Assistant Education Officer

Finn Church Aid (FCA) is Finland’s largest development co-operation organisation and the second biggest organisation in Finland working in humanitarian aid. FCA is a founding member of the international aid alliance of churches, ACT Alliance. FCA seeks positive change by supporting the most vulnerable people in fragile contexts. We specialize in supporting local communities’ right to peace, livelihoods and quality education.

In Kenya, FCA has been working since 2014 in all three thematic areas, supporting local communities and governments to resolve and prevent conflicts in five counties of northern Kenya; providing access to primary education in Turkana, Garissa, Marsabit, West Pokot and Samburu, Kenya’s poorest counties; and improving access to quality education for children, youth and their families with holistic support mechanisms.

Finn Church Aid Kenya is looking for

Assistant Education Officer: 1 Position

Availability: Immediately

Duration: 6 months with possibility of extension

Primary purpose of the position

The Assistant Education Officer will support the roll-out of Learning Through Education And Access To Skills for Employment (LEAP) project activities. He/She will support the implementation of the routine activities of the project related to teacher professional development, creating safe and gender-transformative school environments, provision of life skills education, provision of psychosocial support, cash transfers and community engagement aimed at driving behaviour change.

MAIN TASKS

• Assist the supervisor in monitoring the implementation of the LEAP project activities to ensure results are evidence based, culturally appropriate, cost-effective, and have high impact while also ensuring compliance of standards and donor regulations.
• Support the supervisor to prepare regular and periodic project reports (monthly, quarterly, semiannually and annual reports) with evidence/results based information.
• Work with the project team and the MEAL team to prepare and/or revise project monitoring tools to track indicators and monitor achievement of objectives and impact of the program.
• Assist the project team to prepare plans for capacity building and training of school managements on various trainings needs related to girls empowerment.
• Support regular monitoring of LEAP project activities by documenting all project results with photos and short video clips for sharing progress and success stories with donors.
• Ensure that project activities are implemented in accordance with the approved work plans and with the involvement of partners and concerned stakeholders at all levels.
• Support in mapping, screening and enrollment of beneficiaries to the project.
• Assist in development and dissemination of life skills content, trainings on health, human rights and peace building, leadership, and community resources in a way so girls gain self-confidence and a voice in the decisions that affect their lives.
• Assist the project team in the development and implementation of a modality of strengthening and improving management of schools committees and pupils through community mobilization and improvement of training materials and programs.
• Actively promoting awareness of the importance of girls’ education at every opportunity by liaising with all local stakeholders.
• Conduct regular data collection using existing tools in order to track project performance on indicators and measure overall impact and for donor reporting purposes and make recommendations on the improvement of these tools.
• Ensure that good practices and lessons are documented and shared with the MEAL team and the education team for replication and wider dissemination.
• Travel to all project sites to conduct regular monitoring of projects quality together with other project team members.
• In collaboration with the MEAL Team, focus on project data collection to generate practical information that can be used for ongoing program decision-making while also capturing results at the impact level.
• Coordinate with other departments to ensure operational systems are in place to support field activities including logistics (transport, warehousing and asset management), procurement, security and administration.
• Monitoring girls’ enrolment, retention and achievement rates by collecting relevant, gender-segregated data; identifying specific constraints to girls’ attendance at school.

Competence, experience, skills, knowledge needed

• Minimum of Bachelor’s degree in Education/ Social sciences or its equivalent
• Minimum of three (3) years’ work experience in education sector especially in refugee setting
• Knowledge of education in emergencies, education sector policy, child rights and protection issues
• Experiences of facilitating community-based training, capacity building school managements, and awareness campaigns
• Strong self-starter, able to take initiative and adapt to changing circumstances and priorities
• Positive attitude towards community work with emphasis on the ability to learn from communities and support participatory, innovative approaches to problem solving
• Excellent communication skills and a willingness to be respectful, kind, sensitive and empathise with all children and their carers
• Fluent in written and spoken English, Kiswahili and the local language in the camps and the host community
• Good report writing skills
• Willingness and capacity to be flexible and accommodating when faced with difficult and frustrating working conditions
• Commitment to Finn Church Aid Child Protection Policy.

Desirable qualifications

• Field experience in education programme implementation and coordination in humanitarian and/or development contexts.
• Previous experience in working with INGOs delivering education and girl child education services
• Experience working with Governments, Ministry of Education and other line Ministries.
• Demonstrated work experience in refugee education programmes.
• Experience in the area of child protection.
• Understanding of the dynamics of the refugees is essential