Project Officer Schools Nigeria at British Council Nigeria

The British Council is the world's leading cultural relations organization and creates opportunities for people in the UK and worldwide to understand each other, to work together and learn from one another. We see this as crucial to building secure, more prosperous and sustainable futures for us all. We build trust and understanding between different countries and cultures and develop strong international links that are of benefit to people in Britain and the rest of the world.

We are recruiting to fill the below position:

Job Title: Project Officer Schools Nigeria

Location: Lagos State.

Purpose of Job

• To provide direct support to the Project Manager in the delivery of British Council's activities with schools.
• The role will include successfully administering projects that work with schools across Nigeria.
• Some of these projects will have been devised for delivery throughout British Council's global networks, and will require the role holder to support the Project Manager in the delivery of the Nigeria elements; others will specifically have been designed in Nigeria, with our partners.
• The role holder will therefore be expected to provide flexible and responsive support to help manage a network of internal and external relationships with partners, and in order to assist in meeting all project targets through successful interpretation of briefs; delivery and undertaking monitoring and evaluation.

Context and Environment

• The British Council is the United Kingdom's international non-profit organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities. For 80 years, we have created international opportunities and trust between people of the UK and other countries worldwide through our work in the Arts, English, Education and Society. We call this Cultural Relations. We have offices in over 100 countries, and 250 cities. In Nigeria, we have 4 offices in 4 locations with over 150 members of staff.
• Nigeria is one of the largest economies in Africa. It is also the most populous country with over 170 million citizens. The UK is its largest trading partner. Nigeria holds significant political power in the region and internationally and its society retains a positive attitude to the UK. There are therefore major opportunities for the UK and BC to increase influence, income and, through this, our impact by building on our strong existing relationships with the Nigerian government, institutions and customers/audiences. However, there are complex and substantial risks to this work i.e. security and compliance.
• Nigeria is the British Council's largest operation in sub-Saharan Africa with offices in 4 cities - Port Harcourt in the south, Kano in the north, Abuja (the Federal capital) and Lagos the commercial centre. Our 150 staff work across a range of states delivering large scale contracts, partnership programmes, examinations, projects as well as services in Arts, Education & Society and English & Exams. We are already achieving substantial impact and income (current turnover is £19.8 million) and have plans to grow and develop our impact further. Partners and clients include government, public and private institutions, foundations, private sector organisations and civil society. We work closely with the wider UK team including DFID and UKTI.
• As a cultural relations organisation, our interest in Education & Society comes from the critical importance of the sector and its institutions (schools; universities; NGOs and public bodies) in promoting the exchange of knowledge and ideas and the benefit that such an exchange delivers for the UK and for the world.
• This post is instrumental in providing administrative and programmatic support to the team’s activities and activities both on a national and regional level.

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main Duties
In line with ED and other overarching corporate policies:

Project delivery:

• To provide support for projects and organise events including workshops, trainings, seminars and meetings to a high standard and within expressed deadline.
• To make necessary logistic arrangements for visitors including booking travel, accommodation and preparing programmes.

Financial administration:

• To provide financial support to the project managers, including raising of purchase orders, getting quotes from suppliers, tracking payments and correcting mispostings.

Scorecard:

• To administer our monitoring and evaluation tool called Scorecard to participants during engagement events such as trainings, workshops, seminars and meetings.
• Collect, analyse and record all data within deadline and according to corporate standards.

Marketing and Communications:

• To ensure that projects are marketed to the highest standards in print (press, publications), digitally (websites, social media, TV, radio) and at events (conferences, workshops, meetings).

Other administrative work: As required.

Key Relationships

• The post holder will work with a range of stakeholders, both internal and external.
• Internal: British Council units such as Finance, Programmes and Communications.
• External: UK and Nigerian education institutions, Federal and State Ministries of Education (and their parastatals and agencies) , Universal Basic Education Commission, external service providers and contractors.

Special Requirements of the Job

• Some unsocial hours, weekend work and travel may be required.

Person Specification

Behaviours
Essential

• Connecting with others (more demanding): Making regular opportunities to understand others better
• Working together (essential): Establishing a genuinely common goal with others
• Being accountable (essential): Delivering my best work in order to meet my commitments
• Making it happen (essential): Delivering clear results for the British Council

Assessment Stage
Interview

Core Skills
Essential:

1.) Managing Projects

• Works with project management systems and procedures, and has a track record of compliance with them as a project team member.
• Examines project data and performance, reporting on progress and recommending corrective action as needed.
• Analyses requirements with the sponsor/stakeholders, defining the specification, planning, revising, implementing and evaluating on small-to-medium scale and/or low risk projects.

2.) Communicating and Influencing:

• Listens to others and expresses self clearly, with grammatical accuracy and awareness of a diverse audience in speaking and writing.
• Displays good listening, writing and speaking skills, setting out logical arguments clearly and adapting language and form of communication to meet the needs of different people/audiences.
• Able to use a range of non-standard and creative approaches to inform, and persuade others, extending beyond logical argument to influence decisions and actions in a way which is inclusive and engaging.

3.) Planning and Organising:

• Able to plan own work over short timescales for routine or familiar tasks and processes.
• Organises own work over weeks and months, or plans ahead for others, taking account of priorities and the impact on other people.

4.) Using Technology:

• Able, with adjustments if necessary, to use office software and British Council systems to do the job and manage documents or processes.

Desirable
Experience managing projects

Assessment Stage
Shortlisting/ Interview

Experience
Essential:

• Experience of organising projects or events.
• Experience of basic financial administration.

Desirable

• Previous work experience in education
• Experience of gathering / submitting data for Monitoring and Evaluation purposes

Assessment Stage

• Shortlisting/ Interview

Qualifications
Essential:

• Relevant post-secondary school qualification

Assessment Stage
Interview

Remuneration
Pay Band- 4/H Pay - 2, 972,136.96 NGN per annum

Application Closing Date
30th January, 2015.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Click here for more information

Note to applicants - Tests and interview for this role will hold in our Nigerian offices only.
Aptitude Test - 30 January 2015
Work Based Test - 5 February 2015
Interview - 9 February 2015

Do note that these dates are subject change