Project Officer Arts UK/NG 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 Arts UK/NG

Location: Lagos
Department/Country: Programmes/Nigeria
Pay Band: Pay Band 6
Duration: Fixed term till March 2017
Reports to: Arts Programme Manager

Purpose of Job

• To work with the Director Arts Nigeria, Arts team Nigeria and the wider BC team to deliver programmes, audiences and partnerships which contribute to the British Council’s Arts programme, starting with the UKNG 2015 2016 programme.

Context and Environment
The British Council in Nigeria works in three strategic business areas; Arts, English, Education and Society.
Arts staff work to develop international opportunities in specific priority areas:

• Building creative partnerships and collaborations
• Showcasing the UK in Nigeria and vice versa
• Developing skills and leadership in the creative sector
• Harnessing the power of arts in achieving international development goals

As part of a global programme of big seasons of arts activity in the organisation, Nigeria will have a programme aimed at strengthening artistic exchange and collaboration between Nigeria and the UK in key arts sub sectors. The programme is tagged UK/NG: 2015/2016.

The season will focus on:

• Strengthening and growing UK - Nigeria creative partnerships and collaborations
• Reciprocal showcasing between Nigeria and the UK
• Developing skills and leadership in the creative sector
• Harnessing the power of arts in achieving international development goals

UKNG 15/16 will establish new and larger audiences for British Council Nigeria that are four times the current size. It is expected that this scale will be maintained going forward and will continue to require significant in house Project and Relationship Management expertise:

• The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide. In all that we do the British Council acknowledges our duty of care to ensure a healthy and safe place to work for our staff, customers and visitors. We aim to achieve this through compliance with the safety laws in each of the countries in which we operate. We aim, where practicable, to follow UK standards, guidance and codes of good practice where these offer enhanced standards of health and safety.
• The British Council recognises that we have a fundamental duty of care towards all children we engage with including a duty to protect them from abuse. We achieve this through compliance with UK child protection laws and relevant laws in each of the countries we operate as well as by adherence to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) 1989.
• Our Equal Opportunity Policy commits us to ensuring that there is no unjustified discrimination in the recruitment, retention, training and development of staff on the basis of age, disability, gender including transgender, HIV/AIDS status, marital status including civil partnerships, pregnancy and maternity, political opinion, race/ethnicity, religion and belief, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, spent convictions, trade union activity or membership, work pattern and on the basis of having or not having dependants or any other irrelevant grounds.
• We guarantee an interview to candidates living with disability who meet the essential criteria.
• Candidates with special needs should please ask us for this information in alternative formats.
• All employees of the British Council must adhere to the Corporate Health & Safety, Equal Opportunity & Diversity and Child Protection policies and the Code of Conduct.

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main Duties
This post will have the following duties:

Project Planning and Delivery:

• To implement a portfolio of projects within the UKNG 2015/2016 programme with the support of internal project officers, UK project managers and/or external delivery partners to meet agreed project targets.
• To be the dedicated point of contact for UKNG 2015/2016 projects managed.
• To manage relationships with project partners, and representing the project to other external stakeholders
• To ensure that all project activity reflects key equal opportunities and diversity issues
• Project planning, monitoring and evaluation, using the following tools:
  • Project plans and initiation documents
  • Project logic models
  • Gantt charts to reflect planned activity
  • Scorecard instruments (audience forecasts and actuals, quality of service questionnaires)

Manage Finances:

• Prepare and manage detailed expenditure budgets for projects to British Council standards
• Manage cash flow, profiling and monthly , quarterly and annual reporting of budgets managed Manage procurement in accordance with corporate procurement policy and processes
• Support Programme Manager with information for monthly budget management reports and quarterly reforecasting returns

Marketing and Communications and Evaluation:

• Work with the Marcomms colleagues to develop and manage digital marketing and audience development campaigns including but not limited to social media platforms
• Provide content to the Marcomms team for communications materials  for distribution internally and externally in Nigeria, the region and UK
• Ensure the evaluation strategy for each project is implemented in accordance with Corporate Scorecard standards and to report likely variations from target

Provide market intelligence and information, maintain and develop close understanding of and links with the sector in Nigeria:

Working with other members of arts team, the post holder will:

• Maintain and expand knowledge of the Nigerian arts sector
• Develop and sustain relationships with key practitioners and organisations, both established and emerging talent;
• Represent our work in arts to external partners and stakeholders
• Proactively identify and pursue opportunities for developing new physical and digital audiences for delivery of British Council arts projects in Nigeria
• Provide advice to UK organisations, artists and professional networks on the international development of their work
• Seeks ways to increase benefits through  collaboration with other SBUs in education and skills and Society
• Post may have Line management responsibilities

Key Relationships:

• Director Arts Nigeria, Arts Programme Manager, Nigeria 2015 Programme Manager, Project Team Nigeria, UK and regional Project Managers, Nigeria and wider BC team
• Nigerian venues, programmers, producers, artists and performers in all art forms and the wider creative industries.
• Key creative industries stakeholders

Other important features or requirements of the job:

• Regular attendance at evening and weekend events are a normal part of the job.
• Significant knowledge and experience in the Nigerian arts and creative industries sectors is essential.

Person Specification
Behaviours:

• Connecting with Others (At more demanding level)
• Working Together (At more demanding level)
• Being Accountable (At more demanding level)
• Making it Happen(more demanding)
• Other behaviours needed for the job but not evaluated at interview:
  • Shaping the future (essential)
  • Creating Shared Purpose (essential)

Skills and Knowledge
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 with awareness of equality and diversity impact, planning, revising, implementing and evaluating on small-to-medium scale and/or low risk projects.

Communication Skills:

• 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:

• Organises own work over weeks and months, or plans ahead for others, taking account of priorities and the impact on other people.

Managing Finance and Resources:

• Monitors and controls an agreed budget within a defined area, producing reports and analyses and contributing to planning.

Knowledge of the Arts:

• An understanding and appreciation of current trends and practice in at least one art form in Nigeria

Experience
Project Management:

• At least three years' recent professional experience of working in a creative, producing, programming or management capacity in the Arts sector in Nigeria, ideally with international links.
• Proven ability to identify, develop, and manage relationships with major partners and stakeholders
• Planning and delivery of events to specific groups of people
• Experience of working on projects between UK and Africa(Desirable)

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree

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)