Student Affairs Manager - Teach Abroad, TEFL Certification School

Do you value travel and think it's important for others to explore the world?

Do you love to travel and want to help others explore the world? Do you want to work in a dynamic, fast-growing company with a strong international flavor? Are you passionate about leading a team? If the answer is "yes!" - this position is for you!

As International TEFL Academy's Student Affairs Manager, you will be responsible for the management and strategy of the Student Affairs team and collaborating with all teams at ITA to ensure excellence in the student journey. This includes working with our admissions team and their work on enrollment, instructors of the classes, marketing, and alumni. You will be responsible for supervising and coaching eight team members to serve our students as well as guiding your team to meet department goals, KPIs, and drivers. This role is also a member of the ITA leadership team and participates in all leadership activities and training.

Application Deadline: Open until filled

Compensation: $68,000-$75,000 per year based on factors such as experience, benefits, 28 days paid time off, 10 sick days, and family leave.

Work Hours: 40 hours a week, Monday -- Friday: 9:00 am - 5:30 pm

Your Location: This position is remote or you can work in our Chicago office if you prefer an office environment. Working remotely allows you to work from anywhere in the USA. You must be legally authorized to work in the USA.

Our World Headquarters Office Address: 916 West Diversey Parkway, Chicago. Our office is one block from the Diversey Brown Line CTA stop in Lincoln Park.

Reports To: This position reports to the Director of Academics and Student Affairs.

The 4 Pillars Of ITA Success:

Student Success

Employee Success

Company / Operational Success

Financial Success

All managers are responsible for department success metrics in each of these 4 pillars.

Student Success Journey at ITA:

There are 4 main departments our students have interactions with during their TEFL Certification journey and after while teaching English: Admissions, Student Affairs, Academics (Instructors), and Alumni. The Student Affairs department works hand in hand with each of these departments.

Meet Your Student Affairs Team:

Advisors for the Student Affairs department assist ITA students and graduates throughout their careers. Check out everyone in our Student Affairs Department.

Here's a snapshot of the work they do daily.

Lifetime Job Search Guidance. Assist students with preparing their search for employment as an English teacher abroad or online. Advice and personal job search guidance with their cover letter, resume, and personal job search guidance through email, phone, and in-person communication. Conduct in-person and webinar workshops with ITA alumni on teaching in different markets across the globe. Answer students' questions as they prepare to teach abroad, including questions about potential English teaching markets, schools and recruiters, and visa procedures.

TEFL Course Administrative Support. Serve as a contact in the Student Affairs Department for all students enrolled in any ITA online or in-person TEFL/TESOL courses. Troubleshoot online student technical issues via phone and email. Process student course transfers and refunds. Maintain accurate student records and enrollment history.

Department Goals:

• World Class job assistance and advice to facilitate student success in their courses and job search.
• Highest quality administrative support for courses that start every two weeks.
• Maximum impact and growth for actions and projects within the department and company.
• Excellent leadership within the team to gain and share skills and knowledge.
• Effective management and projection of department budgets and expenses.

Who We're Looking For:

• An experienced leader and department manager that can impact the company through developing their team, innovating processes, and outperforming goals.
• A people manager that contributes to the betterment of the company through inter- and intra-department work, and a contributing member of the leadership team comprised of all departments at ITA.

Student Affairs Manager Responsibilities:

Some immediate and ongoing duties for the Student Affairs Manager include:

• Operations, Processes, and Quality Control
• Staff Supervision and Development
• Customer Service
• Collaboration
• Project Management
• Budgeting and financial projection

Operations, Processes, and Quality Control: You oversee the day-to-day functions of the student affairs team. This includes ensuring all processes and procedures are followed and all documentation is up-to-date. You identify processes that need to be updated, improved, or streamlined. You oversee and make sure that the functions of the department are being met, and are in alignment with our drivers and goals. You ensure that the highest levels of quality are delivered to our students and staff by ensuring that all information provided is accurate and up-to-date, that our policies and procedures are followed, and that our students are receiving the highest quality support and guidance.

Staff Supervision and Development: This role supervises a team of 7 advisors. As a part of this role, you will be meeting with each team member on a biweekly basis, as well as providing quarterly check-ins and annual performance reviews. Coach and mentor team members to meet performance and development goals. You will be responsible for managing all vacation and time off requests, and managing any necessary coverage. You may oversee contractors as needed.

Customer Service: You are responsible for ensuring that the delivery of the highest levels of customer service, both internal and external, are met. You oversee our overall department-wide customer service strategy and make any changes necessary. This position requires that you collaborate with marketing and sales to respond to and resolve any major customer service complaints.

Collaboration: You work with all the departments, teams, and individuals at International TEFL Academy to ensure that everyone is functioning in alignment with each other. You help identify and propose updates to policies and procedures that impact multiple teams, as well as identify and initiate cross-training. You collaborate with other department leaders to identify, implement, and resolve points of friction.

Project Management: You will oversee departmental projects, including identifying the scope of the project, setting milestones, delegating tasks, and ensuring completion.

Budgeting and Financial Projections: Manage the Student Affairs department's revenues and expenses, including managing salaries, contractor pay, project budgets, and technical tools. Work closely with team members to project revenue lines. ITA follows the process of Open Book Management of total financial transparency and education with the staff to teach and utilize team members to contribute to the company's financial outcomes.

Continuing Education classes for our students: The Student Affairs department is closely involved with our students and alumni. Recommending continuing education and services are part of the service duties.

Leadership team: As a manager, you will be joining the other department managers, directors, and officers weekly to support company goals and initiatives. Your voice and contribution to this team are extremely valuable and important to the success of the company.

