Sarah Ticherou

Training

When I started it was agreed that the best way to get a taste for the job would be to spend time shadowing in various Consulates. So my first week was spent in Athens, Crete and Rhodes with the vice-consuls and their teams. The benchmark was set and it was clear that I would have to work hard to reach their level. I also visited Majorca for a week and that gave an interesting insight into how many ways the Spanish and Greek networks are similar, but also how each area has its own quirks.

Then lots of on-the-job training and managing a busy post in Corfu gave me a solid foundation. But I knew it would still be necessary for me to attend a formal consular assistance-training course. The FCO place a huge amount of emphasis on ensuring that all staff have access to training and support in order to be able to do their job to the best of their ability. Not only do they train new recruits but they ensure that on-going training is available for all regardless of how long you have worked for them.

I have to admit that I was somewhat apprehensive about attending a course. My previous training courses in the travel industry had been somewhat varied in delivery style and content, and having actually trained staff before, I was wondering whether there would be any similarities. In addition, my pre-conceived ideas of the FCO did make me wonder whether the course would involve lots of being ‘talked to’ and little room for active participation.

Once the course dates were agreed, I was given an info pack that explained the overall course objectives and then the objective per session. As with most companies these days, we have a type of best practice, which gives us guidance on how to do our job. The majority of the course was ensuring that we had a full understanding of this guidance but I was also interested to see that there was a lot of the course dedicated to customer service skills. Dealing with the public, in often difficult and distressing situations, is a major part of the consular role and I was keen to see how they would address this.

So with bags packed, I set off for a 5-day intensive course in Warsaw.

Posted at 08:34 10 September 2008 by Sarah Ticherou  |  Comments[1]