Job Description

The Program Officer oversees the coordination and administration of all aspects of the Skills Outside School Foundations’ ongoing Bridge Program and Professional Mentoring Project including planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the program activities.

The Officer will primarily plan, execute, monitor and evaluate the Bridge Program and the Professional Mentoring opportunity. The Officer will also manage the liaison with the professional mentors and ensure they are kept up-to date via newsletters sent every quarter to be developed by the media and communication officer.

ROLES and RESPONSIBILITIES

The Program Officer will perform a wide range of duties as outlined below:

Plan the program:         

• Suggest project expansion plan into new implementing states and seek Boards approval        
• Liaise with finance officer to secure funding for the Bridge project         
• Plan the delivery of the overall edition of the Bridge program and professional mentoring project in accordance with the mission and objectives of the organization.
• Develop the project management calendar (implementation plan), and project budget.          
• Develop new initiatives to support the strategic direction of the organization.          
• Develop a project evaluation framework to assess the strengths of the Bridge Project and identify areas for improvement.       
• Ensure all feedback evaluation forms by the trainers and participants of the Bridge Project skills and Career Club are completed, collected and assessed through
• collaboration with the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer.          
• Ensure all professional mentors are kept up to date.         
• Ensure all project documentation and material is provided to the teacher trainers and participants as due.          
• Ensure any mentor-mentee re-allocations occur in a timely manner.         
• Responding to the specific needs of the students.          
• Develop forms and records to document project activities.

Organize the projects:

• Provide weekly and monthly reports to the Board of Trustees and the President/CEO.
• Liaise with HR/Admin Officer to recruit Field Officers across all implementing states.
• Create and maintain the project management calendar/schedule and file all project
• documents.
• Organize the Career Mentoring Open Day.
• Coordinate the Bridge Skills and Career Club mentoring engagements between the teacher
• trainers, mentors and the participants.
• Coordinate the weekly ambassadors’ initiatives.
• Update the partner schools on project milestones.
• Liaise with the partner schools on all matters.
• Develop a working relationship with all the professional mentors.
• Work with the Media and Communication Manager to source for and screen all new professional mentors ensuring that they receive the starter pack and are offered sufficient training on child safety and project expectations.

Lead the projects:

• Map and seek partnerships with organizations that align with the Bridge project mandate.
• Communicate with partners/sponsors andother stakeholders to understand how the delivery of the Bridge Skills and Career Club Project can be enhanced.
• Lead and coordinate the teacher training before the commencement of the Bridge Skills and Career Club in any partner school.
• Coordinate the delivery of services among different project activities to increase effectiveness and efficiency.
• Monitor the project activities on a regular basis and conduct a quarterly evaluation according to the project evaluation framework.
• Report evaluation findings to the President/CEO and Board of Trustees and recommend changes to enhance the project, as appropriate.
• Provide the necessary information to the Media and Communication Officer to allow for appropriate and targeted social media updates on the Foundations activities.

Stakeholder Management:

• Development and successful delivery of stakeholder engagement plans in accordance with the overarching stakeholder engagement strategy
• Manage stakeholder mapping and prepare communications to stakeholders and respond to stakeholder enquiries
• Provide briefings and support for meetings with stakeholders
• Attend client-facing meetings, collaborative planning workshops and report to client on progress

Grant Writing/Fundraising:

• Lead on researching, developing and preparing grants proposals and fundraising for Bridge projects.
• Study and understand the history, structure, objectives, programs and financial needs of the organization.
• Research grant opportunities from government and non-government agencies.
• Draft grant proposals and supporting documents based on the funding requirements of the organization.
• Submit proposals to grant coordinators for approval.
• Respond to internal and external queries on drafted and submitted proposals.
• Maintain positive relationships with fund providers and other stakeholders.
• Maintain records and submit reports related to grant opportunities.

Control the project:

• Provide information on finances and expenditure on the projects and attach supporting documentation for the board, funders and the Sponsorship
• and Partnership Officer.
• Ensure that the Bridge Project operates within the approved budget.
• Monitor and approve all budgeted project expenditures.
• Work with Sponsorship and Partnership Officer to manage the disbursement of funds for all project activities and other general administrative functions of the Foundation.
• Process and document payments made by members and other stakeholders.
• Maintain and keep financial records of all projects and the Foundations’ activities including monitoring the expenses of the Foundation and ensure they are up to date. Provide required information to have invoices generated and submitted to funders according to the timelines

ABOUT YOU:

You possess the following:

1. University degree in project management, business administration/management or a related field of study.
2. 0-2 Years of project management, business management/administration, Grant writing/ Fundraising or otherwise exercise.
3. Knowledge of project management.
4. Experience managing stakeholders
5. Basic knowledge of grant writing and fund raising.
6. Strong strategic, analytical, and project management skills: demonstrated ability to take responsibility for a diverse number of projects and to complete them in a timely manner with limited supervision.

Abilities:

1. Proficiency in MS Office applications (Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint).
2. Proficiency in the use of computers for:

• Word processing
• Simple accounting
• Databases
• Spreadsheets
• E-mail Internet
• Google Docs,
• Sky Drive,
• DropBox

Working Conditions:

The Program Officer will work a standard work week but will not be required to work in an office to monitor project activities for the probation

JOB BENEFITS At SOSF:

We value diversity — in backgrounds and in experiences.

What then do we offer;

1.       Competitive Salary

2.       Paid Time off (PTO)

3.       sick, exam, annual, maternity and

paternity leaves.

4.       Professional Development (As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Skills outside foundation as well as themselves).

Interested and qualified candidate should forward their CV to: [email protected] Using the job title as the subject of the Mail