1. POSITION VACANT: Program Manager- Leadership Development, Reach to Teach, Gujarat

2. ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND:

Reach to Teach (RTT) is an education charity that works with governments and other like-minded organisations, to improve the quality of primary education. RTT exists to transform the lives of children in remote and marginalised communities in India, by focusing on transforming classroom teaching practices and teacher-to-child engagement.

Founded in 2003, RTT has grown into an established charity improving the learning outcomes of children in the state of Gujarat and believes that the most important factor in improving children's learning, is the quality of teaching. RTT's technical team has helped successfully deploy international best practices in education, at rural schools in Gujarat and is committed to ensuring that the same are extended and adopted by all schools, state-wide.

RTT is working in coalition with other organisations, to support Government of Gujarat's ongoing efforts to deliver systemic change to ensure better foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes.

For more information about Reach to Teach, please visit http://reach-to-teach.org/

About Educational Leadership Programme:

Working closely with the RTT education leadership resources, the Educational Leadership Support (ELS) Team will deploy RTT's expertise and knowledge of international best practices in the leadership development of school and education system leaders within the Gujarat school system. RTT will set up, operate and transfer to government a successful and impactful Educational Leadership Programme, with a focus on the role of Head Teachers (HTs) as pedagogical leaders who promote positive teaching and learning in their schools.

The ELS Team will also provide professional development to those who work closely with HTs such as CRCs. The initial work of the team will involve an analysis of the current state, identifying challenges and opportunities.

Working closely with the government, the ELS team will work to define the role and scope of education leadership in resolving the education crisis, identifying how to empower system leaders to effect change. The ELS team will also incorporate identified insights in the design, implementation and running of the Educational Leadership Programme, before supporting the smooth transition to the government.

3. JOB DESCRIPTION/ RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Program Manager- Leadership Development (PM-DL) will work under the leadership of the Director-Educational Leadership to support RTT's partnership with the Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT) in creating an Educational Leadership Programme aimed at the professional development of HTs and other education system leaders in Gujarat. The incumbent will provide project management support through all phases of the project, including the running of the Leadership Programme once it is built and before it is transitioned to the government.

The PM-DL shall also support the design, approach and scope, and manage deliverables, timelines, budget and people to successfully deliver the programme and resolve conflicts and barriers that arise during the project, flagging risks in time and taking effective measures to mitigate them.

S/he will also escalate issues and identify opportunities for possible synergies, managing dependencies between various workstreams within the project and ensuring the successful completion of the project. The PM-DL will also liaise with relevant stakeholders, RTT employees, government colleagues within the GCERT and other associated bodies as needed.

Key Roles and Responsibilities:

A. Program Management

(1) Work with government officials, the Leadership Development Consultant and the Course Design Lead in analysing the need, defining key drivers for success, agreeing on key priorities and co-creating a vision and a roadmap for the programme;

(2) Ensure that the RTT education ethos and approach is reflected in the development and deployment of all programmes;

(3) Support the Director, Educational Leadership Programme to identify quick wins as well as levers for long term success and work with the government to co-design new programmes and help implement them;

(4) Manage and execute programmes by designing organisational structure, operational processes, developing a recruitment plan, teams, assigning tasks, checking the status and taking timely action on deliverables;

(5) Support the requirement analysis effort for online platforms/ technology and physical infrastructure; Analyse the current state, including identifying challenges and opportunities and support the research of international best practice for developing and running leadership programmes from both an educational and operational perspective;

(6) Support in design the processes, guidelines, tools and templates required to implement the programmes successfully;

(7) Develop standards for measuring project performance; Operationalise a system for monitoring and evaluating project performance as well as seeking feedback regularly and incorporating it back in the programme;

(8) Provide support to the Director, Educational Leadership to constantly monitor the programme budget, timeline, issue resolution and the quality of deliverables, and ensure that standardisation of operations is maintained at every level;

(9) Share regular updates about the project to the external and internal stakeholders in a proactive manner;

(10) Work closely with the RTT education team in ensuring alignment between its collective expertise in school leadership, the RTT theory of change, and the programmes offered.

