Vacancy title:
Education Advisor

Jobs at:
Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance (VVOB)

Deadline of this Job:
24th November 2018

Duty Station:
Kigali, Rwanda

Summary
Date Posted: 7th November 2018 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed , Employment Type: Full-Time

About the Company

JOB DETAILS:

Education Advisor – Teacher Support in STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)

Background

VVOB, The Flemish Association for Development Cooperation and Technical Assistance (VVOB) is a Belgian non-profit organisation that focuses on improving the quality of education.
In cooperation with Rwanda Education Board (REB), affiliated Teacher Training Colleges (TTC), and the University of Rwanda – College of Education (URCE), VVOB started in 2017 with a multi-year programme on Leading, Teaching and Learning Together (2017-2021). The cooperation programme aims to improve the quality of primary education through improvement of the professional development of school leaders and induction of new qualified teachers.

Since 2018, VVOB expands this programme in Secondary Education and explores other opportunities for strengthening their support to the Rwandan Government.

The “Coordinator/Education Advisor Teacher Support in STEM” reports directly to the Education Manager and works in consultation with the Operations and Finance Manager. (S)he is among a team of Coordinators/Education Advisors responsible for the programmes on “Leading, Teaching and Learning Together (LT)2”.

Purpose of the function

The Coordinator/Education Advisor is an education expert in Teacher Professional Development and Teacher Support, who provides advice, information and guidance on the development, implementation and evaluation of activities on Teacher Support for the 2017-2021 MINEDUC-UR-VVOB programmes on Leading, Teaching and Learning Together (LT²), in Primary and Secondary Education.

The Coordinator/Education Advisor provides advice, information and guidance to the VVOB team and VVOB’s partners in the aim of achieving the outputs under the components of Teacher Support, with a focus on: the development and implementation of Continuous Professional Development Trajectories for Teachers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) related subjects; and the establishment and follow-up on Communities of Practice for STEM teachers in secondary education.

As such, the Coordinator/Education Advisor:

• Provides technical advice, guidance and support on teacher support;
  
• Supports the development and implementation of CPD trajectories for School-based mentors, subject leaders in STEM;
  
• Contributes to the identification, formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the programmes in order to realize educational change desired by the programmes;
  
• Develops VVOB’s North Operations by building bridges between Flanders and Rwanda through cooperation with educational institutions.
  
• To achieve this, the Coordinator/Education Advisor acts as an expert and quality caretaker, a manager/organizer, and as a coach.
  
• As an expert and quality caretaker, the Education Advisor is responsible for:
  
• Provision of technical advice, guidance and support on Teacher Support; tasks include:
  
• Providing technical advice, guidance and support for developing, implementing and supporting effective and relevant contextualized capacity development approaches and systems and practices tailored to the specific organizational characteristics of the partner and directed at professionalizing teachers and teacher educators; to ensure technical, institutional and financial sustainability of the programme;
  
• Taking up a variety of roles in the capacity development process of the partners according to the needs of the partner and particular situations and phases of the programme; supporting partners in realizing their own (intermediate) results and outputs linked with Teacher Support.
  
• Ensuring effective and efficient use of resources for Teacher Support, including supporting the budget owners under Teacher Support in Secondary Education (in close consultation with the Operations and Finance Manager);
  
• Ensuring alignment and coherence with other components and the broader programmes;
  
• Being the contact person for VVOB partners and colleagues with regard to Teacher Support; Representing the programmes to partners and relevant stakeholders.
  
• Proactively setting up meetings with partners and colleagues to discuss programmatic issues linked to the Teacher Support.
  Supporting the development of CPD trajectories for STEM subject leaders and the implementation of activities on Teacher Support; tasks include:
  
• Developing CPD trajectories for subject leaders in STEM, for Induction of New Teachers, and provision of expertise and input to colleagues and partners for the development of course and facilitator materials;
  
• Keeping abreast with policy trends, new developments and latest research and thinking in education and international development by external and internal networking and sharing new insights with partners and VVOB colleagues.
  
• Contributing to the identification, formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the programmes in order to realize educational change processes supported by the programmes;

Tasks include:

• Providing technical advice, guidance and support on educational topics for strategic planning at global organizational level and country level;
  
• Compiling intermediate and annual reports on Teacher Support (in close consultation with the Monitoring Evaluation
• Accountability & Learning Advisor and in line with the VVOB Rwanda M&E system);
  
• Contributing to internal and external communication, amongst others by writing success stories about educational change;
  
• Contributing to the development of grant proposals.
  
• Developing VVOBs North Operations by building bridges between Flanders and Rwanda through cooperation with educational institutions; Tasks include:
  
• Supervision and coaching of VVOB interns, juniors and volunteers;
  
• Coordination of structural partnerships with Flemish partners, in support of the implementation of the programmes;
  
• The Coordinator/Education Advisor performs any other duty assigned by supervisors in line with the position holder’s capacities.
  
• As a Quality Caretaker, the Coordinator/Education Advisor: Acts in accordance to VVOB’s vision, mission, values, policies and guidelines;
  
• Guarantees the coherence with VVOB’s definition of quality education and VVOB’s education portfolio, including gender equity;
  
• Ensures compliance with VVOB’s financial policies and guidelines including adherence with accounting principles and requirements and efficient and responsible use of resources;
  
• Takes up an active role in monitoring, evaluating and reporting on the programme, including gender equity, in close collaboration with the partner;
  
• Contributes to internal and external knowledge development by systemizing lessons learned and sharing pro-actively lessons learned between partners, colleagues and other VVOB country teams;
  
• Ensures high quality standards in terms of partnership, relevance, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of the programme;
  
• As a Manager/Coordinator, the Coordinator/Education Advisor leads by example, is proactive and takes initiative whenever necessary to coordinate the Teacher Support Components and provide technical advice, guidance and support to the VVOB programme and team.
  
• As a coach, (s)he provokes and supports learning, in the functional team (Development and Implementation Teams), and also across functional teams (including Administration and Support, M&E and Research).
  

Profile

Knowledge and experience:

• Master’s Degree in education or equivalent by experience;
  
• Experience with STEM education in Rwanda;
  
• Academic degree in STEM-related field (science, mathematics) is an asset;
  
• Knowledge of and / or experience with programme management, preferably Project Cycle Management;
  

An in-depth understanding of:

• National education systems, in particular systems and practices directed at professionalizing teachers;
  
• Latest developments and research in the education sector in general and teacher development and learner-centered pedagogy in particular;
  
• Experience with change management and capacity development processes in the context of educational institutions;
  
• Knowledge of and / or experience with equity and gender in education;
  
• Experience with working in a multicultural team.
  

Language:

Excellent written and oral command of English and Kinyarwanda.

Competences:

VVOB core competences:

• Result orientation
  
• Continuous improvement
  
• Cooperation
  

Function specific competences

• Initiative
  
• Networking
  
• Organizing
  
• Didactic skills
  
• Analytical and synthetical skills
  
• Creativity
  
• Good verbal and written communication skills