The posting
Online Education Services (OES) is a purpose-driven organisation dedicated to transforming lives through access to high-quality online education. We work alongside leading university partners, training institutes, and professional bodies across the globe to create innovative, student-centred learning experiences that truly make a difference.
As a proud member of the SEEK Group, we benefit from the global reach and expertise of a world-leading digital pioneer — while remaining a close-knit, values-led team at heart. Our vision is clear and ambitious: to be the world's most impactful enabler of education. Every person at OES plays a part in making that vision a reality.
The Role
This is a fast-paced, telephone-based role focused on the first stages of the prospective student journey. You will be responsible for engaging new enquiries quickly, having meaningful initial conversations with prospective students, and establishing whether they are ready and suitable to progress to a Student Recruitment Advisor.
Rather than managing the full recruitment journey through to enrolment, your role is to create a strong start. You will speak with prospective students to understand their interest, motivation, study goals and circumstances; complete initial qualification checks; identify potential barriers or risks; and ensure qualified prospects are prepared for a more detailed conversation with a Student Recruitment Advisor.
You will play an important role in ensuring our Recruitment Advisors spend their time speaking with engaged, well-qualified prospective students while ensuring every new enquiry receives a responsive, professional and supportive first experience with OES.
This is an excellent opportunity for someone looking to develop a career in student recruitment, consultative sales or higher education, with the opportunity to build the skills and experience required to progress into a Student Recruitment Advisor role.
What You'll Be Responsible For
- Engaging new prospective students through telephone, email and SMS, ensuring new enquiries receive a timely, professional and positive first interaction with OES
- Conducting structured initial conversations to understand a prospective student's interest, motivation, study goals and level of intent
- Completing initial qualification checks against agreed programme criteria and identifying whether prospective students are suitable to progress within the recruitment journey
- Asking effective discovery questions to identify potential barriers, concerns or risks that may affect a student's ability or readiness to progress
- Identifying and progressing engaged, appropriately qualified prospective students to Student Recruitment Advisors for more detailed programme and recruitment conversations
- Providing Student Recruitment Advisors with clear and useful handover information, ensuring they understand the prospective student's motivations, circumstances, questions and any potential risks identified
- Providing prospective students with accurate high-level programme information and setting clear expectations about the next stage of their conversation with OES
- Maintaining accurate and comprehensive records in Salesforce CRM, including contact attempts, conversation outcomes, qualification information and agreed next actions
- Managing a high volume of new enquiries and follow-up activity while maintaining strong standards of responsiveness and student experience
- Working closely with Student Recruitment Advisors to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of lead qualification and handovers
- Contributing to team targets and continuous improvement initiatives by sharing feedback, trends and insights from conversations with prospective students
How Your Success Will Be Measured
Performance in this role will be measured through a combination of activity, responsiveness, qualification quality and progression KPIs, including:
- Speed to lead – how quickly new prospective student enquiries are contacted
- Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) generated against agreed targets
- Quality of qualification and handover, including the accuracy and completeness of information captured for Student Recruitment Advisors
- SQL-to-next-stage progression, helping assess whether qualified leads are appropriately identified and prepared for Advisor conversations
- CRM accuracy and follow-up completion, ensuring records and next actions are consistently maintained
- Contribution towards wider Student Recruitment team conversion and enrolment objectives
- Success will not be measured solely by volume. The quality of qualification is equally important:the aim is to ensure Student Recruitment Advisors receive prospective students who are appropriately qualified, engaged and prepared for the next stage of their journey.
Who You'll Work With
You will report directly to the Student Recruitment Manager / Sales Manager and work closely with a talented, collaborative team of Student Recruitment Advisors. You will work closely together to ensure qualified prospective students move smoothly from their initial enquiry into a more detailed recruitment conversation.
Requirements
We are looking for someone who is confident speaking with people, naturally curious, highly organised and motivated to develop a career in student recruitment and sales.
This is a junior position, so extensive sales experience is not essential. More important is the ability to communicate confidently, ask good questions, listen carefully and learn quickly.
To be successful in this role, you will need:
Experience & Skills
- Experience within a customer-facing, telephone-based, sales, recruitment, or customer service would be beneficial
- Strong verbal communication skills, with the confidence to engage prospective students professionally over the telephone and build rapport quickly
- A natural ability to ask questions and listen actively, using information from conversations to understand a prospective student's goals, circumstances and level of interest
- Strong written communication skills, with the ability to communicate professionally and clearly through email and SMS
- Good judgement and attention to detail when completing initial qualification and eligibility checks
- The ability to recognise potential barriers, concerns or risks and accurately capture these for the Student Recruitment Advisor
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced, target-driven environment where responsiveness, activity and quality are equally important
- Strong organisation and time-management skills, with the ability to manage multiple new enquiries and follow-up activities simultaneously
- A positive and resilient approach to telephone-based outreach, including repeated contact attempts and conversations with prospective students at different levels of readiness
- Comfortable learning and using CRM systems and digital communication tools; Salesforce experience would be beneficial but is not essential
- Experience working within higher education, education consultancy or student outreach is desirable
- A willingness to receive coaching and feedback and continuously develop sales, discovery and student recruitment skills
About You
You are naturally confident speaking with people and enjoy understanding what motivates them. You are comfortable starting conversations, asking questions and listening carefully rather than simply delivering information.
You understand that a great first conversation can shape someone's entire experience with an organisation. You communicate professionally and positively, making prospective students feel listened to while ensuring the information gathered is accurate and useful.
You are organised and comfortable working at pace. You can manage a high volume of activity without losing attention to detail and understand the importance of accurate CRM notes, clear follow-ups and reliable handovers.
You are also commercially minded and motivated by targets. You understand that the purpose of qualification is not simply to complete a checklist, but to identify genuine prospective students and help them take the appropriate next step.
You welcome feedback and coaching and are motivated to develop your skills. You see this role as an opportunity to build strong foundations in consultative sales and student recruitment, with the ambition to take on greater responsibility as your experience develops.
Most importantly, you value teamwork. You understand that your success is closely connected to the success of the Student Recruitment Advisors you support and take pride in providing them with high-quality, well-prepared opportunities.
Benefits
- Global organisation focused on growth with lots of opportunities for our employees
- Engaging & vibrant organisational culture
- 35 hour working week, within a flexible working environment
- OES values driven recruitment principles
- Career-life fit – health & wellbeing focus
- 25 days of annual leave + Bank holidays
- Purchased leave scheme
- OES strategy reflects respect, honesty & diversity
- Continuous improvement through challenging & meaningful work
- Study assistance and leave for eligible employees
- High growth industry & strong partner/shareholder backing
- Genuine focus on student success
- Global mentoring program
- We are proud to support the Living the Wage movement Why Join OES?
- Make a real difference — you will be the reason many students take their first step towards transforming their future through education
- A role with variety — no two days are the same, and there is always something new to learn
- Supportive, team-focused culture — we celebrate wins together and back each other when things get tough
- Part of a global group — the resources and reputation of the SEEK Group behind you
- Career development — a diverse, growing organisation where ambition is encouraged and progression is possible
- Birmingham City Centre location — a vibrant, well-connected base right in the heart of the city
How to Apply
If you are a driven, people-focused sales professional looking for a role where your work has genuine purpose, we would love to hear from you.
Please submit your CV along with a short note about your sales experience and what excites you about joining OES. We are an inclusive employer and warmly welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and experiences.
