Job Opportunity for Senior Manager – Design & Programme Readiness (Tamil Nadu) at STIR Education in Chennai

ABOUT STIR EDUCATION

We are an international NGO that is addressing the moral and economic imperative that every child, everywhere, should have a teacher who cultivates the joy of lifelong learning. At a practical level, that means we support governments to reignite intrinsic motivation in teachers and local officials, through teacher networks. Our vision is a world where teachers love teaching and children love learning. In our sixth full year of operations, we are working with 200,000 teachers and 6 million children across 70 districts in India and Uganda.

OUR MODEL

We achieve this through a five-year learning partnership with an education system, where we align all levels of the education system (officials, teachers and children) around the goal of increasing intrinsic motivation.

Practically, this means that teachers undergo monthly network meetings with about 20 to 30 local peers. Through these meetings they’re supported to develop their practice in areas ranging from effective questioning to creating warm but orderly classroom routines – all designed to create a more effective relationship between the teacher and child. In doing so they develop a sense of autonomy (the sense they can change things), mastery (sense of getting better as a professionals) and purpose (reconnecting emotionally with their peers and students) – the key drivers of intrinsic motivation.

District officials undergo a training and coaching programme that motivates and supports them to prioritise, run and monitor the teacher networks and a close partnership with the state or national government enables the government to align this intrinsic motivation approach within their priorities, structures and systems.

The approach is run by the government from day one and after about five years of partnering with an education system we hope to have embedded a culture of improvement at all levels for the system to continue to strengthen itself. We typically allocate one member of our own staff per district to train, energise and coach the district officials running the approach, and a small team at the national or state level.

OUR VALUES

How we approach our work is as important as what we do and our core values guide the way:

Humility – We don’t have all the answers upfront.

Ownership – We empower each other with high expectations & support.

Openness – We will listen, learn and improve, and lead through obstacles.

Purpose – We’re united by a shared vision we’ll build & achieve together.

THE OPPORTUNITY

An exciting opportunity has arisen in the Design and Programme Readiness (DPR) team in Tamil Nadu. Based in Chennai and reporting directly to the Associate Head for Design and Programme Readiness India, and working closely with the programme implementation team in Tamil Nadu and the DPR leads in other geographies, you will lead the lead the design of all of our programmes for teachers and officials in Tamil Nadu, ensuring that our programme team is set up to support education officials and teachers to foster of a love of learning in all children.

REPORTING, ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Senior Manager, Design and Programme Readiness role will be based out of Chennai. Once Covid restrictions are lifted there will be regular travel within Districts in Tamil Nadu to both support the programme team and gather insights on programmatic effectiveness, as well as occasional travel to our other programmes in India, including Delhi, and Karnataka.

Ensure the design of a world class training programme for teachers, education officals that is grounded in the principles of intrinsic motivation and life long learning.

• Working closely with the Associate Head of Design Programme Readiness, and the Programme Associate Head TN, ensure that our programme design and approach in Tamil Nadu is underpinned by both global design principles as well as local state level priorities
• Act as the ‘interface’ between STiR global resources and the state team, supporting the contextualisation of global resources based on clear local priorities and purpose
• Ensure that the contextualised programme design in Tamil Nadu is informed by both quantitative and qualitative data
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of latest evidence in learning design and training and integrates into programme through participation in global DPR network
• Take a rapid, user-centred design approach to our programme: gathering regular feedback from our programme team, officials, head teachers and teachers in the field and incorporating appropriate insights and feedback into programme design
• Strengthen the role of the core design group at SCERT including: ensuring it is represented appropriately by staff from SCERT and district level; building increasing knowledge and buy-in amongst the group for our design approach; building gradual ownership of the design process within the group so there is a long-term, coherent design plan in place
• Outline and establish design process with the core design group at that government level and ensure the development of high quality design material
• Participate in regular reflection sessions with the STiR local team and global M&E team on successes and areas for development based on quantitative and qualitative data

Act as a key improvement advisor to the State and internal Programme team to ensure they are equipped to deliver with excellence

• Work with State Lead to build conceptual clarity for Intrinsic Motivation and behaviour change both internally and externally
• Lead training for senior state officials and STiR team (both separately and jointly) on key programmatic areas based on a clear local understanding of need
• Oversee the co-ordination of a world class, coherent training offer for our internal programme team, including termly week-long boot camps, monthly ‘dripfeed’ trainings and field-based follow-up
• Ensure that all internal training is underpinned by our programme readiness strategy, modelling excellent practice in all training sessions run personally
• Take a rigorous, scientific approach to promoting improvement, through: a hypothesis-based approach to problem-solving; interactions with and observations of key programme stakeholders; analysis of data; and clear, powerful sharing back of key recommendations and insights

Actively contribute to organisational development and culture as a member of the local leadership team

• Role model professionalism and integrity at all times and take ownership of your own development
• Actively contribute to the formation of local improvement priorities
• Develop strong, purposeful and collaborative relationships with the State Head, Senior Programme
• Managers, and Monitoring & Evaluation teams, being proactive in ensuring regular sharing of learning
• Make sure that all the work you do and relationships you build are in the STIR spirit and in line with our values
• Model ‘Growth Mindset’ at all times- show that improvement is always possible and take responsibility for supporting the whole team to achieve its goals

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Strong identification with STiR values 
• Fluency in English and Tamil (including written)
• An understanding of the education system in Tamil Nadu and promotion of change within it, through experience in either government, NGO or other relevant organisation
• Ability to plan and design high quality educational and training materials
• Experience in conducting and facilitating meetings with senior government officials at the state level
• Demonstrated interest in and understanding of pedagogical principles, design thinking  (for example, through experience as a teacher or trainer)
• Ability to build positive relationships and influence others, including senior officials
• Excellent attention to detail and ability to see things through to a very high standard
• Excellent writing skills
• Excellent facilitation skills and experience of facilitating high quality adult learning
• Strong planning and project management skills
• Ability to learn and adapt rapidly based on feedback and new information, as well as the ability to communicate this succinctly
• Ability to work across functions and collaborate effectively

REMUNERATION AND BENEFITS

A consultancy fees of  INR 97,512/- per month (₹11,70,144/- per annum) will be paid for your service (subject to relevant taxes at source), along with Medical Insurance for yourself, spouse and up to two children.