Accounts Assistant

Job Summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen to start a career with St Giles International, one of the market leaders in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) training field - a vibrant industry contributing £1.2 billion to the UK economy alone.

As an Accounts Assistant you will be responsible for assisting with bookkeeping and administrative processes with the finance team in addition to providing general support to the Finance Manager. Our Finance department is based at our Brighton centre for meetings and collaboration.

Welcome to St Giles International

The first St Giles College was founded in central London in 1955 as an English Language training centre. In 2019, we had become a very successful and well-established medium-sized business which employed an average of around 350 people and a maximum of around 450 during the summer. We have 6 year-round centres for students with an average age of 20-30 years in the UK - London Central, London Highgate, Brighton, Eastbourne, Cambridge, and we have another centre in Vancouver, Canada. We also run 6 Summer centres in England for teens from abroad.

We are one of the most well-known and largest international English language training organisations founded in the UK - probably in the top five of the (roughly) 1,000 British organisations. Though our main product/service is teaching, we are a business competing in a highly competitive industry which regularly produces around £2bn Pounds Sterling in exports to the UK per year. We are still a family-owned business (which is quite unusual for our size and represents a key selling point for many of our agents who want to know who they are dealing with). However, most of our senior (non-directorship) management team are not family members.

We are one of the longest running English Language Teaching organisations in Britain and have a very proud reputation within the industry for our quality and professionalism. This comes from our belief in serving the students and agents who send us students – they are our customers, and they expect from us: friendliness, flexibility, efficiency, reliability, high teaching standards and the latest technology and appreciation as individuals.

Whilst our core service is language training, we offer a range of services including: a wide choice of accommodation, social programmes, 24-hour welfare and information (including student visa support), cafeterias and airport transfer. We offer our students a 24-hour experience from the time they arrive in our host nations, to the time they return home.

St Giles International aims to deliver high quality courses at competitive prices. It has an active management scheme called the Quality Management Project which runs regular checks on student satisfaction, professional standards and feedback from our staff. This data is used to ensure that we are maintaining high quality standards across our group.

Our Team

The St Giles Finance team forms a small, tightly knit but high-powered team. There are currently six members of staff working within the Finance team: the Finance Manager, the Bookkeeper, three Finance Officers and a Credit Controller. This will be the seventh appointment due to growth. The successful applicant will report directly to the Finance Manager and will be based at our Brighton offices.

The CEO is a member of the founding family and opened our London Central school in 1987, the largest in the Group. He was also Group Marketing Director for 15 years. He was a founding Director of English UK – the National Association for Accredited English language centres in the UK, covering around 450 British Council Accredited schools in Britain. In 2011, the CEO’s elder daughter joined the family business as Sales and Marketing Director and Deputy CEO.

Our ethos

We are proud to have a sociable, vibrant and multicultural working environment where there are regular opportunities to consult, report and partner with senior colleagues, including the founding family. We are a hardworking team who are happy to pitch in and help each other when needed.

Type of Applicant Sought

Essential:

• AAT qualification or qualified by experience
• Minimum of 2 years work experience in bookkeeping and administrative duties
• Accounting software experience (Sage 50 preferable)
• Microsoft Office and intermediate Excel skills
• Willingness to adapt to changing and varied needs of the business
• Enthusiasm for the Company and Industry
• Strong organisational skills and ability to meet deadlines
• Willingness to learn new skills
• Self-motivated and work on own initiative
• Permission to work in UK
• Strong team player with the ability to work independently when required

Job Details

Within the role, there will be a varied mixture of direct instruction, independent work, project work, supervised work, and teamwork. The job demands good knowledge of accounting software, strong time management and organisational skills. You will be working closely with the finance team in all components of the bookkeeping process, and you will be required to report to, update and consult the Finance Manager on a regular basis.

Your Responsibilities

Main duty to support the team with bookkeeping and administrative tasks, including:

• Assisting the group purchase ledger clerk with processing on Sage
• Assisting the group sales ledger clerk with processing on Class/Sage
• Assisting with the updating of annual price increase codes on Class software.
• Assisting with preparation of year end reporting in January.
• Managing all petty cash accounts at different sites - processing and reconciling
• Preparing excel reports for cost centre control and other administrative tasks as requested by the Finance Manager

Terms

• Salary: £25,500
• Holidays include 4 weeks/20 working days, not including statutory holidays, plus 1 extra day for every year of service, up to a maximum of 5 days.
• Probationary period of employment is 12 weeks, but this may be extended at the discretion of the Finance Manager.
• Sick pay includes 4 weeks full pay + 4 weeks ½ pay in any one year.
• Working hours include 09.00 - 17.30 Monday to Friday.
• Extra days’ holiday given in lieu of any days worked at the weekend.
• Overtime with line-manager approval (only paid for more than 30 minutes’ overtime in any one day)

Additional Perks

• This is a hybrid position with most of the time working from home and the occasional in-office day for collaboration and training.
• In year 3, you will become eligible for the company Pension Scheme.

Starting Date: As soon as possible

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Salary: £25,500.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Work from home

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Brighton