Education Program Manager at Save The Children

The Organisation

• We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.
• We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:
  • No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
  • All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
  • Violence against children is no longer tolerated
• We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

Scope of Role

• The Education Manager will act as the operational and technical lead on all education-related matters for the Northeast Humanitarian Response.
• He/she will be expected, with limited support, to lead on education-related assessments, programme implementation and closely work with the head of Education on to inform new programme design and implementation at proposal and strategy level, as well as support on fundraising, recruitment and procurement, liaising and linking with other sectors as appropriate.
• In addition, the Manager will oversee the monitoring & evaluation of educational activities and take the lead on the education cluster coordination.
• The Education Manager will also be expected to play a leadership role within a response team, supporting and building the capacity of colleagues.

Key Areas of Responsibility
Programme Support:

• The Education Manager, working with the Response Team will:
  • Expand the Education Program Strategy for Northeast Nigeria;
  • Prepare and oversee programme implementation to ensure timely delivery of programme activities, including monitoring against log frames and budget, individual performance management work plans, identifying programme supplies needs and coordinating with the logistics team to put in place a sensible phased procurement plan.
  • Programmes to develop and implement may include:
  • Literacy and Numeracy/ Remedial or catch-up Education programming
  • Creation of additional learning spaces to serve the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) and host community members.
  • Outreach meetings in the camps and host communities (specifically targeting children/youth, parents, caregivers, other duty bearers) to build a better understanding of family/community priorities and responsibilities for education.
  • Teacher education/ training workshops on pedagogy, Literacy, Numeracy and Wellbeing as per the SCI Quality Education framework.
  • Comprehensive School Safety to ensure that children are learning from a safe and protective environment.
  • Works closely with SCI teams across various departments (Program operations, MEAL, Advocacy and Communications) to ensure a unified Education Strategic vision
  • In close collaboration with other sector Managers, ensure Education Strategy efficiently integrates with other sector approaches, ensuring holistic child development across sectoral lines (Child Protection, Child Rights Governance, Livelihoods, WASH etc.)
  • Contribute to and ensure quality implementation for education programmes and donor reports are in compliance with internal Save the Children requirements and any relevant external donor requirements.
  • Works closely with the HR team, lead in identifying Education staffing needs (national and international) and ensure rapid recruitment, induction and training of new staff
  • Ensure child participation principles are institutionalized within education programming.
  • Ensure that the minimum standards of humanitarian relief are maintained in accordance with the Sphere Standards, INEE and Red Cross Code of Conduct.

Operational Planning:

• Provide humanitarian level lead in planning, development of detailed implementation plans, phased budgets, implementation, monitoring, documentation and reporting for an education program.
• Overseeing the implementation and budget performance in line with the program plans and budgets.
• Effectively support the program staff and partners in developing annual plans, in line with education Program design and Save the Children International planning guidelines.
• Support staff and partners to ensure that education Program implementation is to the desired standards and on time.
• Provide guidance to the partners through the planning processes to develop plans that are cost-effective and in line with education Program funding.

Finance and Budget Management:

• Manage the Program budget in coordination with the team leader and Finance Manager.
• Overseeing the budget performance to ensure that program implementation is on course as per the detailed implementation plans and phased budgets.
• Support the Program implementation teams with budget monitoring and reporting.
• Ensure that the budget monitoring reports are responded to in time and with accurate information.
• Working closely with education Program teams, to ensure that partners are well guided, supported and their capacity built-in sound financial management procedures.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting:

• Lead on technical education assessments in coordination with other SC thematic areas and other external sector agencies, ensuring assessment findings are documented and that all assessments include a specific analysis of children’s needs.
• Develop education program monitoring tools and work with the M&E and Assessment Officer to monitor education programming; Working closely with the Monitoring & Evaluation team put in place a sector M & E plan, ensuring this links to reporting requirements, and capacity build technical field staff in carrying out the work.
• Take the initiative in documenting lessons learnt, best practice and case studies to shape in-country strategies and programme approaches, and contribute to broader sector learning.
• Prepare timely programme and donor reports on program activities in compliance with internal SC requirements and any relevant external donor requirements.
• Put in place Education accountability mechanisms, ensuring that feedback is incorporated into programme design and learning disseminated to the wider sector.

Fundraising and advocacy:

• In coordination with Awards Management Unit, lead on fundraising for the Education and integrated programming, including the development of high-quality concept notes and proposals, and engagement with donors’ technical advisers
• Implement the girl education campaign strategy;

Partner Development and Management:

• Participate in the partner’s capacity assessment and identify capacity building needs for the education Programming
• Develop with the partner’s detailed implementation/work plans and phased budgets.
• Provide capacity building and support in implementation and quality by partners.
• Monitor and follow up the implementation of the agreed work plan and budget to ensure that the program objectives are being realized in accordance to the program and partnership agreement and take the necessary actions for any identified deviations.
• Undertaking partners’ capacity assessment in order to identify capacity gaps and areas of support that the partners will require for effective implementation of the program.
• Undertake visits to the partners on both programmatic and operational support.
• Ensure timely, accurate and high quality financial and programmatic reporting by the partners and take corrective actions for any non-compliance by the partners.
• Save the Children is a dual mandate organisation and as such the Education Manager is also expected to support the ongoing development work of the Nigeria CO as the workload and needs allow.

Qualifications and Experience
Essential:

• Postgraduate degree in Education or other relevant degrees with minimum of 5 years relevant working experience or 7 years’ relevant working experience for a graduate holder.
• Substantial experience of working in humanitarian programs or in fragile states
• Skills and experience in the education sector
• Previous experience of managing a team
• Previous experience of programme management across multiple locations
• Commitment to, a thorough understanding of, and able to train staff in participation and accountability approaches
• Demonstrated experience in leading assessment activities and of designing, managing, monitoring and evaluating education programmes
• Demonstrated ability to set up monitoring & evaluation systems.
• Experience of senior level representation, including Cluster coordination
• Experience of developing and negotiating successful partnerships with institutional donors
• Ability to write a clear and well-argued assessment and program reports
• Excellent communication skills with a high level of written and spoken English
• Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy
• The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.
• Commitment to the aims and principles of SC. In particular, a good understanding of the SC mandate and child focus and an ability to ensure this continues to underpin our support.

Desirable:

• Experience of urban programming
• Language skills in Hausa or Kanuri

Skills and Behaviourals (our Values and Practice)
Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same

Collaboration:

• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to
• Builds and maintains effective relationships with colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity and different people’s perspectives, able to work cross-culturally.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Cuts away bureaucracy and encourages an entrepreneurial approach

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency, builds trust and confidence
• Displays consistent excellent judgement