Job Opportunity for Associate, Project Management at Madhi Foundation in Chennai

About Madhi

Madhi Foundation was established in 2016 as a non-profit organization committed to the cause of bridging the equity gap in education for children across India. The Foundation draws its inspiration from the Tamil proverb, “Destiny can be conquered with intellect (Madhi)”. Madhi Foundation specifically works to solve the foundational learning crisis in India. Our vision, “Foundational Learning First, so every child is set up for success”, guides our every action and gives our work the purpose and direction it needs.

What we do

Madhi works closely with the Tamil Nadu School Education Department to conceptualise and implement large scale quality improvement programmes in Tamil Nadu’s government schools. Over the course of the next 5 years Madhi will strengthen its existing programmes in the state (as well as undertake new programmes) with the singular aim of ensuring transformative improvement in the quality of school education in Tamil Nadu. Madhi’s programmes in Tamil Nadu are consolidated under a single umbrella called Project: TN Soars, comprising 3 critical projects:

1. Ennum Ezhuthum (The Tamil Nadu state Foundational Learning Mission), 2. TechForEdSystems and 3. Tamil Nadu STEAM Model Schools.

Ennum Ezhuthum: We are currently also working as the ‘Chief Management Partner’ for Tamil Nadu’s official Foundational Learning Mission, The ‘Ennum Ezhuthum Mission’ – a Rs. 500 Cr Mission of national and regional importance aimed at universalising foundational learning for all children in Tamil Nadu’s 37,000 government schools.

Project MALA: Project MALA aims to create high-tech, low-tech and no-tech tools which can support child-educators (parents, teachers, volunteers) to build the neuro-linguistic exposure that children require to acquire language proficiency through oracy. Children in rural areas or from low income households have minimal exposure to the English language- particularly oracy. They find the existing english language learning tools inadequate to build fluency in spoken English and also have difficulty in reading to learn from English sources. Project MALA aims to leverage technology and contextually built learning resources to solve this problem.

Tamil Nadu STEAM Model Schools: To ensure holistic growth of children from underserved communities and to empower them with the skills to work toward their dreams, the Department of School Education has embarked on an ambitious project of setting up ‘Tamil Nadu Model Schools’ that will serve children from the most marginalized backgrounds and equip them with skills and knowledge such that their disadvantages get mitigated and no longer impede their success in academics, work and life. Madhi has joined the Department to assist in the setting up of these 38 Model Schools, each exemplifying the principles of equity and inclusion in letter and spirit, enabling every student, irrespective of their background, to receive equal opportunities to aspire and achieve their goals.

The job vacancy detailed here pertains to this Model Schools project. To know more about the work we do, check out our information brochure at bit.ly/MadhiFdn_LearnMore

Your team (TNSOARS-1)

The TNSOARS -1 team comprises five sub-verticals: Teaching Learning Materials (TLMs), Training, Tracking, Targeted Communication and Tutoring at home. All the sub-verticals work together seamlessly and support the implementation of the state reform projects that Madhi undertakes in partnership with the Government of Tamil Nadu.

About the role:

The Associate, Project Management (GCC), will support the Senior Manager to bring the Project team’s sub-verticals to function seamlessly as one team. The TNSOARS-1 team consists of diverse & dynamic professionals like instructional designers, master trainers, field experts, data analysts and product developers. The Associate will be responsible for bringing the programmatic vision for the mission alive by constantly aligning the team’s activities in-line with the short, medium and long term project goals.

The Job Description

Below is an indicative set of responsibilities you will be required to lead as part of your role. We believe that a job description is best created collaboratively where the individual joining the team and the senior leadership team together define the role in greater detail so it reflects your aspirations and ambitions as much as it does the organisation’s needs. A detailed description will be jointly created once the selection process has been completed and you have accepted our offer of employment.

In this role, some of your responsibilities will include

Project Management

● Support in setting up project management systems for the programme

● Ensure adherence to the project management protocols and support the Lead to ensure that these systems are used effectively

● Support in organisational learning by sharing data periodically and setting up step-backs for the team to reflect and improve on their practices

Reporting

● Participate in state level committees and ensure that these meetings are minuted as per need

● Prepare draft of letters and documents for the state coordinator for the mission to progress smoothly

● Draft reports and presentations of Madhi’s overall approach to FLN in Tamil Nadu

● Support with the documentation of Madhi’s internal project management data

● Support documentation of FLN mission data to release case studies, success stories to the state & districts

Stakeholder Management

● Represent Madhi in state-level meetings with Greater Chennai Corporation and other departments

● Support in articulating Madhi’s strategic approach for the FLN Mission by drafting presentations & reports

You will thrive in this role if you:

● Possess exceptional planning skills & take pride in being organised

● Obsess over time management & planning for all tasks regardless of the enormity or urgency

● Enjoy meticulous documentation

● Have outstanding interpersonal & communication skills

● Enjoy working with a diverse range of professionals

Prerequisites include:

● At least 1 year of full-time work experience; experience in project management would be an added advantage

● Excellent knowledge of MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint; experience of working with g-suite would be an advantage

● Strong conversational skills in Tamil, also being able to read and write Tamil would be an advantage

This role will report to: Senior Manager, DPMU

Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Please note: You will be expected to bring your own laptop with updated software (MS Office 2016) Remuneration: Rs 3,50,000 – 7,00,000