Position Overview

We are looking for enthusiastic, self-driven, organised individuals with great interpersonal and communication skills to fill positions in the Programs Department. The Program Manager – Skilled Learning Program (SLP) shall be responsible for facilitating the targeted success of the Skilled Learning program aligned to Organizational sustainability goals in Uganda  through: SLP Pilot Program Management,  overseeing quality running of SLP operation units to meet program objectives. Manage SLP new systems and collaborate with different departments on program expansion and systems building: SLP Program Sales & Marketing Strategy; leading & executing an updated marketing strategy that ensures Educate! Maintains impact in at least 1,000 secondary schools, reaching 100,000 youth with our programs: Social Enterprise Development & Change Management; Manage to advancement and implementation of the Sustainability strategy transversely across all aspects of the Program to  develop and apply enterprise development best practices and approaches to orient and align Uganda team to socio entreprise thinking and working to maintain a vibrant team. and SLP Budget Management;Analyze cost drivers and provide strategic guidance for optimization while efficiently managing the SLP budget. Track expenses through the Budget Versus Actual expenses monthly. You’ll join a motivated, passionate, overachieving team that is positioning Educate! to be the leader in skills-based secondary education in Africa and intensively impact one million youth each year by 2024.

About Educate!

Educate! prepares youth in Africa with the skills to succeed in today’s economy.

We tackle youth unemployment by reforming what schools teach and how they teach it, so that students in Africa have the skills to start businesses, get jobs and drive development in their communities. Our model is delivered through practically-trained teachers and youth mentors. Educate!’s goal is to make this practical, skills-based model part of national education systems.

In 2019, we’re working in 175 secondary schools in Rwanda, 60 pilot schools in Kenya, and over 750 schools in Uganda reaching over 42,000 students intensively and 530,000 more broadly. Our model was proven to have massive impact in a randomized controlled trial. Graduates earned DOUBLE the income of a control group and had a 64% increase in business creation. Our graduates change their lives and their communities, such as Lillian Aero who employs over 100 AIDS-affected women.

In 2012, Educate! partnered with Uganda’s government to integrate curriculum and a student business club structure into Uganda’s entrepreneurship course nationally, and in 2015, we served as a technical advisor to Rwanda on its secondary education reform.

Educate!’s team includes nearly 200 staff and almost 300 volunteer youth mentors. We have been backed by top foundations such as MasterCard, Big Bang Philanthropy, Mulago, Echoing Green, Ashoka and Global Innovation Fund. Educate! won the 2015 WISE Awards, and was featured by Bill Gates, an Al Jazeera documentary, Forbes 30 under 30, Clinton Global Initiative and The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies in their global scaling education learning initiative.

Educate!’s vision for 2024 is to measurably impact 1 million students across Africa each year.

Performance Objectives

• SLP Pilot Program Management (35%): 

• • Understand program theory of  Change requirements and develop plans to meet program milestones
  • Manage the day to day aspects of program coordination, implementation and delivery using reports and other tools.
  • Lead program work plan, calendars and communications to relevant teams in a timely collaborative manner.
  • Lead monthly regional, One on one meeting with team of SLP Program Officers. Review work plans, mid-term and termly goals, and set/check in on monthly priorities.
  • Ensure team is personally organised, use log system to monitor implementation and performance Review Approve Program Officers work plans monthly and termly goal completion and submit to HR.
  • Manage the  USSD system and procedures to get mentors reimbursed
  • Advise leadership on role specialisation and program implementation in SLP.
  • Have oversight on pilot reporting. Coordinate with M*E SLP Coordinator to track SLP reporting that feeds into the M*E Monitoring report and SLP termly report. Work with Head of metrics to align SLP metric tracking.
  • Manage the entire SLP team on fraud and mis-reporting to Educate! Performance standards.
  • Reconcile SLP Regional Reports with mentor list, school list, and finance report.
  • Work with Finance Specialist to reconcile SLP school payment data. Report suspected incidents of school contribution fraud

How will success look like in this function

• • SLP Program Officers work plans reviewed, mid-term and termly goals filled in, and set/check in on monthly priorities is done. Draft memos and lead monthly regional meetings.
  • Program procedures and systems are documented, shared and reviewed often with commendable compliance.
  • Lead on PO log system for effective program implementation..
  • Performance appraisal of the SLP team is done according to HR policies and procedures.
  • Mentors in the SLP Units are reimbursed in a timely manner following the  mentor reimbursement system ( USSD) and internal approval process between key departments (M*E, Finance, programs).
  • PO SLP conference calls with Program Officers are scheduled weekly, communication related to the pilot is covered and Program Officer challenges/concerns are addressed. Pilot monitoring is effectively done
  • With Head D&I, DPI and M&E, monitoring tools for the SLP activities and specialized structures are designed and implemented by all stakeholders on the SLP team.
  • SLP report to managers is produced monthly
• SLP Program Sales & Marketing Strategy (30%): 
  • Schedule with mentors club meetings and advise accordingly. 
  •  Bring frontline voice into design to develop product that meets buyer needs and Organisational strategy.
  • Lead and hold integrated marketing and sales initiatives and strategies with clear calendar to capitalize on all fronts and optimize product buy-in and sales.
  • Undertake human-centered and agile design principles to create new marketing messages for schools, parents, and government and integrate those messages into our normal programming.

• • Lead updating sales and marketing strategy in line with product design and scale goals.
  • Co-create and  systematically test product price proposals guiding leadership on scale and sustainable decisions.
  • Boost team capacity and culture around being customer-centric in our program design and delivery in virtual systems.
  • Manage to partnership and payment standards, procedures and policies across the program.
  • Develop proposals for expansion of program including maximising government opportunities.
  • Develop school communications utilizing available forums to inform, sale and align stakeholders to program goals.
  • Develop and implement school partnership policies, procedure and guidelines that promote sustainable relationships.
  • Work to execute lean school recruitment process of 8 weeks
  • With team strategize to at least 90% school retention and achieve 80% product appreciation.
  • Innovate to proactively  engage School admin to demonstrate product value and get user feedback incorporated in design, management and decisions.

