Project Officer, Schools Education, Lagos 241 views0 applications

The British Council is the world’s leading cultural relations organization and creates opportunities for people in the UK and worldwide to understand each other, to work together and learn from one another. We see this as crucial to building secure, more prosperous and sustainable futures for us all. We build trust and understanding between different countries and cultures and develop strong international links that are of benefit to people in Britain and the rest of the world.

Project Officer, Schools Education

Role Type: Business delivery
Pay Band: 4
Duration: Indefinite
Reports to: Project Manager, Schools Education

Role Purpose

• To work with the Project Manager supporting the delivery of the British Council’s Education programme.
• The role will include successfully administering projects that work with schools across Nigeria.

Geopolitical/SBU/Function Overview

• Nigeria is one of the largest economies in Africa. It is also the most populous country with over 170 million citizens. The UK is its largest trading partner. Nigeria holds significant political power in the region and internationally and its society retains a positive attitude to the UK. There are therefore major opportunities for the UK and British Council to increase influence, income and, through this, our impact by building on our strong existing relationships with the Nigerian government, institutions and customers/audiences. However, there are complex and substantial risks to this work i.e. security and compliance.
• Nigeria is the British Council’s largest operation in sub-Saharan Africa with offices in 4 cities – Port Harcourt in the south, Kano in the north, Abuja (the Federal capital) and Lagos the commercial centre. Our 200 staff work across a range of states delivering large scale contracts, partnership programmes, examinations, projects as well as services in Arts, Education & Society and English & Exams. We are already achieving substantial impact and income and have plans to grow and develop our impact further. Partners and clients include government, public and private institutions, foundations, private sector organisations and civil society. We work closely with the wider UK team including DFID and UKTI.
• The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide. In all that we do the British Council acknowledges our duty of care to ensure a healthy and safe place to work for our staff, customers and visitors. We aim to achieve this through compliance with the safety laws in each of the countries in which we operate. We aim, where practicable, to follow UK standards, guidance and codes of good practice where these offer enhanced standards of health and safety.
• The British Council recognises that we have a fundamental duty of care towards all children we engage with including a duty to protect them from abuse. We achieve this through compliance with UK child protection laws and relevant laws in each of the countries we operate as well as by adherence to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) 1989.
• Our Equal Opportunity Policy commits us to ensuring that there is no unjustified discrimination in the recruitment, retention, training and development of staff on the basis of age, disability, gender including transgender, HIV/AIDS status, marital status including civil partnerships, pregnancy and maternity, political opinion, race/ethnicity, religion and belief, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, spent convictions, trade union activity or membership, work pattern and on the basis of having or not having dependants or any other irrelevant grounds.
• We guarantee an interview to candidates living with disability who meet the essential criteria.
• Candidates with special needs should please ask us for this information in alternative formats.
• All employees of the British Council must adhere to the Corporate Health & Safety, Equal Opportunity & Diversity and Child Protection policies and the Code of Conduct. Main Accountabilities:

Key Responsibilities 
This post will have the following core functions:

• Project & Contract Delivery: to support the delivery of high quality events, workshops and project activity working with partners and stakeholders in order to meet sector and country plans. To co-ordinate venues, consultant logistics, guest lists, transport, accommodation, media coverage and photographers, programme development.
• Marketing & Customer Service: To work with the Project Manager to deliver communication services to all projects including the development and dissemination of project reports and impact stories for external and internal stakeholders through appropriate communication channels including digital and print media.
• Financial Planning & Management: To create and maintain purchase orders and sales orders in line with British Council policies and procedures, ensure good receipting and invoicing of orders to facilitate vendor and consultant payments.
• Scorecard Management: To support the collection, processing and reporting of monitoring and evaluation data gathered from projects in support of the British Council Results and Evidence framework, project logical framework and other evaluation requirements, as needed.
• Contacts Database Management: To develop and maintain a contacts management database related to project activity
• Delivery of our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion policy in relation to our projects work and in compliance with our policy on Child Protection.

Key Relationships
Internal:

• Country Director Nigeria, Director Programmes, Director Schools Education and Society, UK and Sub-Saharan Africa regional Schools team, Programme Manager Schools Education and Society, Project Manager Schools Education, Monitoring, Evaluation and Results Manager, Nigeria Marketing and Communications team, Nigeria Exams team, Business Support Services team and the wider education and programmes team.

External:

• British Council consultants and vendors, School Heads and teachers, UK and Nigeria private and government owned schools and the wider stakeholders in the Basic and Secondary education sector.

Role Requirements

• Passport requirements/ Right to work in country: You must have the right to live and work in Nigeria. – Shortlisting
• Direct contact or managing staff working with children: Post holder will be required to meet British Council child protection standards – Shortlisting/Interviews

Notes:

• Operational project work requires occasional work outside conditioned hours, for example in the evenings or at weekends. TOIL should be agreed with the line manager in advance to maintain an adequate work-life balance.
• The post-holder may also be required to travel to various project activity locations and internationally on British Council business and should therefore hold valid travel documents.
• Training may be required for certain aspects of the job such as using SAP.

Person Specifications
Language Requirements:

• Minimum / essential: Fluency in written and spoken English – Shortlisted candidates will either demonstrate they have met the required standard through presentation of an agreed English language certificate, or will be required to take the APTIS test and demonstrate a B2 level of English proficiency

Assessment Stage: Shortlisting/Interviews

Qualifications

• Essential: Bachelor’s degree
• Desirable: Certification in project management or understanding

Assessment Stage:

• Shortlisting

Role Specific Knowledge & Experience 
Minimum/Essential:

• Knowledge of Nigerian basic and secondary education system
• Previous experience in activity coordination and planning within the following sectors: Education and Schools, Governance and Society and project management

Assessment Stage:

• Shortlisting.

British Council Core Skills 
Essential:

• Communication skills  Displays good listening, writing and speaking skills, setting out logical arguments clearly and adapting language and form of communication to meet the needs of different people/audiences.
• Planning and organising  Organises own work over weeks and months, or plans ahead for others, taking account of priorities and the impact on other people.
• Using Technology Able, with adjustments if necessary, to use office software and British Council systems to do the job and manage documents or processes.
• Managing finance and resources Uses corporate financial systems and processes appropriately as part of the job and on behalf of a team

Desirable:

• Managing project: Works with project management systems and procedures, and has a track record of compliance with them as a project team member.

Assessment Stage:

• Shortlisting and Interview.

British Council Behaviours Assessment Stage

• Making it Happen (Essential)
• Working Together (Essential)
• Being Accountable (More Demanding)

Other behaviours needed for the job but not evaluated at interview:

• Connecting with others (Essential)

Assessment Stage:

• Shortlisting and Interview.

Salary
Naira 340,331 per month.

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