(11) Support the Director, Educational Leadership to research potential partners during implementation phases, partners that can offer accreditation for the course, and potentially offer certification at a later phase;

(12) Work with other programme leads in identifying dependencies and synergies, as well as roadblocks and risks and work with them to mitigate those risks;

(13) Provide support to the Director, Educational Leadership in the development of a high-level transition plan and work closely with the government to transfer the operations and ownership of the programme.

(14) Carry out other duties within the scope and spirit of the job, and by the level of the post, as required.

B. Communication and Stakeholder Management

(1) Ensure seamless coordination and coherence in the support provided to the department;

(2) Build relationships with fellow Programme Managers, government colleagues and professionals across the sector and relevant professional bodies as needed; Participate in regional and national meetings and conferences to gain and share knowledge and experience;

(3) Regularly update internal and external stakeholders of progress and changes on performance milestones and issues.

C. Teamwork and People Management

(1) Support the programme team, within the government system, for smooth transfer of ownership of the Leadership Programme;

(2) Promote and role model RTT's management culture of openness, innovation, involvement, teamwork and performance;

D. Planning and Organising

(1) Identify overarching opportunities and solutions that may cut across multiple programmes e.g. how a single line of sight can be developed from training design to impact in the classroom using data and technology better;

(2) Manage resource planning or budget management to ensure maximum value is delivered and contribute to resource planning at broader organisational level.

4. QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND COMPETENCIES:

Qualifications:

(1) Applicants must be a graduate from a recognized university;

(2) Applicants with a Master's degree in Management or equivalent is desirable. Applicants with relevant certifications, in Project Management shall be at an advantage.

Experience:

(1) Minimum five years of experience in executing multi-stakeholder transformation projects at a managerial level, preferably within the education sector or consulting or in large scale operations;

(2) Familiar with the challenges and complexity of multi-stakeholder projects;

Skills and Competencies:

(1) Ability to engage and lead teams and persuade people; Ability to create relationships of trust with stakeholders and generates positivity;

(2) Familiar with and act at all times by RTT's values, policies, procedures, standing orders and financial regulations ensuring that staff are also aware of their obligations to follow them;

(3) Rely on tact, diplomacy and sophisticated interpersonal skills to build a relationship of trust with the government officials;

(4) Team Player;

(5) Collaborative and solutions focused;

(6) Comfortable with negotiating and diffusing conflict;

(7) Ability to develop a programme architecture that helps meet the programme goals;

(8) Ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas;

(9) Ability to spot gaps, opportunities and synergies;

(10) Ability to apply principles of project management to make decisions where solutions are not obvious and to deliver professional services to meet customer requirements;

(11) Ability to anticipate, interpret and assess client or stakeholder needs, identify trends, generate original ideas and innovative solutions;

(12) Ability to successfully manage different work streams with different delivery dates and stakeholders;

(13) Ability to deal well with ambiguity, uncertainty and change; Ability to juggle different and conflicting priorities within a short period;

(14) Ability to take the project forward even in the face of rejection;

(15) Ability to adopt a global mind-set, cultural sensitivity, and the ability to relate to and work effectively across cultures;

(16) Ability to articulate and communicate well to all stakeholders (both verbally and in writing) in a manner that meets the different needs of different audiences;

(17) Demonstrated commitment to being open and honest, sharing information and encouraging inclusive dialogue at all levels;

(18) Demonstrated commitment to sharing challenges, avoiding working in silos, building ideas collaboratively and respecting and supporting each other to make positive contributions to work;

(19) Excellent presence and executive communication skills, able to articulate and communicate well to a wide variety of senior-level leadership;

(20) Ability to read, write and speak in Gujarati at a functional level;

(21) Ability and willingness to travel as per job requirements.

5. COMPENSATION OFFERED:

Gross compensation for the position is attractive. Please note that the offer made to the selected candidate shall be commensurate with qualifications, experience and salary history.

6. LOCATION: Ahmedabad/ Gandhinagar, Gujarat

7. APPOINTMENT: This is a full-time position. The initial contract offered shall be till March 2022 and renewable thereafter based on performance.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Team SAMS
Phone Nos.: 011- 2684 2162; 4165 3612

10. APPLICATION PROCESS:

Eligible candidates interested in the position are requested to apply by or before October 29, 2019

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