Education Technical Advisor at Save The Children

ROLE PURPOSE:  

The Education Technical Advisor will work closely with the Head of Education in the design   and implementation of high quality education programs that deliver change for children in both emergency and development programming. S/he will support in providing strategic and technical leadership as well as promoting growth of the education portfolio. S/he should also have experience of managing complex programming delivery in conflict and fragile contexts.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY :

Technical Leadership

• Support in providing technical leadership for education and setting the strategic approach in relation to the wider country strategy. 
• Build capacity of education staff and partners in key technical approaches related to education.
• Participate actively in relevant internal meetings, planning and review activities, providing enhanced insight into education programming.
• Support in the development of Quality Benchmarks and tools to monitor and improve the quality of education work. Where necessary provide technical training for staff and partners as required.
• Support in promoting the country office learning agenda, use of evidence, developing learning products, documentation lessons learnt and  best practices from Education programming
• Work closely with the MEAL team to ensure and promote learning and use of evidence across the different education projects. 

Ensuring Programme Quality

• Support to ensure the programme quality of education programming.
• Provide appropriate high level technical support on methods and practices to be rolled out within education programming.
• Participate in assessment of education needs and ensure that these are appropriately reflected in sectoral strategies and programmes.
• Support in developing and updating the education strategy, ensuring consistency with global education breakthrough, and with Save the Children’s Theory of Change.
• Conduct regular visits to the field offices to coordinate with field managers and senior field staff. 
• Support program teams on capacity building for teachers, government officials and partners. This will include either facilitating or working with master trainers to ensure the capacity building initiatives meet required quality.
• Support in improving/strengthening the coordination of Save the Children’s work with the key government stakeholders such as Ministry of Education, Universal Basic Education, State Agency for Mass Education, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria etc.
• Support in ensuring donor reports are of the highest quality and that they are submitted in a timely fashion.

Programme Development

• Support in growing Save the Children’s education portfolio sustainably and strategically, consistent with the Country Strategy, and the needs of children in Nigeria.
• Support in identifying new education opportunities and participate in technical visioning of new programs and proposals.
• Provide oversight and guidance to the education programme implementation teams to ensure that thematic programme components are technically sound, implementation methods are consistent with national and global strategies, acknowledged good practice (e.g. Save the Children Common Approaches); and are likely to achieve scale, as well as equitable and sustainable results.
• Work with colleagues from other sectors to coordinate on and integrate programming to ensure children’s needs are met.

Networking & External Engagement

• Maintain strategic links with key duty bearers and stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education, UN agencies, INGOs and other local NGOs and CBOs, etc.
• Represent and advocate for Save the Children in clusters and other interagency fora to ensure Save the Children is seen as of the lead international agencies in terms of innovation and quality of implementation in Education.
• Support the Education Cluster by positively representing Save the Children with the cluster at the national level and promoting appropriate representation at the field level.
• Represent Save the Children at   relevant meeting with government, donors, and partner agencies.

Safeguarding

• Carry out the responsibilities of the role in a way which reflects Save the Children’s commitment to safeguarding children, in accordance with our Code of Conduct and Child Safeguarding Policy.
• Ensure safeguarding is embedded in the design and implementation of all education programmes.
• Ensure Core Operational Safeguarding Activities (COSA) are implemented, and requisite standards met.

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• Significant (at least 6 years) professional experience working at a specialist level in in early childhood education and/or primary education for international NGOs in Nigeria.
• Education professional with a Bsc and or Masters Degree in education or equivalent.
• Very good understanding of the Education sector in Nigeria 
• Experience in capacity building and training on foundation literacy and numeracy programs like TaRL
• Strong commitment to capacity building of staff, partners and other stakeholders with willingness to adopt participatory and consultative approaches.
• An ability to effectively negotiate with prospective donors and a demonstrated ability to develop and write reports and  technical proposals that meet donor requirements.
• The ability to liaise and effectively coordinate with government, local NGOs and community initiatives. 
• Good interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate clearly and effectively at all levels, taking into account cultural and language difficulties. 
• Proven experience of living and working in insecure environments, able to follow security guidelines.
• High level of computer literacy. 
• Experience in promoting and mainstreaming Child Rights Based programming in education programme design, implementation and evaluation.