JOB TITLE:

EAGER - Basic Literacy and Numeracy Officers (x3)

REPORTS TO:

EAGER -  District Supervisor

DIRECT REPORTS:

Nil

LIAISES WITH:

LNGB M&E Officers, LNGB Data Clerk; BLNS Officers, System Support Officer

JOB LOCATIONS:

Freetown, Port Loko, Magburaka (with a frequent travel to operational sites)

CONTRACT DETAILS:

1 year (with possibility of extension)

Job Purpose 

The LNGB Basic Literacy and Numeracy (BLN) Skills Officer will work under the supervision of the LNGB District supervisor. S/he will be mainly responsible for coordinating, facilitating and monitoring implementation of the Basic Literacy and Numeracy curriculum within the program through capacity building, networking, partnership and participation of the communities. S/he will work in partnership with young girls, their families and peers, to monitor learning progress, including track girls performance and provide tailored support to girls who are underperforming.

SPECIFIC ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

SAFEGUARDING AWARENESS 

• Promote accountability and ensure compliance with Concern’s Code of Conduct and Associated Policies (Programme Participants Protection Policy, Child Safeguarding Policy, Anti-trafficking Policy), Anti-Fraud Policy and Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS), including the complaint and response mechanism (CRM), to ensure maximum protection of programme participants and the efficient and transparent use of Concern’s resources.

• Promote Equality, especially gender, within the organization and across programmes, in line with Concern’s Equality Policy and, and ensures targeting and project implementation is informed by How Concern Understands Extreme Poverty (HCUEP).

• Promote and protect the reputation of Concern in external settings, ensuring that the organisation’s experience and expertise is well communicated and consistently presented, and that we are looked upon as a professional organization, guided by organizational policies and Concern’s Code of Conduct

DUTIES  AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Specific Responsibilities:

 Specific Responsibilities:

Technical responsibilities, planning and management 

• With oversight from the LNGB Program Manager and support from the M&E Officer, work closely with the District Supervisor, M&E officer and Local Councils to carry out needs assessment in targeted communities that inform the BLN curriculum and classes planning process, identify risk and protective factors to inform and produce risk assessments and contingency plans, as needed; this includes participating in and supporting a market analysis to identify available opportunities in the targeted communities and how to best link the BLN curriculum contents to the context and market’s needs;

• Work closely with the District Supervisor, the LBS officers and Local Councils to better understand the local communities and governing bodies, as well as identify any other key stakeholders at local level that would have leverage on the development of the implementation of BLN activity;

• Participate in beneficiaries mapping in the targeted communities to ensure participation of young girls and their families. This includes ensuring that the most marginalized girls are adequately identified (including girls who do not possess foundational numeracy and literacy skills) and outreached in line with beneficiaries’ selection criteria, and receive support from the program enrolling and staying in the BLN course;

• Work closely with Local Councils and MBSS to review and activate the BLN curriculum and implement BLN classes in program-identified safe spaces;  

• Ensure that the BLN course is delivered on time, in accordance with the BLN curriculum, schedule, tools and approaches approved by the program, respecting quality standards and principles of equity and inclusion;

• Closely work with LBS officers to ensure that one-on-one guidance is delivered to adolescents girls upon completion of the BLN and LBS courses and that each girls receive adequate and holistic support to identify transition goals and develop individual business plans;

• Work with the M&E officer and LBS officers to support identifying safe spaces for young girls attending BLN courses. This includes ensuring that the spaces are girl-friendly, protective and conducive to effective learning; 

• Ensure that all safe spaces identified and/or established by the program to host BLN classes have the approved teaching and learning materials and other relevant tools/equipment; 

• Identify, resource, train and coach BLN facilitators. This includes working closely with the local community key stakeholders to identify retired teachers/individuals with prior teaching experience, train them on the BLN curriculum and coach them to support adolescent girls throughout the learning program;

• Ensure that BLN facilitators master the use of BLN materials and curriculum and provide feedback and capacity building when weakness are identified. This includes ensuring that facilitators have a clear scheme of work, prepare lesson plans using agreed standard formats and methodologies;

• Monitor the individual workplans/schedules of BLN facilitators and assist them to create a professional community/network of practice in which they can share experiences and learn from each other;

• Ensure that instructional materials are effectively used by young girls and safely kept by the custodians of the safe spaces;

• In conjunction with the LBS officers, closely work with BLN facilitators, young girls and the communities to develop individual self-identified transition pathways for each girl and support BLN facilitators to provide regular follow-ups to ensure the implementation of the identified plans for each girl;

• Ensure that regular termly meetings with communities and young girls are held and that meetings have agenda, issues and action points, all of which are documented;

• Participate in community mobilization and sensitization activities in relation to Basic Literacy and Numeracy topics in line with the approved curriculum;

• Ensure that cases or suspicions of violence or abuse against adolescent girls as well as any protection risks are reported through Program-established referral pathways and receive proper case management;

• Effectively obtain, allocate and utilize resources allocated to the Program’s BLN component. This includes supporting the District Supervisor in providing the LNGB Program Manager with all needed data and information to produce timely and quality monthly/quarterly spending and procurement plans;

• Submit weekly workplans to the District Supervisor, including needs for any logistics and procurement arrangement for the purpose of the implementation of BLN courses.

