Job Opportunity for Associate, Advisory and Partnerships at Leadership for Equity at Pune

About Leadership For Equity (LFE)

Leadership For Skilled Education Foundation (branded as Leadership For Equity, LFE), is a non-profit (NGO) based out of Pune, Maharashtra. 

We envision Public Education Systems That Refuse To Let Children Down

APPROACH: In our two-fold approach to change, we build the capacity of government system leaders and we influence system processes. In partnership with the local and state education bodies, we co-create programs that shift teaching-learning practices and improve student learning and well-being. This work coupled with our research and advisory support to influence policies, we hope to create an effective government education system.

Over the last 5 years, LFE has built the capacity of 2100+ system leaders, and 40,200+ teachers to impact 8 million students across Maharashtra. Additionally, LFE has recently expanded its operations and started working in another 3 states of India including Haryana, Tripura & Andhra Pradesh. In Maharashtra, LFE works with 5 districts (Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Satara & Akola), 3 municipal bodies (Pune MC, Pimpri Chinchwad MC & Nagpur MC) & 5 state level education bodies (School Education Dept, SCERT, Samagra Shiksha, Tribal Development Dept, & TRTI). In Andhra Pradesh, LFE works closely with the Samagra Shiksha Office, SCERT & The World Bank on a multi-year strategic project to improve the quality of learning across 26 districts of the State. And lastly in Haryana & Tripura, LFE works with SCERTs of both states in setting up targeted program management units (PMUs) to strengthen delivery of large-scale academic programs. 

BELIEF: We believe Public Education Systems are the gatekeepers of social EQUITY, especially when India’s 120 million poorest-of-the-poor children continue to go to government-run schools. A multi-layered, complex, and systemic problem of educational inequity, will require a solution rooted in the SYSTEMS CHANGE approach. We believe that a COLLECTIVE effort by forging partnerships with governments, like-minded philanthropists, corporates, donors, nonprofits and grassroot organisations will help bring scalable and sustainable social change.

About Advocacy and Advisory vertical (AA)

The Advocacy and Advisory vertical (AA) of LFE has a larger goal to engage with policymakers on key strategic projects of the Government, to multiply the impact of our existing programs and process by institutionalizing some of the piloted interventions. It works with an understanding of three major objectives – 

a) Ensuring smooth relationships with different government bodies and doing a health check-up of LFE’s relationships with government stakeholders 

b) Propelling the impact of LFE’s projects through our government influence, and thus in-turn influencing the government to have policies which include learnings from the ground c) Influencing the larger ecosystem (of NGOs and CSRs) through strategic partnerships and engaging in kep projects of the government 

Job description and responsibilities

Note: The position can be Project Associate / Senior Associate / Manager depending on the previous experience & negotiated title for the role. 

The NGO partnership program of Dept of Education, Govt. of Tripura, is one of the systemic efforts to improve the quality of education across the Government run schools of Tripura State. Tripura is building a collaborative engagement with 20+ NGOs who will support various programmatic & strategic initiatives of the State. LFE is one of the chosen NGO partners which will be supporting Tripura Govt in strengthening the State Council for Educational Research & Training (SCERT) & District Institutes of Education & Training (DIET)s. The State government of Tripura along with Leadership For Equity (LFE) is revitalising the apex teacher education & support bodies across the State by strengthening them in a structured way and building capacity of the existing administrative and academic machinery at the State, District, Block level. The project aims to lay the foundation for structural reform of the SCERT Tripura and DIETs across the State by playing an instrumental role in assisting with the drafting of Government Resolutions, re-looking at the job description of state academic officials and bringing in alignment & synergies required as per State’s 5-year plan; and capacity building of the officers across different levels. LFE’s learnings from doing similar kinds of work in Maharashtra over the last 5 years will play a critical role in supporting this work in Tripura as well. 

This includes: 

• Evaluating the current functioning state of SCERT & DIETs of Tripura according to the national guidelines 2018 & 2019; including a diagnosis report 
• Work closely with SCERT Director, SPD & Education Secretary in creating new positions within SCERT and DIET through restructuring; including designing and executing, if needed, an impartial and holistic recruitment process to fill the newly created positions 
• Designing and drafting the revised job descriptions for the key positions in SCERT & DIETs as per the need and future alignment of the State 
• Building capacity of existing and newly selected members across SCERT & DIETs
• Building a monitoring & evaluation plan for the project accountability 
• Ensuring a clear support strategy for Education Department government functionaries, in terms of academic advisory, across the state. 

