Programme Manager, Higher Education (HE) 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 of:

Job Title: Programme Manager, Higher Education (HE)

Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
Locations: Abuja and Lagos
Department: Business Support Services
Duration of job: Fixed term of two years
Reports to: Director, Education and Skills

Purpose of Job

• To work with the Director Education and Skills, other members of the Education and Skills team and Director Programmes to lead on the development and implementation of the Higher Education portfolio in Nigeria .

Context and Environment

• The British Council in Nigeria works in three strategic business areas; Arts, English, Education and Society.

This is a new post that will:

• Develop and lead our strategic response to opportunities for the UK to assist the Nigerian Government strengthen the provision and quality of tertiary education in Nigeria
• Lead the team implementing the British Council’s paid Services for International Education Marketing (SIEM) targeted at UK institutions to support them do business in HE, FE and independent school sectors and grow the business for the Nigeria context
• Develop and lead an engagement project, utilising available and upcoming research evidence, to enable the UK to benefit from and support the Nigeria Cross Border Higher Education Policy (known in British Council as transnational education TNE)
• Implement campaigns and projects in partnership with UKTI, the British High Commission and other partners focused on the promotion of UK education including the GREAT campaigns
• Together with Programme Manager Skills, lead implementation of our strategic response to the challenge of low graduate employability skills in Nigeria
• Manage contracts for the provision of UK HE scholarship services with key clients
• Lead our strategic relationships and engagement programme with UK Alumni
• Pursue new fully paid and partnership opportunities in the HE sector

Financial management:

• Responsible for developing annual work plans and budgets within the HE programme
• Responsible for ensuring effective management of programme budgets including internal monthly reporting on budget performance and external reporting on budget performance to the requirements set by funders, partners and clients
• Responsible for overseeing procurement in accordance with established corporate policies and processes

Risk management:

• Responsible for maintaining and updating project risk registers within the HE programme.
• Responsible for managing relevant country risks and ensuring the country risk register is updated quarterly in accordance with the corporate cycle
• Participate in regular project risk review meetings with the programme management team
• Ensure dissemination of risk management standards to programme partners

Contract and account management:

• Manage all scholarship contracts to client satisfaction using corporate standards, ensuring all contractual obligations are met by contract delivery team
• Prepare agreements for all sub-contractors, consultants and suppliers ensuring they clearly capture all roles and responsibilities following established corporate templates
• Maintain contract records to ensure up to date at all times
• Ensure collection of income through supervising an effective invoicing and payment schedule
• As part of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) framework, ensure the maintenance of the CRM database with HE contacts - recording contacts/ leads and outcomes of meetings , ensuring follow up action is carried out in a timely and efficient manner

Equality, diversity and inclusion and Child Protection standards:

• Ensure that programme delivery, training events and activity are appropriately screened, including conflict sensitivity screening, and reflect British Council EDI policy
• Lead on programme reporting in Skills for British Council Diversity Assessment Framework
• Ensure that child protection policy and standards are followed and maintained for all relevant projects, including the training of partners in CP standards

Communications:

• Work with British Council Nigeria Marketing and Communications team to develop and disseminate case studies, reports and impact stories for external and internal communication channels including digital and print media.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the Programmes team to share intelligence and opportunity that creates added benefit to project partners and contact.

Line management:

• Manage SIEM team and Scholarships project managers to established corporate performance management standards

Key internal relationships:

• Country Director Nigeria, Director Programmes, Director Education and Skills, Partnerships Manager, Nigeria Programme Management Group, SSA Manager for SIEM based in the UK, Marketing and Communications team 

Key external relationships:

• Support Directors Programmes and Education and Skills and Partnerships Manager to develop and manage relationships with key tertiary, government and private sector stakeholders, development organisations, funders, donors and partners
• Maintain relationships with clients, project partners and stakeholders

Other important features or requirements of the job:

• Operational project work requires occasional work outside conditioned hours, for example in the evenings or at weekends. TOIL should be agreed with the line manager in advance to maintain an adequate work-life balance.
• The post-holder may also be required to travel to various project activity locations and internationally on BC business and should therefore hold valid travel documents.
• Training may be required for certain aspects of the job such as using SAP.

Person Specification
Behaviours (Desirable)

• 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
Managing Projects: Essential

• Analyses requirements with the sponsor/stakeholders, defining the specification, planning, revising, implementing and evaluating on medium-to-large scale and/or high risk projects.
• Coordinates a diverse team with awareness of equality and diversity impact as part of the project specifications and handles changes in specification or plan to meet unexpected circumstances

Communication skills: Essential

• 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.

Planning and organising: Essential

• Organises own work over weeks and months, or plans ahead for others, taking account of priorities and the impact on other people.
• Develops and reviews the implementation of annual plans for a work group or function, taking account of business and customer requirements and reconciling competing demands

Managing finance and resources: Essential

• Monitors and controls an agreed budget within a defined area, producing reports and analyses and contributing to planning.
• Knowledge of the skills for employability discourse
• Knowledge of the higher education sector
• Network of contacts in higher education in public and private sectors
• Knowledge of emerging themes in higher education globally (desirable)
• Business Development (desirable)
• Able to plan and deliver business development activities for a major and/or new market category which is significant for the Council.

Experience: Desirable

• Working knowledge of Nigerian Higher Education system.
• Experience of working with donor/grant/ client funds

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree (essential)
• Post-graduate degree in Education, Humanities or Social Sciences (desirable)

Application Closing Date
23:59 UK time 27th September, 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 Behaviour (pdf)

Click here to download BC Core Skills (pdf)