Learning and Leadership Development Intern at Mercy Corps

Project Description

• The People Team ensures that Mercy Corps has the people, strategies and learning opportunities that will enable it to be a world-class, cutting-edge, humanitarian organization, creating transformational change in the world. We do this through the recruitment, retention and development of the best global talent.
• Our aim is to drive strategic thinking and planning at all levels of the organization; create a robust body of research to guide us internally and externally and steward the organizational culture.
• To achieve this, we align conversations on learning; keep the organization focused on what has the greatest impact; leverage our comparative advantages in the crowded and competitive international relief and development landscape; and assure we are constantly learning from our work and the external environment.
• The aim of the Learning & Leadership team Team is to enable our people and global organization to lead effectively, think strategically, engage collaboratively, and learn continuously. The Learning and Leadership Development Intern will support our global learning and leadership development efforts with a particular focus on supporting the pilot Women in Leadership program.
• Mercy Corps is partnering with Future Works Institute to pilot an 11 sessions (over 3 months) intensive Women in Leadership program; an online management and leadership program that complements our existing leadership programs. This program is specifically aimed at supporting our incredibly talented female leaders to grow in the organization and to step into more of Mercy Corps’ senior leadership roles, specifically within our country programs. This will involve three key areas of support:
• First: supporting the learning activities during the live sessions, group coaching and community building activities for 30 learners including zoom set up, follow-up on assignments.
• Second: communications effort to ensure the current leadership offerings are well represented internally in fact sheets, intranet, weekly internal digest, and other channels.
• Third: provide any necessary support for the monitoring and evaluation of the pilot including developing and analyzing surveys, conducting interviews, report development and identification of key recommendations to take forward into other programs.

Learning Objectives

• The intern will gain skills in leadership program design, monitoring and evaluation of pilot initiatives, and learning, exposure to leadership program content including networking and management, internal communications as well as project management.
• S/he will gain exposure to a global non-profit organization and work with a culturally diverse team and stakeholders. S/he will have a solid understanding of key elements of leadership programs as well as contributing factors to successful implementation.
• S/he will also have exposure to different reporting and communication tools. Finally, the intern may complete informational interviews with other Mercy Corps staff members working in his/her area(s) of interest, in order to increase his/her knowledge of Mercy Corps’ work in these areas.

Essential Job Functions

• Attend live training sessions and complete participation trackers and session follow-up list
• Maintain Women in Leadership work plan in partnership with training lead
• Draft and implement pulse check to understand feedback from participants Development of survey and interview tools for leadership program evaluations
• Create presentations with key report findings for different stakeholder groups
• Draft articles for our internal newsletter and other social media content on topics related to leadership and development and the programs we have
• Provide quality assurance for English to French translations
• Required to work outside Mercy Corps normal working hours to accommodate the global audience of participants

Organizational Learning;

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• N/A

Accountability:

• Works Directly With: The Global Learning and Leadership Development team as well as external Learning Partners.

Knowledge and Experience

• University Degree in Progress or recently completed (within 1 year)
• Advance proficiency in English and French
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members is required
• Experience facilitating live session on zoom, google meets
• Analysis and evaluation skills preferred
• Excellent communication skills are required
• Highly developed computer skills and strong familiarity with Microsoft Office are mandatory
• Experience managing and developing online content is a plus
• Demonstrated sensitivity to a diversity of people and cultures

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

• Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges.
• We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives. We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

• Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have a sustained global impact. We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all.
• We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, colour, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

• Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary-General and IASC.
• We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.