How will success look like in this function

• • Operate with an updated sales and marketing strategy.
  • Increased school contributions to at least 20% per year from current status
  • Uplifted communication messaging to different product market stakeholders like parents, students,teachers and headteachers
  • Teams are trained on novel sales strategy and culture of virtual wok
  • Sales and marketing targets over time are met efficiently
  • Sales and marketing investment is tracked and measured to inform program decisions
  • Product reflects needs of back payer and  schools needs
•  Socio Enterprise Development & Change Management (25%): 

• • In partnership with the Leadership Team, drive and develop a culture of social entrepreneurism with key implementers of the pilot to foster team cohesion and engagement
  • Work in partnership with key stakeholders including consultants to develop a sustainability strategy for the SLP
  • Set sustainability goals pilot in line with the product requirements of the pilot
  • Planning, coordination, implementation and administration of social enterprise activities
  • Manage the operations of the social enterprise with a view to maximizing sustainability and social purpose, including people management
  • Build the capacity and confidence of the pilot team to implement activities. Raise awareness and increase understanding of the work of social enterprise within the organisation  and the added value it brings
  • Engage effectively with partners and other external organisations to bring a fresh view on how the organisation can implement activities
  • Use data to be  updated on the implementation
  • Ensure documentation of any tests, strategic principles, specific changes or communications that are necessary
  • Organize trainings and educational experiences for staff to build their capacity to run a social enterprise

How will success look like in this function

• • Teams are customer centric in their work across departments.
  • Changes in process, procedure, policy and programs are  smoothly managed with good collaboration from stakeholders.
  • Teams equipped to manage change chains and processes with clear feedback loops
  • Documented and sharing of socio-entreprise scenarios, forums, learnings etc
  • Teams oriented on best developed social-enterprise development best practices and approaches
  • Teams are more adaptive ,positive and vibrant to execute. 

• Budget Management & Cost effectiveness(15%):

• • Make recommendations to realisation of cost model targets as per Educate! scale plans.
  • Produce monthly reports explaining discrepancies in the SLP Budget vs Actual, comparing budget to expense report. Submit revised project budgets to D*I Head and suggest budget reallocation when necessary.
  • Lead half-year budget review, explaining all causes of budget vs. actual discrepancies, and re-allocating money for second half.
  • Align budgets to procurement price-list. All savings from negotiation to be re-allocated by Country  Director.
  • Approve SLP budget procurement orders.
  • Approve SLP Program Officer Requisitions. Follow up on the logs to have timely accountability.
  • Approve all SLP Program Officer’s financial reimbursements. . Accountability logs are filled in time. Ensure proper financial reporting, including proper coding, and math.
  • Approve mentor transport and stipend in discussion with Mentor Support Program Officers.
  • Lead annual common cost verification process of new SLP community units, including ensuring all information is captured properly in common sheet template, submitting common cost sheet to finance, following-up on issues of cost inflation according to Educate! policies, and submitting a final report on the verification process.
  • Uphold all Educate! Financial policies with director reports. Manage issues of fraud and misappropriation of funds according to Educate! policy

How will success look like in this function.

• • Co-create budget management tools to efficiently track and question program costs and expenditure.
  • Exercise financial prudence with cost evaluation and make suggestions  for optimal programming as per the scale cost model. Ensure we Organization makes progress towards sustainable cost targets.
  • SLP budgets are tracked monthly explaining discrepancies in the Budget vs Actual.
  • Half-year budget reviews are completed and memos requesting for re-allocating money for second half sent to Directors.
  • Budgets aligned to procurement price-list. All savings from negotiation to be re-allocated by Country Director.
  • Approve program officer expenses and mentor stipend. Uphold all organizational financial policies.
  • Internal procedures designed to catch human error and fraud are efficient and weeding out questionable trips.
  • New SLP units have a working transport and accommodation cost verification.
  • SLP budget is not abused by all stakeholders. Issues of fraud and misappropriation of funds are reported.

Qualifications 

• Undergraduate degree in business related field. Relevant Postgraduate qualification will be an added advantage in marketing/Business/enterprise management with at least three (3) years professional experience.
• Demonstrated experience in managing both change and commercial projects, has experience working with a social enterprise. Creative, innovative and analytical approach with meticulous attention to detail. Has experience managing teams.
• Demonstrated experience in budget management and analyzing results to improve entreprise outcomes.
• People, system,Change and communication management skills with ability to adapt to fast changing environment.
• Fits our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here.

Terms 

• Salary is commensurate with experience
• Benefits include Medical Insurance.
• Location is Kampala, Uganda.

Why You Will Brag About Working At Educate!

• We’ve got the impact.
• Educate! is designed for scale. We quadrupled operations in 2014, going from 54 to more than 200 schools served. We carefully measure our outcomes, and — here’s the best part — we are maintaining quality at four times the size.
• We believe in local leadership — 97% of our on the ground staff is African.
• Our model has gone nationwide in Uganda — Educate!’s model is now incorporated into the national curriculum and exams, impacting thousands more students than we can reach directly.
• Educate is a well-oiled learning machine. We built our model by methodically testing hundreds of assumptions and we are constantly experimenting, evaluating, and improving.
• We’re honored that luminaries and leaders like Oliver Wonekha, the Ugandan Ambassador to the US, and Ann Veneman, a former Secretary of Agriculture and head of Unicef, believe in us enough to have joined our advisory board.