Education Programme Officer (EU) - Jigawa at Save the Children Nigeria

Save the Children is the leading independent organization for children in need, with programs in over 120 countries. We save children’s lives, fight for their rights and help them fulfil their potential. Save the Children is working in Nigeria because one in five children in Nigeria dies before their fifth birthday. About 40% of children miss out on school and have to work to survive while nearly 2 million children have lost one or both parents to an AIDS-related disease.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Education Programme Officer - (EU)

Job Identification: 8434
Location: Jigawa
Job Schedule: Full time
Grade: 4
Job Category: Programme Operations
Team: Education – EU-INTPA - Operations
Reports to: Directly reports to Education Programme Coordinator

Child Safeguarding

• Level 3.  The responsibilities of this post may require the post holder to have regular contact with children and young people. 
• As part of these responsibilities the post holder will support the establishment of child safeguarding systems, promote a culture of keeping children safe, and ensure that potential harm to children (by our own staff and/or as a result of how we do our work) is identified and addressed on an ongoing basis.  
• The post holder should report and respond to interventions as determined by position related responsibilities identified in the Child Safeguarding Policy.

Description

• Save the Children International in consortium with Plan International have been selected as implementing partners to implement Education and Youth Empowerment project funded by EU over a 36-month period in North-West Nigeria across states of Sokoto, Kano and Jigawa.
• The project is focusing to provide youth, in particular girls in rural underserved and nomadic communities, with access to inclusive gender transformative and conflict sensitive equitable quality education and skill development.
• The project will support the governments’ efforts to address the challenge of Out of School Children and Youth (OOSCY) to access Accelerated Basic Education Programme (ABEP) in the 3 states.
• The project will also support the efforts of the Federal and respective State governments to empower youth with green jobs and vocational skills through vocational training as well as address the barriers that girls and women face to access education and livelihood opportunities
• The Education Programme Officer will provide operational and technical support to the team under the leadership of the Education Programme Coordinator to implement all Education activities for the project. This includes, supporting in the development of the Detailed Implementation Plan, participating in stakeholders’ meetings, and contribute to narrative reporting in line with donor requirement.
• The job holder will also be working closely with community leaders, religious leaders as well as community member.
• Under the guidance Education Programme Coordinator, he/she will ensure that the EU-INTPA project is implemented in a coordinated, harmonized and aligned manner, in line with donor requirements and commitments.

Key Areas of Accountability
Project Coordination & Management:

• Support the coordination and implementation of the EU-INTPA Project in Kano and Jigawa State, Nigeria in line with the design of the project and donor requirements.
• Participate in community mapping and identification of schools/learning centres and ABEP facilitators for the implementation of the ABEP programme in collaboration with stakeholders in line with the project design.
• Support the Education Programme Coordinator to establish, maintain, and strengthen linkages in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation on the project. As well as contribute to assessments (baseline, needs, market).
• Ensure accurate project documentation, including collection of monitoring data and tracking of progress on output indicators; utilize data to contribute to reports as required.
• Facilitate relationships with communities and community leaders to ensure buy-in and Do No Harm
• Create and sustain positive working relationships with the partners, government officials and other key stakeholders.
• Support in planning and coordinating State and LGAs level engagement with partners, local government education authorities and other key stakeholders. 
• Contribute to ensuring timely and quality reports are submitted as per the reporting requirements to the consortium lead.
• Working closely with Education Programme Coordinator to ensure quality programme design, delivery, documentation and reporting of education activities in the respective State.

Operational Planning and implementation:

• Work closely with Education Programme Coordinator to provide support to ensure design, planning, monitor project detail implementation plan, procurement plan, phased budget, MEAL Plan with documentation and reporting for all Education interventions in the State.
• Recommend technical solutions to speed up the implementation and budget performance in line with the project plan and budget.
• Effectively support the education projects staff and partners in developing annual plans, in line with best practices, for education project design and Save the Children International planning guidelines and ensure compliance with the agreed work plans and that programme objectives and targets are being achieved in line with the funding proposal.
• Work with the Education Programme Coordinator to ensure integration of other sectors like Youth, Green Jobs and Vocational Training into Education activities.
• Maintain high standard of transparency and accountability during programme design and support in expediting implementation while ensuring integrity and timeliness of project duration and meeting programme objectives, compliance with donors & Save the Children policies.
• Support in providing regular operations and implementation updates to the Education Coordinator on project progress and challenges to allow for timely interventions and corrective actions by the management.
• Ensure the timely reviews and adjustments for the project operational and implementation plan and budget as may be required from time to time. 