Monitoring

• With the support of the M&E officer, track and record young girls and BLN facilitators attendance on a daily basis;

• Work closely with the local communities and BLN facilitators to ensure that actions are taken against facilitators and girls engaged in truancy;

• Conduct regular follow-up on BLN activities and give feedback to the District Supervisor. This includes working with M&E officer and Data clerk to monitor and track the attendance, retention and progress of young girls attending the BLN course;

• Work closely with the M&E officer and Data clerk to ensure accurate data are available from activities records and other means of verification to document progress on indicators/achievement of targets using Indicator Performance Tracking Tables (IPTT);

• Work closely with the local communities and BLN facilitators to ensure that Child Safeguarding and Do Not Harm principles and requirements are respected rigorously throughout the Program implementation with regards to the delivery of the BLN curriculum.

 Reporting

• Provide the District Supervisor with required inputs for reports written during project implementation at the field level with regards to BLN activities;

• Work closely with the M&E officer and Data clerk to ensure accurate data are timely submitted to the M&E Manager for reporting purposes;

• Prepare, produce and present BLN activity reports, with analyzes and summaries, to the District Supervisor;

• Contribute to capture data, pattern and trends from the field and relay feedback to the District Supervisor that would inform documentation of lessons learned, best practices and success stories for sharing with the LNGB Program Manager.

HIV & AIDS

• Concern Sierra Leone is committed to respond to HIV & AIDS and to a supportive working environment for those infected or affected.  Each staff member is required to contribute to achieving this commitment by:

• Raising awareness and being updated on HIV & AIDS issues

• Protecting him/herself and colleagues

• Sharing information with colleagues and avoiding stigma and discrimination

Gender

• Concern Worldwide in Sierra Leone recognizes that the establishment of equality of opportunity between men and women is fundamental to both the achievement of fairness and to poverty elimination.

• Therefore, each staff member of Concern is expected to be sensitive to equality issues in their relationships with colleagues and in their work and to participate in implementation of gender mainstreaming plans, both at the workplace and in programmes

Emergency response:

• Concern is committed to responding to emergencies efficiently and effectively in order to help affected people meet their basic needs, alleviate suffering and maintain their dignity. To this end, when emergencies strike and Sierra Leone Programme is to respond, all staff are required to actively participate in the response, regardless of location and contribute to the efforts aimed at achieving the humanitarian objective of the organization.

Other

• Concern is committed to responding to emergencies efficiently and effectively in order to help affected people meet their basic needs, alleviate suffering and maintain their dignity. To this end, when emergencies strike and Sierra Leone Programme is to respond, all staff are required to actively participate in the response, regardless of location and contribute to the efforts aimed at achieving the humanitarian objective of the organization.

Education  

• At least a Professional Teaching Certificate or Diploma in Education, social work or related field 

Experience Required:

• Excellent computer skills, including proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Access and Word;

• Strong planning, analysis and writing skills;

• Strong experience working with youth, including adolescent girls, and local communities and Education and Social Welfare governing bodies;

• Knowledge  in principles and practice of education;

• Experience in training delivery and facilitation; 

• Good verbal communication skills in local languages and working knowledge of English; 

• Ability to clearly convey concepts to populations with limited numeracy and literacy skills;

• Excellent training and mentoring skills with ability to work as part of a team with diverse backgrounds;

• Willingness to travel frequently to field sites.

Desirable

Preferred Qualities

• At least two years’ experience working in Basic Literacy and Numeracy programs for youth/adults;

• Experience working in education programs and in rural settings;

• Previous experience working with NGOs a plus

• Must be a qualified motor-bike rider with a valid licence

SAFEGUARDING AWARENESS

Concern has a Staff Code of Conduct and a Programme Participant Protection Policy, which have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants from exploitation and to clarify the responsibilities of Concern staff, consultants, visitors to the programme and partner organization, and the standards of behaviour expected of them.  In this context staff have a responsibility to the organization to strive for, and maintain, the highest standards in the day-to-day conduct in their workplace in accordance with Concern’s core values and mission. Any candidate offered a job with Concern Worldwide will be expected to sign the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct as an appendix to their contract of employment.   By signing the Programme Participant Protection Policy and the Concern Staff Code of Conduct candidates acknowledge that they have understood the contents of both the Concern Staff Code of Conduct and the Programme Participant Protection Policy and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these two documents.