VSO Representative

Based: Beijing

Travel: around 30% of time, including occasional international travel.

Salary: package around 9,000RMB per month before tax

Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is an international development organization that enables men and women to work alongside people in poorer countries in order to share skills, build capabilities and promote international understanding and action in the pursuit of a more equitable world.

VSO has worked in China for 21 years. VSO brings international expert volunteers to China, to work in the poorest parts of the country in order to help improve the lives of disadvantaged people in China. They do this mainly in the field of education, for instance working as English Language teacher trainers in teaching colleges in small cities in provinces like Gansu, Guizhou or XinJiang. The volunteers also work in other areas of education, for instance in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS.

VSO China has a vacancy in its team of 6 representatives ¨C currently made up of 3 international staff and 3 Chinese staff. A Representative¡¯s responsibilities would include the following:

• Managing the programme in a number of provinces in China, including representing VSO with employers of volunteers and at provincial government level.
• Supporting 25-30 volunteers from overseas, helping them understand how to work & live in China, assisting them when they have difficulties and negotiating with their employers to solve problems.
• Setting up new placements ¨C visiting potential employers, assessing their suitability and specifying and documenting the job a volunteer would do.
• Responsibility for an area of work for the whole programme for instance organizing the annual conference, or leading on a theme of work such as Education Advocacy ¨C applying VSO¡¯s experience to help China develop its education policy at national level.

We need a dynamic, proactive individual, with experience of working with people from different countries, excellent spoken and written English, and a knowledge of and understanding of development. They will need to be a team player, with good organizational skills, happy with a high administrative workload and ideally specific experience of Education and an understanding and appreciation of the issues around HIV & AIDS.

Local staff are employed through FESCO and are initially placed on a 3 year contract, with the possibility of further extension.

In order to be eligible to apply, candidates must have the following:

• At least 5 years work experience, and likely to be at least 26 years of age
• At least 1 year working or studying overseas
• Excellent written and spoken English
• Some relevant experience ¨C in development or education.

If you do not meet all of these criteria, then please do not apply.

If you are interested in applying for this position, please email [email protected] for further details.

We are sorry but we do not have the resources to discuss applications or to respond to applicant we do not shortlist. If you do not hear back by the end of February then please assume you have not been successful. Please do not call our office to discuss this application.

Closing date: 26^th January 2003.

We will be conducting interviews in late February or early March.