Program Quality Officer

Job Description

Educate!, an award winning non-profit social enterprise, is looking for a self-driven, highly enterprising, and enthusiastic candidate to fill the Program Quality Officer – Position (1) in Jinja District of Uganda. The successful candidate will join our high performing Field Operations Team.

The Program Quality Officer will manage a team of 12-15 Field Operations Assistants across multiple districts as they carry out their activities for the program & Community Unit administration, Lead all training activities for the Field Operations Assistants assigned across the region. Take the lead on communications, Support the Performance metrics data collection & reporting through the Field Operations Assistants team as well as providing quality checks on Performance metrics data. Ensure quality implementation of the program through rigorous monitoring & providing quality program feedback. Coordinate all survey activities in the region & ensure accuracy & timely execution of reporting in all regions and Participate in the mapping out of the survey areas & data analysis. You will report to the Field Operations Manager.

The right candidate for this opportunity should be excited about working with young and ambitious youth, self-driven, passionate about our mission of creating leaders and entrepreneurs in Africa, and committed to being part of a high performing team!

About Educate!

Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is About Educate!

Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more people to the global workforce each year than the rest of the world combined.

At Educate! we’re obsessed with impact. We leverage iterative learning to build highly scalable youth employment solutions aimed at unlocking the potential of the world’s youngest continent.

Educate! prepares youth in Africa learn, earn and thrive in today’s economy by:

• introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary, and
• delivering livelihood boot camps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.

To date, more than 390,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya, and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa.

Educate! is a team of over 250 largely African staff and 300 volunteer youth mentors. We prioritize building an engaging, fulfilling and growth-oriented work environment. 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over 5 years, 10+ alumni have started their own organizations and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows.

We have been backed by top foundations such as Imaginable Futures, Big Bang Philanthropy, #startsmall, Generation Unlimited, CIFF and Echidna Giving. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and a 2015 WISE Award, and has been highlighted by the World Bank’s S4YE’s Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, BBC, The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies on scaling education, and the Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator. In 2022, we received a catalytic investment from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to scale our systems change work.

Educate!’s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year. By 2025, we aim to scale our annual reach by 4x and measurably impact over 400,000 new youth.

Performance Objectives

• Field operations assistant Performance Management (30%)

Manage a team of 12 to 15 Field Operations assistants across multiple Community units as they carry out their activities for the Exp program & Community Unit administration.

• Field OPerations Assistant Training & Coaching (25%)

Lead all training activities for the Field Operations assistants assigned across the region and take the lead on communications.

• Data Reporting and Coordination Oversight (30%)

Support the Performance metrics data collection process & report through the Field Operations assistants team as well as providing quality checks on data.

• Quality assurance -skills lab observation(Data map & Survey follow ups) (15%) Ensure quality implementation of the program through rigorous monitoring & providing quality program feedback. Coordinate all survey activities in the region & ensure accuracy & timely execution of reporting in all regions.

Participation in the mapping out of the survey areas & data analysis

Field operations assistant Performance (30%)

• Lead 1:1 meetings with Field operations assistants at least twice a month. Review work plans, set weekly priorities & align Field operations assistants goals on a monthly basis.
• Lead weekly regional meetings to address challenges and concerns of Field operations assistants & keep the Field operations assistants up to date with program changes.
• Lead annual staff appraisals of Field operations assistants. Complete performance development process,participated in the PDP process and submitted to HR.
• Coordinate and lead Field operations assistants capacity building programs on a monthly basis.
• Act as Hiring Manager for all Field operations assistants recruitment needs: support Field operations assistants recruitment guide update and sit on interview panel as and when required.
• Oversee Exp-program activities for the region by checking in with Field operations assistants on progress and ensuring that they have the capacity and tools necessary to carry out activities effectively.

Field operations assistants Training and Coaching (20%)

• Lead Field operations assistants induction for newly hired. Facilitate one month virtual training, oversee Field operations assistants job shadowing.
• Constantly plan & communicate Training plans & program changes to Field operations assistants.
• Empower Field operations assistants to develop, clear & be in constant communication & coordination of activities with the mentors in the Exp program.
• Lead monthly Field operations assistants capacity building programs Including preparing for Field operations assistants training and providing pragmatic and content related feedback to the design and Implementation team.
• Observe mentors during induction, program delivery & training to ensure high quality mentors.
• Observe field Operations assistants growth areas and develop capacity development plans that are tailored to those needs.

