little known is that the Dutch have won Nobel prizes for chemistry, physics, medicine, economics and peace or that the world’s planners and architects flock here to learn about Dutch solutions for this crowded country.
Through its international network, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) -acting closely with the NL Agency – is able to provide useful business leads and contacts. The Trade & Investment section gives assistance to Dutch and Ugandan companies.
Job Summary:
The Senior Secretary to the Ambassador offers secretarial/clerical support mainly to the Head of Mission and Deputy Head of Mission. He/she is supporting their internal and external relations, requiring an understanding of functional arrangements within the Embassy, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and their outside contacts. He/she understands the importance of external representation and of the information needs of both offices. He/she is able to work independently as well as within a team, has relevant education and experience, is flexible and maintains a high degree of integrity and confidentiality. He/she is also an excellent communicator and has a pro-active attitude.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
- Responsible for the management of agendas, planning of appointments, and logistics.
- First telephonic point of contact for the Ambassador and his Deputy.
- Processing incoming correspondence (hard and soft copy).
- Coordinating outgoing correspondence for the management team. This includes revising and correcting correspondence where necessary, as well as independently drafting letters and ‘note verbales’.
- Responsible for the preparation of the agenda, minute-taking and monitoring of action points for embassy staff meetings.
- Maintaining and keeping up-to-date of the Embassy database in Microsoft Outlook
- Maintaining and keeping up-to-date leave planning of Embassy staff.
- Responsible for the organisation of representational activities (e.g. lunches, dinners, receptions) for the Ambassador and his Deputy, including the organisation of the annual King’s Day event.
- In charge of the administrative and logistical support for field visits of the Ambassador and his Deputy.
- Administrative and logistical support for incoming missions.
- The jobholder will act as the Web-editor for the Embassy website (Dutch and English version) and the internal web portal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Editor for the Embassy Facebook and Twitter accounts, including active outreach, seeking interesting content independently as well as motivating other colleagues to deliver content on the basis of their activities.
- Maintaining the inventory of promotional materials and gifts.
- The Secretary will also be managing the Embassy Social Fund
- Digital archiving of documents.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- The applicant should hold a bachelor’s degree in office management, secretarial studies or related field.
- Fluent knowledge of English; knowledge of Dutch is an important advantage for working in a Dutch professional environment.
- A minimum of eight years’ experience with reputable and/or similar organisations.
- High degree of integrity, independence and teamwork
- Extensive knowledge of secretarial/clerical and management support procedures.
- Knowledge of filing and documentation techniques.
- Good working knowledge of computerised word processing.
How to Apply jobs:
If you desire to join the Dutch embassy in the aforementioned capacity should send an updated CV and cover letter with three professional referees to the address or e-mail below. All applications shall be marked: “EKN Senior Secretary.”E-mails that exceed 2 MB will be rejected.
NB: While we thank all applicants for your interest, only those selected for interviews will be contacted. Any form of lobbying will lead to automatic disqualification.
People Performance Group Plot 8 Kitante Close, Kitante Uganda.
Deadline: Thursday, 15th May, 2014 by 5pm
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