Education Specialist, Kenya

Contract Grade: B €31,853 - €38,944 with benefits

Contract Length: 1 year

Date Needed By: ASAP

New Post or Replacement: New

Accompanied /Unaccompanied: Unaccompanied

Exact Job Location: Nairobi, with frequent travel to Marsabit, potential travel to Kisumu and Mombasa

Reports To: Programme Manager Education

Responsible For: (Staff): None

Liaises With:

• Assistant Country Director for Programmes, Assistant Programme Manager for Urban Education, Assistant Programme Manager for Marsabit Education, MoE, Partner organisations, ASI

****Job Purpose:****

To provide technical leadership in Concern Kenya’s Education Programme with emphasis on literacy. To build the capacity of Concern staff, its partner staff and the Ministry of Education staff on education approaches in general and on literacy specifically. To embed quality programming into Concern Kenya’s fast growing Education Programme.

****Main Duties & Responsibilities:****

*General Responsibilities:*

• Promote accountability and ensure compliance with Concern’s Programme Participants Protection Policy, Anti- Fraud Policy and Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) standards, including the complaint and response mechanism (CRM), to ensure maximum protection of programme participants and the efficient and transparent use of Concern’s resources.
• Promote equality, especially gender, within the organisation and across programmes, in line with Concern’s Equality Policy and, ensure targeting and project implementation is informed by How Concern Understands Extreme Poverty (HCUEP).
• Promote and protect the reputation of Concern in external settings, ensuring that the organisation’s experience and expertise is well communicated and consistently presented, and that we are looked upon as a professional organisation, guided by organisational policies and Concern’s Code of Conduct

*Specific Responsibilities:*

Quality of Programming

• Analyse Concern Kenya’s education programme and recommend approaches, methods, mechanisms to increase the quality of our programming in this sector
• Work with Concern’s education team to operationalise quality measures
• Mentor the education staff and/or partner staff in improving quality of education programming

Build capacity of Concern Kenya in early years literacy

• Provide technical leadership for programme planning, implementation and monitoring specific to early grade literacy
• Build capacity of staff in Concern’s education team, partners and MoE in early years literacy assessments and interventions
• Create an understanding among Concern’s education team on how to strengthen school systems to deliver quality early grade literacy instruction
• Document programme learning on early grade literacy for internal and external learning

Programme design, planning and monitoring

• Participate in programme design, planning and monitoring to improve whole team understanding of tasks, work plans, reporting
• Work with the Programme Manager to operationalize the monitoring plan ensuring understanding across the education team
• Work with the Programme Manager to use monitoring data to inform programming

Networking

• Heighten Concern Kenya’s technical reputation in Education spheres – both government and non-government
• Technically influence the direction taken by the consortiums/stakeholders forums of which Concern Kenya is a member (CfBT and ASI). Ensure Concern’s policy and strategy framework are represented within the Education spheres;
• Keep up-to-date on good practice and learning in education and share this within Concern Kenya
• Enhance programme integration and efficiency in targeting the poorest, through liaising with coordinators of the other sector programmes;
• Disseminate learning internally, nationally and internationally from our Education programme

Other

****PERSON SPECIFICATION****

****ESSENTIAL****

Education, Qualifications & Experience Required:

• Degree in Education
• Post-graduate qualification in education or a relevant field
• Minimum of three years post-qualification teaching experience, preferably at primary school level
• Strong technical knowledge of early years literacy pedagogy
• Experience of participating in programme design
• Empathy with Concern’s goals and a commitment to capacity building, protection and participation.
• Fluency in English

****DESIRABLE****

Education, Qualifications & Experience Required:

• Strong technical experience of education programming and recent developments in child protection, student well-being and community engagement with education
• Experience delivering and planning teacher education interventions
• Technical knowledge of bilingual or mother-tongue education interventions
• An understanding of the Early Grade Reading Assessment methodology or UWEZO methodology
• Experience of programming for girls and vulnerable children, particularly in addressing gender-based violence affecting students
• Experience of programming for children living in informal slum settlements
• Experience of programming for pastoralist or remote populations
• Experience of working/living in insecure, remote and sensitive environments
• Experience developing and using tools to monitor education indicators, including attendance, retention, behaviour change and learning outcomes
• Experience with funders such as DFID, USAID, foundations and others

Special Skills, Aptitude or Personality Requirements:

• Training and facilitation skills; ability to motivate and develop skills of others
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Demonstrated training and capacity building skills
• Ability to work on own initiative
• Flexible and adaptable approach to working
• Ability to work under pressure to meet tight deadlines

How to apply:

All applications should be submitted through our website at https://jobs.concern.net by closing date. CV’s should be no more than 4 pages in length.

Due to the urgency of this position, applications will be short listed on a regular basis and we may offer posts before the closing date.

****Concern Worldwide is an Irish-based non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries.****

Concern has a Staff Code of Conduct and a Programme Participant Protection Policy which have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organization, and the standards of behaviour expected of them. In this context staff have a responsibility to the organization to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment. By signing the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct candidates acknowledge that they have understood the contents of both the Concern Staff Code of Conduct and the Programme Participant Protection Policy and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these two documents.

Concern receives a substantial amount of funding from external donors each year. Increasingly donors are introducing requirements whereby future funding is conditional on Concern ensuring that the names of any new employee or volunteer do not appear on terrorism lists generated by the European Union (List of person, groups and entities to which Regulation (EC No. 2580/2001 applies), the US Government (Office of Foreign Assets Control list of specially designated Nationals and Blocked Persons) and the United Nations (Consolidated List). Any offer of employment (either paid or voluntary) with Concern Worldwide will not be made pending a clearance check being conducted on the applicant. For additional information please consult our web site or contact the Human Resource Division in our Head Office.

Concern Worldwide is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.