Project Officer Scholarship and Programme Support 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 Scholarship and Programme Support

Location: Port Harcourt
Department/Country: Programmes/Nigeria
Pay Band: 4
Reports to: Project Manager, Scholarships and Programme Support.
Duration of job: Fixed Term Contract (2 years)
Start Date: 1st June 2015

Purpose of Job

• To work with the Director Education and Skills, Project Manager, Scholarships and Programme Support and other members of the Education and Skills team to manage project delivery of the British Councils growing scholarships portfolio.
• To provide project management support to the wider Programmes team and assist with the implementation and delivery of the British Councils portfolio of programmes in Rivers and Cross Rivers states.

Context and Environment

• The British Council in Nigeria works in three strategic business areas; Arts, English and Exams, Education and Society.
• As part of our Higher Education strategy, we promote platforms and opportunities for knowledge sharing and individual development. We do this through various programmes which are designed to connect students, scholars and academics to information and study opportunities with the UK.
• Through our scholarships work we support UK government funded, local government funded and private sector scholarship schemes in various countries across the globe.
• Over the last 50 years, we have built a global reputation for our successful management of scholarship schemes in partnership with various organisations. Our offer to both individuals and partner organisations range from the administrative management of the pre selection and scholars pre departure process, scholar performance monitoring and post award reintegration activity.
• This is a developing area of work for the British Council in Nigeria. In the last three years, we have managed and administered scholarships on behalf of one private sector organisation and will commence management of another private sector funded scheme in September 2015. We aim to grow and expand our present portfolio of work in this area beyond its current focus and geographical reach.
• This new post will provide support to the project manager and the wider team to deliver already existing scholarship business and any other opportunities that may arise in this area in the future.

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main Duties

Project Coordination:

• Support the delivery of project activity to agreed timelines, costs and performance indicators.
• Responsible for maintaining programme activity and gantt charts
• Responsible for programme records management and archiving in line with corporate policy on data protection and information management
• Support Project Manager in organising and managing pre departure sessions for scholars and other programme related events.
• Support project manager with the management, communication and coordination of key stakeholder groups.

Finance and Procurement Coordination:

• Support the project manager with the procurement of goods and services in line with established corporate policies and guidelines.
• Ensuring the administrative purchase to pay process is executed in line with corporate standards.
• Responsible for creating and managing programme purchase orders and ensuring appropriate management of invoicing and payment of suppliers and vendors.

Scorecard:

• To administer British Council's monitoring and evaluation tool: Scorecard.
• Collect and record all data within deadline and according to corporate standards.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Child Protection Standards:

• Support project manager to ensure that project delivery and activity reflect British Council EDI policy.
• Ensure that child protection policy and standards are followed and maintained for all relevant projects

Key Relationships

• Internal: Project Manager, Scholarships and Programmes Support, Director Education and Skills, Nigeria, Education and Skills team, Nigeria Communications team, UK Scholarships Team, regional and global Education and Society team +wider BC team, including large scale projects.
• External: UK Project Partners (Higher Education Institutions), Nigeria Project Partners (Private Sector Organisations)

Other important Features or Requirements of the job

• Required candidate will also need to possess:
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail
• Ability to work effectively with tight deadlines
• Some travel and evening working within Nigeria and internationally.
• Some unsocial working hours.

Person Specification
Behaviours:

• Connecting With Others (most demanding)
• Working Together (more demanding)
• Being Accountable (most demanding)
• Making it happen (most demanding)

Other behaviours needed for the job but not evaluated at interview:

• Shaping the future (more demanding)
• Creating a shared purpose (more demanding)

Skills and Knowledge

Project Management:

• Works with project management systems and procedures, and has a track record of compliance with them as a project team member.

Communication skills:

• Listens to others and expresses self clearly, with grammatical accuracy and awareness of a diverse audience in speaking and writing.

Planning and Organising:

• Able to plan own work over short timescales for routine or familiar tasks and processes.

Managing finance and resources:

• Uses resources efficiently in own role and complies with financial rules and procedures.

Qualification

• Bachelor's Degree.

Experience

• Experience working in allocation/sector area (as per role profile) (Essential).
• As per role profile (Desirable).

Application Closing Date
15th June 2015.

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

Click here to download job details MS Word

Click here to download BC Core Skills (pdf)

Click here to download BC Behaviours (pdf)