Finance and Budget Management:

• Support project monitoring, suggest necessary revisions and prepare draft reports for corrective actions. 
• Support the Education Programme Coordinator in ensuring that the budget variance analysis (BVA) is monitored and reported as per in time and with accurate information.

Program/Project Narrative and Financial Reporting:

• Support the review and preparation of timely and high-quality progress and end of project narrative and financial reports which are in accordance with the donor reporting schedule and formats.
• Participate in reviewing all programme financial reports ensuring that donor guidelines have been followed and high standard met. 
• Participate in progress review meetings to address key performance issues from the reports.

Safeguarding:

• Ensure safe programming in the planning, implementation, monitoring, training of teachers and construction/rehabilitation of classroom environment across the project period.
• Adhere to the Do no Harm principles across the entire steps of the project within the Programme Management Cycle.

Internal and external engagements:

• Ensuring that the program experience is represented and given recognition at stakeholder meetings, workshops, donor, networks and any other engagements. 
• Develop and maintain regular channels of communication with partners and key stakeholders at all levels (LGA, State and National).

MEAL:

• Effectively support teams in MEAL aspects, which include assessments, baseline, and evaluation studies, putting in place a functional Activity Tracking Table.
• Ensure that the projects’ quality benchmarks are followed up and implemented in project interventions.
• Collecting and managing complaints and feedback in close coordination with MEAL team and Education Team.
• Ensure regular monitoring of projects results, documentation of projects case studies, lessons learnt, significant changes and best practices and coordinating learning and reflection meetings/sessions. 
• Ensure an effective programs/ projects monitoring, and evaluation systems is in place.
• Monitor programs/ projects activities to ensure quality, timeliness and adherence to both Country Office and Save the Children policies and procedures.

Human Resources Management and Development:

• Working together with the Education Programme Coordinator to identify learning needs and develop specific plans to address the learning needs. 
• Participate in monthly/weekly project management meetings to enable adequate staff support.

Additional job responsibilities:

• The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities:

• The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Behaviours (Values in Practice):
Accountability:

• holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values.
• holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same.
• widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others.
• future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters.
• values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength.
• approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• develops and encourages new and innovative solutions.
• willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity.

Qualifications 

• Minimum of a Bachelor's Degree in Education or other related fields. Experience in managing integrated programmes across different thematic areas such as education, teacher education, Teacher Professional Development (TPD), child protection, child rights or governance is an advantage.

Experience and Skills:
Essential:

• At least 3 years of accrued working experience in program implementation with an International NGO and those applying partnership approaches is desirable. 
• Experience in strategic thinking and planning skills, be able to set priorities, prepare manageable plans and to evaluate progress.
• Experience of working on ABEP, Teacher Professional Development and with Out of School Children (OOSC) with local partners and Local Government and State Authorities in the Northwest Nigeria is an added advantage.
• Strong analytical skills and strategic planning abilities.
• Ability to establish and maintain conducive collegial relations and perform effectively as a member of a team.
• Willingness to travel and work in hard-to-reach areas, occasionally under strenuous conditions.
• Computer literacy and excellent documentation skills are a must.
• Availability and willingness to work extra hours during times of humanitarian responses.
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
• Ability to intervene with crisis management or troubleshooting as necessary. 
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching.
• Excellent time management and planning capacity.
• Fluent English language skills (written and verbal) and Local language skills (Hausa, etc.).

Child Safeguarding:

• We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Health and Safety:

• The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.

Application Closing Date
6th August, 2024; 00:59

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