Quality assurance -skills lab observation/mentor monitoring (20%)

• Through the Field operations assistants ensure that mentors conducting the Skills labs and GMs are observed & observation forms submitted to the Performance metrics department.
• Work with the Field operations assistants to ensure that they submit the observations forms, participation trackers ,graduate form & missions data at the end of every term.
• Ensure that the Field operations assistants are meeting the Exp program monitoring target at all times.
• Use Dashboards reports (LEC, Observations, GMs, Events, Pitching and scholar selections) to support the mentors & close Exp program implementation gaps.
• Checks the quality of data reported by the Field operations assistants and mentors and provides feedback in a timely manner.
• Ensure that observation forms are collected, compiled & shared with Performance Metrics for data analysis.
• Support the training Field operations assistants to increase their knowledge on program activities & tracking.
• Ensure trackers, forms, mission data are accurate and information is updated and submitted timely.
• Communicate regularly with the Senior Field Operations Manager to ensure that program management concerns are addressed timely and with appropriate urgency.

Field Data Reporting & Coordination oversight – (30%)

• Ensure quality implementation of the program through rigorous monitoring & providing quality program feedback
• Support Performance Metrics team in the dissemination & collection of the Exp scholar centricity forms.
• Work with Performance metrics to develop data collection tools & also to improve on the data collection processes.
• Setting timeliness & ensuring that Field operations assistants adhere to the reporting submission timelines.
• Train Field operations assistants on the importance & usage of the data collection tools and coordinate all survey activities in the region & ensure accuracy & timely execution of reporting in all regions
• Participation in the mapping out of the survey learning questions & data analysis
• Leads student focus groups to check on the Quality Exp Program implementation.
• Document all survey learnings and share with the Exp program implementation team.
• Leads mentor focus groups to check on Exp program quality

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field Required
• Minimum 3 years professional experience
• Experience leading a team, managing finances, program reporting
• Excellent computer skills required
• Experience working within the education sector in East Africa
• Excellent Personnel Management skills
• Project management Skills
• Knowledge in financial management
• Strong writing and communication skills
• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills.
• Experience in leading and coaching a team
• Thoroughness when accomplishing tasks and paying attention to detail
• Systems oriented, high integrity
• Excellent customer service, general management and strong personality.
• Experience in multitasking in a fast – paced environment, set priorities, work independently as well as thrive a team.
• Fits our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here

What Is Educate! About?

We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey of their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.

• We put Youth First, Impact-Obsessed – We never forget that Educate! exists to impact youth. We are purpose-driven. We obsess over impact daily and if it doesn’t lead to impact, we want nothing to do with it. We prioritize interacting with and listening to

youth. We design and manage the organization to ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences that youth value.

• We Exceed Expectations – We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results. When we know what needs to be done, we do it. We don’t wait to be asked and we don’t stop at what is asked of us. We look for solutions as much as we identify problems.
• We Are Always Learning – We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded. We know there is always another way and we are

www.experienceeducate.org

excited to learn about it. We continuously look for resources of all kinds from multiple disciplines. We try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.

• We are One Team, Many Views – We say what we think while treating each other well. We believe that all people have the same inherent value and that diverse ideas and open dialogue fuel excellence. We constantly strive to create an environment where everyone can and does express themselves freely. We support and respect each other as people and colleagues. We act as one team: We prioritize the organization’s mission and goals over team or individual goals.
• We have the Startup Mindset – We will always keep innovating to grow our impact. We aspire to be game-changing. We never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.” We question the status quo in our industry. We move fast and embrace change to move

towards our long-term vision. We’re not afraid of failure. We interrogate anything that slows us down.

Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do.

Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community. In creating this environment, we encourage people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team.

Child Safeguarding: Educate! is committed to child-safe/youth-safe recruitment, selection and screening. Our recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to the safety and protection of children in our programs. The successful candidate will be required to provide a satisfactory Certificate of Good Conduct as a condition of employment. We reserve the right to decline to offer employment to an individual or terminate an employment contract with an employee that may pose a risk to children and youth.

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