Job Requirements:

• International experience. Everyone in our company has lived and traveled abroad extensively. That's the club you are joining to work here. You must have lived abroad for at least 6 months to be considered for this job!
• Customer service experience. We're looking for someone with three to five years of customer service experience, working with teams that provide exceptional customer relations.
• Managerial experience. This role leads the Student Affairs team. We're looking for someone with at least three years of relevant managerial experience leading front-line staff to success.
• College degree in any field. Yes, your liberal arts degree will actually pay off and you can make a real career at ITA that is well-served by being well-read and possessing a worldview.
• Highly personable with excellent communication skills. Excellent communication skills are required: written and verbal. You are a people leader in this role. If you can't talk to and relate to people, or if you can't put your communications into writing, it's not going to work out.
• Problem Solving. You are highly skilled in identifying problems, understanding the key issues, and working through effective solutions.
• Highly organized and efficient. No kidding, you can't fake it, you just have to be organized with attention to detail while working in Hubspot, Salesforce, Moodle, and others, all while collaborating with several departments. You will be provided with state-of-the-art tools and training, but if your organizational skills are weak, you will struggle in this position.
• Team player. We've said it before and we'll say it again. We seek team members who are committed to contributing to the growth of the company in addition to meeting and exceeding their own personal goals.
• Ambitious. The Student Affairs department is a highly motivated team that thrives on setting and outperforming goals. We constantly seek new and innovative ways to improve our service and resources and to be better than we ever imagined. You should always strive for excellence, and possessing a willingness to learn & adapt is key to success.

Preferred Skills:

• Leadership Experience. We'd love to see evidence that you have what it takes to be a strong leader for the team - whether it is setting and beating goals within your team, showing initiative in adopting new processes, procedures, and systems, or developing your team to advance.
• Student Services Experience in international education. While the Student Affairs team is primarily responsible for post-enrollment customer service, experience working with students at any stage in their post-secondary education is a plus preferably outbound education with clients/students going to foreign countries.
• TEFL Certification/Experience Teaching Abroad. Your team here supports students holding this cert - it is even better when you have the experience of getting certified and/or teaching English abroad to support them!
• App Knowledge. At ITA, we use Salesforce and Hubspot heavily. Experience navigating these business software tools will make your transition to this role even easier.
• Online Learning Management System Administration. We use a Moodle system for our LMS. However, any LMS admin/design experience would be an extra check during our review.
• Google Suite Applications. We are a Google-using company. While some documents do still exist in Microsoft apps, the majority of the work you will do exists in the cloud. We rely heavily on Google Sheets, Docs, and Slides to accomplish our work.

About International TEFL Academy:

International TEFL Academy (ITA) is one of the world's largest TEFL training schools and has been in business since 2010. We have consistently been ranked as the best TEFL certification school for both online and in-person classes for the past 4 years in a row. In 2022, ITA won the prestigious GoAbroad People's Choice Award honoring the top international education organization as selected by study abroad professionals and students. This is the third time in four years that ITA has been honored with this award. ITA is on the Inc. 5000 list for top growth companies four years in a row from 2018 - 2021. Read more about ITA's recognition and awards here.

We train & certify over 5,000 students a year to Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). We believe top-level TEFL training builds a realistic pathway for our students to achieve their dreams and success as professional English language teachers. Our alumni teach at schools in 80+ countries abroad, teach online from the comfort of their homes, and live as global nomads teaching online from around the world.

As the worldwide leader in the field of TEFL, we provide

• Pre-enrollment information and personalized guidance from expert advisors,
• The Gold Standard in TEFL training and certification,
• Lifetime job search guidance - online and worldwide,
• Alumni community & peer engagement,
• Our staff with a safe, inclusive, supportive workplace/culture/job/career to grow and learn.

Company Culture: We have an amazing staff. We are committed to changing people's lives by providing them with an opportunity to see the world. We have all "been there and done that" and we've all experienced the rewards and challenges of leaving everything at home to live abroad. We are travelers at heart and are all committed to helping as many people as possible to pursue their dreams. We are goal-oriented with a light-hearted sense of humor.

Virtual Work and Culture: The pandemic forced us to accelerate the transition to building a remote culture as we have all had to work from home. Still, we have continued to enjoy fun team events and we are focused on building open communication within our team.

The Team You Will Join: ITA has 33 full-time staff members and 31 part-time Instructors living around the US. We have a remote lifestyle with approximately half of the full-time staff in the Chicago area.

To learn more about our team and our company, read our VISION STATEMENT and MEET THE STAFF.

To Apply:

All applications must be submitted online.

You will be required to submit a resume and cover letter as a pdf in ONE file. Please combine your documents before uploading them to our portal. *Note: Please do not apply without a cover letter. You will not be considered.

Your cover letter should address:

• Why do you want to work at ITA?
• Why do you want this specific job as the Student Affairs Manager?
• What skills do you bring to this position?
• What is your leadership style and managerial experiences do you have to demonstrate your ability to lead this team?
• What countries have you lived, worked, studied, and/or traveled in?

We only respond to applications and we do not accept phone calls about employment. A phone call may weaken your application. We understand your initiative, but we receive a lot of applications for this position, and it is a major process to evaluate each candidate.

Then What Happens?

Once your resume and cover letter are submitted, we will reach out to you if you have been selected for the initial phone interview. If you have not heard from us within 3 weeks, we have likely moved forward with other candidates. However, we will keep your resume on file for any future positions.

Here at International TEFL Academy, as global citizens, we recognize that diversity and inclusion are vital to the culture of our organization. International TEFL Academy is an equal-opportunity workplace. Qualifications for employment and promotion are based upon ability to perform the job. Equal employment opportunities are provided to all applicants and employees without regard to disability, pregnancy, genetic information, race, creed, religion, color, age, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, ancestry, marital status, military discharge status, veteran status, citizenship status, sealed or expunged arrest records not resulting in conviction.