Admissions Secretary

About the company

Dubai American Academy is GEMS Education's flagship American curriculum school, offering an exceptional education from Pre-K to Grade 12 alongside the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

Rated outstanding by the KHDA for 13 consecutive years, DAA is recognised for its academic excellence, vibrant international community and state-of-the-art facilities.

Your tasks

We are seeking a motivated, enthusiastic, and organised admissions secretary to join our exceptional team. The successful candidate will play a key role in supporting the admissions process and fostering positive relationships with families. This is an exciting opportunity for a dedicated professional to make a meaningful contribution to our school community in a full-time role.

• Support the school registrar by meeting with prospective parents to explain admission procedures, curriculum, fee structure and regulations in order to ensure prospective parents enrol their children at the school.
• As directed by the registrar, maintain an accurate record of all places available at the school and an up-to-date waiting list that details students who wish to be enrolled and have passed any necessary placement tests. Registrars should aim to have 50 students per year group, fully assessed and waiting to be placed.
• Update, maintain and manage the student information Salesforce database, including all non-mandatory fields, ensuring that up-to-date information is available on a daily basis.
• Support the registrar to ensure annual enrolment processes such as the re-enrolment process, parent school contract and registration of students are completed within the agreed timetable.
• Work closely with the government relations executive (GRE) to ensure all transfer certificates received for new students meet the requirements of the governing body, students are registered in a timely fashion, outgoing transfer certificates are processed efficiently and visa and passport information is kept up to date continuously throughout the academic year.
• Follow up all outstanding offers, respond to enquiries by phone and mail, book and carry out assessments of students within agreed timeframes providing high quality customer service throughout the process.
• Maintain and create files for all new applicants, new students, current students, exiting students and alumni and complete all exit documentation for students withdrawing from the school.
• Be fully versed in all the rules and regulations of the Ministry of Education and other relevant governing bodies (SEZ, KHDA, ADEC) to ensure compliance during the admission process.
• Ensure the GEMS policies, procedures and codes of conduct are followed at all times and ensure all audit items are addressed in a timely manner.
• Perform other duties as requested by direct and dotted reporting line managers or supervisors.

Requirements

Accountabilities / key personality traits

• Interact with DAA community members.
• Interact with people in a manner which shows sensitivity, tact and professionalism.
• Ability to form relationships with parents, DAA faculty and wider community.

Qualifications, experience and skills

• A college degree from a reputed university is desirable (BA or BSc).
• A minimum of two years in a customer service focused role.
• Proven success with meeting sales targets is mandatory; ability to influence the team to deliver quality results and meet sales targets consistently is critical.
• Relationship management experience – able to build and influence professional relationships with peer group as well as parental community.
• Effective communicator (written and spoken).
• Interpersonal skills, able to operate in a diverse environment.
• Job-specific knowledge and skills:

• Solid time management skills - ability to multi-task and cope with peaks of demand.
• Advanced user of Microsoft Office and able to utilise technology well to present facts to the management.
• Able to manage a diverse team’s performance and relationships.
• Analytical thinking.

Other

GEMS safeguarding GEMS Education is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We are dedicated to creating safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environments where students can thrive, and we expect all employees, volunteers, and partners to share this commitment.

As part of our safer recruitment practices, all successful applicants will be subject to comprehensive pre-employment checks, including verification of identity, qualifications, employment history, professional references, and criminal record checks from all countries of residence and employment, in line with local and international safeguarding requirements. These checks may include enhanced disclosure, prohibition, barring, and overseas police clearance checks where applicable. We are committed to recruiting individuals who uphold the highest standards of professional conduct and child protection.