Community Education Officer at Pyxera Global

Locations: Southern Katsina/Northern Kaduna Region, Nigeria
Division: Enterprise and Community Development
Report to: Project Director, Joint Initiative for Village Advancement (JIVA) Nigeria Project

Project Summary/ Job Description
We are seeking to strengthen the local systems that drive prosperity and opportunity and forge community resilience. Therefore, we are in need of qualified candidates for the position of Community Education Officer to be based full-time in the Southern Katsina/Northern Kaduna Office, Nigeria. This position will work with the JIVA Nigeria team to design an integrated community development project with a focus on enhancing resilient agriculture and accountable education in the region. As a new initiative, JIVA Nigeria is part of PYXERA Global’s broader JIVA programming, housed within the Enterprise and Community Development division.

The JIVA program traces its roots to a corporate volunteer project undertaken in 2011. The team spent a week working side-by-side with residents of three villages in rural Rajasthan, India. Inspired by this engagement, the Foundation partnered with PYXERA Global to identify the most pressing needs in the villages and empower the villagers to determine for themselves how best to meet these challenges. On the basis of this work together with the residents, the Joint Initiative for Village Advancement (JIVA) project funded by the Foundation and implemented by PYXERA Global began in January 2013.

The JIVA Nigeria project will involve collaboration with diverse partners and a drive to be continuously adaptive to the local context. The Community Education Officer will provide technical expertise and plan the project’s education activities. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in sustainable and engaging educational programming and experience working on international development initiatives. Additionally, the candidate will be familiar with local and national government education initiatives and an understanding of monitoring & evaluation (M&E) practices.

Key Position Responsibilities
The Community Education Officer will report directly to the JIVA Nigeria Project Director and will have the following responsibilities:

• Provide overall technical expertise and management of all education-related activities.
• Provide relevant technical guidance and collaborate with the project Pre-Design team to design and deliver the participatory community assessments and co-create the project. Key responsibilities include: engaging and building strong relationships with community members, analyzing data collected to identify education-related gaps, designing priority action plans and intervention areas in partnerships with the community.
• Develop a clear and adaptive project work plan based on the seasonal (school) calendar, stakeholder availability, project deadlines and targets, etc.
• Oversee the program’s overall curriculum development and teaching and outreach strategies.
• Identify project impact tracking indicators and key technical focus areas.
• Document program achievements, innovations, failures and lessons learned to integrate into project activities and inform project strategy.
• Provide input on monitoring & evaluation tools to ensure accurate data collection, verification and analysis of training activities, and to avoid duplication of efforts.
• Research government schemes relating to child education and social protection to link target children in the villages with available benefits and identify opportunities to leverage existing schemes in project activities to maximize the impact of the project and drive project sustainability.
• Support the development of project reports on education activities, as needed.
• Conduct frequent site visits to observe local education practices, family education preferences, and collect data from schools.
• Staff capacity building: Oversee capacity building of JIVA Nigeria education team.
• Exhibits and is committed to the JIVA Values of: honesty, transparency, integrity, humility, freedom to innovate, equality, keep a “light” attitude, quality, teamwork, focus on the goals, accountability to all partners, and monitoring to learn and improve.
• Other duties, as assigned.

Qualifications

• Minimum Bachelor's degree in Education, Social Sciences, or related field.
• At least 7 years’ experience in education, teaching, curriculum development and/or after-school tutoring/mentoring/coaching; classroom teaching experience in the Southern Katsina/Northern Kaduna Region preferred.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing engaging and experiential (non-traditional) classroom-learning modules including curriculum, lesson plans, objectives, learning assessments, and the design and use of teaching-learning-materials (TLM).
• Excellent facilitation skills, familiarity with training-of-trainer (ToT) approaches and methodologies, and competencies to use tailor-made and diversified facilitation/training methods and tools.
• Experience organizing community and/or youth outreach and support programs.
• Knowledge of government schemes for education and social protection for children.
• Well-versed in computer and internet operations and developing analytical reports.
• Fluent in English, proficiency in Hausa and other local languages strongly preferred.
• Professional experience in the Southern Katsina/Northern Kaduna Region, Nigeria, preferred.
• Nigerian national, required.