Headstart Program Support Officer at Skills Outside School Foundation

• The Headstart Program Assistant will work alongside the Headstart Program Officer and Assistant to plan, execute, monitor, and evaluate the Headstart Project and the opportunities associated with it.
• The Assistant will work with the Headstart Program Officer to manage the liaison with the professional mentors, partners, trainers, and ensure they are kept up-to-date via newsletters sent every quarter to be developed jointly with the media and communications officer.

The Program Assistant will support the Headstart Program Officer in performing a wide range of duties as outlined below:
Project Planning:

• Plan the delivery of the overall edition of the Headstart project and professional mentoring project in accordance with the mission and objectives of the organization.
  Plan the Entrepreneurship, skills training and relevant legislation
• Develop new initiatives to support the strategic direction of the organization.
• Develop a project evaluation framework to assess the strengths of the Headstart Project and identify areas for improvement.
• Ensure all feedback evaluation forms by the trainers and participants of the Business skills workshops are completed, collected and assessed through collaboration with the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer.
• Ensure all professional mentors are kept up to date
• Ensure all project documentation and material is provided to the participants as due.
• Ensure any mentor-mentee re-allocations occur in a timely manner.
• Ensure Policies and documents produced by other organisations of relevance to our work on education and employability are available and accessible by participants
• Ensure Potential organisations including other NGOs, Corporate Organisations, International Organisations and multilateral agencies that the Foundation can collaborate with to further expand its reach and opportunities

Organize the projects:

• Provide weekly and monthly reports to the Board of Trustees and the Head of Executive Council.
• Create and maintain the project management calendar/schedule and file all project documents.
• Organise the Pitch Events.
• Coordinate the business training Workshops and mentoring engagements between the trainers, mentors and the participants.
• Update the partners and donors on project milestones.
• Liaise with the team on all matters.
• Develop a working relationship with all the professional mentors.
• Work with the Media and Communication officer to source for and screen all new professional mentors ensuring that they receive the starter pack and are offered sufficient training on child safety and project expectations.

Lead the projects:

• Communicate with partners/sponsors and other stakeholders to understand how the delivery of the workshops and the Headstart Project can be enhanced.
• Coordinate the delivery of services among different project activities to increase effectiveness and efficiency.
• Monitor the project activities on a regular basis and conduct a quarterly evaluation according to the project evaluation framework.
• Report evaluation findings to the Head of Executive Council and Board of Trustees and recommend changes to enhance the project, as appropriate.
• Provide the necessary information to the Media and Communication Officer to allow for appropriate and targeted social media updates on the Foundations activities.

Control the project:

• Provide information on finances and expenditure on the projects and attach supporting documentation for the board, funders, and Head of the Executive Council.
• Ensure that the Headstart Project operates within the approved budget.
• Monitor and approve all budgeted project expenditures.
• Work with Head of Executive Council to manage the disbursement of funds for all project activities and other general administrative functions of the Foundation.
• Process and document payments made by members and other stakeholders.
• Maintain and keep financial records of all projects and the Foundations’ activities, including monitoring the expenses of the Foundation and ensure they are up to date.
  Provide required information to have invoices generated and submitted to funders according to the timelines

Requirements

• Candidates should possess a Bachelor’s Degree qualification with 2 years work experience.

Required Skills
The Assistant should demonstrate competence in all of the following:

• Knowledge of project management.
• Behave Ethically: Understand ethical behaviour and business practices, and ensure that own behaviour and the behaviour of others is consistent with these standards and aligns with the values of the organization.
• Build Relationships: Establish and maintain positive working relationships with others, both internally and externally, to achieve the goals of the organization particularly with current partners and sponsors; Command a professional image.
• Communicate Effectively: Speak, listen and write in a clear, thorough and timely manner including by phone with several stakeholders; Articulate the foundations’ mission, project objectives with existing partners – organisations and schools.
• Creativity/Innovation: Develop new and unique ways to improve operations of the organization and to create new opportunities.
• Foster Teamwork: Work cooperatively and effectively with others to set goals, resolve problems, and make decisions that enhance organizational effectiveness.
• Lead: Positively influence others to achieve results that are in the best interest of the organization.
• Make Decisions: Assess situations to determine the importance, urgency and risks, and make clear decisions which are timely and in the best interests of the organization; Proactively take actions necessary to produce results and able to work independently/with little guidance.
• Organize: Set priorities, develop a work schedule, monitor the progress towards goals, and track details, data, information and activities; Strong time management skills.
• Plan: Determine strategies to move the organization forward, set goals, create and implement actions plans, and evaluate the process and results.
• Solve Problems: Assess problem situations to identify causes, gather and process relevant information, generate possible solutions, and make recommendations and/or resolve the problem
• Strong strategic, analytical, and project management skills: demonstrated ability to take responsibility for a diverse number of projects and to complete them in a timely manner with limited supervision

Abilities:

• Proficiency in MS Office applications (Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint).
• Proficiency in the use of computers for
• Word processing
• Simple accounting
• Databases
• Spreadsheets
• E-mail
• Internet
• Google Docs, Sky Drive, DropBox