The project has potential to impact around 150+ government officers directly, and indirectly affecting the development & support of 41k+ teachers and around 7.5 lakh children studying in government schools across the State indirectly. We see this Project role role at LFE to be a highly aspirational role where the scope to learn about and create impact at a systemic level is immense. This Project individual will work with the Project Director & LFE Leadership team (CXO level) to play a critical role in ensuring planning for and execution of the responsibilities listed below. They include but are not limited to: 

Planning and Execution (50%)

• Build the overall phase-wise execution project plan in close coordination with the reporting manager and Government officials in Tripura. 
• Work with government stakeholders to design interventions that align with government needs as well as Strengthening / Restructuring of the SCERT & DIET faculty of the State, aligned to the national and state level guidelines 
• Conduct need analysis of the SCERT & DIETs, to further co-design and execute recruitment processes to fill vacancies at the state and district level as and when they emerge 
• Design and co-create job descriptions of all the key academic functionaries of SCERT & DIETs 
• Plan and execute organisational development workshops to induct and build capacities of the existing and newly deputed teachers and officers of the SCERT and DIETs. Support state govt to coordinate with different officers from the Education Department Tripura, SCERT, DIET’s,
• District Education officers, NGO partner etc as and when required as per the need.

Stakeholder Management (30%)

• Work with Senior officials from SCERT, Education department & DIETs to build long-lasting relationships that aid project design, execution and M&E plan. 
• Promote collaboration amongst officers across the state (education dept) to support and help to achieve the stated goals under the State’s Quality improvement mission for Tripura state 
• Plan and execute program review and update meetings (whenever necessary) with stakeholders and provide progress towards the goals of the project in a consumable format to all stakeholders. 
• Able to influence all respective stakeholders to drive and lead the project as per the decided plan 

Advisory and Policy Advocacy (20%)

• Advise senior government leaders on education reform by researching latest developments in educational and administrative practices in successful education systems across the world 
• Build & manage relationships across functional teams of SCERT HOD’s, DIET’s, District Officers, Teachers & other officials to ensure the project execution 
• Support the newly envisioned academic departments by providing ongoing program support to Heads of Departments of SCERT to improve the design, impact and effectiveness of ongoing departmental initiatives 
• Support the reporting Manager/CXO team at LFE to build and execute monitoring and evaluation processes, and project planning

Requirement: Education & Experience

• Bachelors in any field. Masters in Education / Development degree is preferred.
• 3 to 4 years of experience in education primarily executing projects, working with govt officials (at least 2 years of which should include directly working with Senior government stakeholders/leadership would be preferable)
• Experience working in North East India would be preferable
• Prior experience in the Advocacy and Advisory sector would be highly preferred
• Interest or prior experience in Capacity building of teachers can be an added advantage
• Experience in policy implementation would be highly preferred 

Knowledge, Skills & Capabilities

• Excellent written and oral communication skills and functional knowledge (oral) of Bangla and/or Kokboruk is highly preferred 
• Being able to take initiative and work in an autonomous, semi-structured environment 
• Belief in the potential of the public sector and that government systems can and will change towards overcoming systemic inequities and ensuring improved outcomes for all citizens
• Working experience or knowledge of public policy implementation would be highly preferred 
• A basic understanding of social equity, development discourse and education policy in India 
• Adaptability to changing responsibilities and resourcefulness to respond to them 
• High openness to learning 
• Ability to influence people, taking initiatives, build and sustain relationships with multiple stakeholders & partners across public and private spaces 
• Strong ability to create outstanding presentations, work with Microsoft Excel & Google Suite ●
• Patience and resilience to stick it out in the face of setbacks and uncertainties 

Location and Compensation

Location: Agartala, Tripura. Might involve a bit of travel across state as and when required

Compensation: Range of salary: 4.5 – 6.0 LPA based on the previous experience

Leadership For Equity is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. We do not discriminate on the basis of caste, race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other non-merit factor.