Project Officer, Education and Society - Maternity Cover at British Council

Role type: Business Delivery
Duration: Fixed term Contract - Six (6) months
Report to: Project Manager, Schools, Education and Society
Pay Band: 4 Remuneration: 340,331 Naira per month

Role Purpose

• To work with the Schools Education and Society Programme Manager, Society Project Manager and other members of the Programmes team to support project delivery for the  Premier Skills and Active Citizens Project and on an ad-hoc basis other projects delivered in Kano State About us 

Geopolitical/SBU/Function Overview

• The British Council in Nigeria works in three strategic business areas; Arts, English, Education and Society. 
• The Society portfolio in Nigeria is delivered through a mix of large scale donor funded contract work including the Justice for All (J4A) and Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation (NSRP) programmes as well as partnership projects, including Active Citizens and Premier Skills.

Our work focuses on three key areas:

• Working with civil society to enable the development of more inclusive, open and stable societies.
• Working with partners across the justice sector and with civil society to strengthen the rule of law, ensure access to justice and address and resolve conflict.
• Working to contribute to improved opportunities for women and girls through all our programmes.

Active Citizens is a social leadership project run in partnership with four universities including Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Bayero University Kano, University of Jos and Uthman Dan Fodiyo University Sokoto, providing training for students in citizen engagement, volunteering and social action projects.

Premier Skills is a partnership between the British Council and the English Premier League, which uses football as a tool to engage with and develop the skills of young people.

Through the legacy Girl’s Education Advocacy and Research Project, we supported communities of researchers, civil society advocates and policy makers in Northern Nigeria to work towards creating a collaborative approach to improving access to and outcomes of basic education for girls.

Main Accountabilities
Project Management and Coordination:

• Support the delivery of project activity to agreed timelines, costs and performance indicators.
• Responsible for maintaining programme activity and gantt charts  
• Responsible for programme records management and archiving in line with corporate policy on data protection and information management
• Support Project Manager in organising and managing training, dissemination and programme management events.

Financial Management:

• Responsible for creating and managing programme purchase orders and ensuring appropriate management of invoicing and payment of suppliers and vendors.
• Support the project manager with the procurement of goods and services in line with established corporate policies and guidelines.
• Ensuring the administrative purchase to pay process is executed in line with corporate standards.

Equality, diversity and inclusion and Child Protection standards:

• Support project manager to ensure that project delivery and activity reflect British Council EDI policy.
• Ensure that child protection policy and standards are followed and maintained for all relevant projects Some travel and evening working within Nigeria and internationally.  Some unsocial working hours.

Key Relationships
Internal:

• Society Project Manager, Schools Education and Society Programme Manager, Nigeria Programme team, Nigeria Communications team, regional and global Education and Society team.

External:

• Venues
• Partners

Role Requirements
Threshold requirements:

• Passport requirements/ Right to work in country - Pre-existing right to live and work in Nigeria Valid Passport (Shortlist)
• Direct contact or managing staff working with children? Appropriate child protection assurance checks in accordance with British Council policy

NB:  Some weekend and evening work will be required to meet the demands of a busy operation and a new business area.

Person Specification

Qualification
Essential:

• Degree level qualification or equivalent (Shortlisting).

Desirable:

• Project Management Certification (Shortlisting).

Role Specific Knowledge & Experience
Essential:

• Understanding of the Nigeria Education system and social landscape in Northern Nigeria (Shortlisting & Interview.)
• Experience working in North East/ North-west Nigeria (Shortlisting & Interview.)
• Project Management experience (Shortlisting)
• Knowledge of the local language and understanding of the environment in Kano.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of emerging themes in gender adovac (Shortlisting & Interview.).
• Experience working with NGD’s and civil society groups (Shortlisting).

British Council Behaviours
Essential:

• Connecting with Others (Interview)
• Working Together (Interview)  
• Being Accountable (Interview)
• Other behaviour needed for the job but not evaluated at interview;
• Making it happen

Behaviour XX (Level): Level Descriptor
Managing Projects:

• Works with project management systems and procedures, and has a track record of compliance with them as a project team member.

Communication Skills:

• Listens to others and expresses self clearly, with grammatical accuracy and awareness of a diverse audience in speaking and writing.

Planning and Organising:

• Able to plan own work over short timescales for routine or familiar tasks and processes.

Managing finance and resources:

• Uses resources efficiently in own role and complies with financial rules and procedures.