ECCD Program Advisor

TITLE: ECCD Program Advisor

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Program Development and Quality (PDQ)

LOCATION: Beijing

GRADE: 3

CONTRACT LENGTH: fix term contract

POST STATUS: national position

CHILD SAFEGUARDING: (select only one)

Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

As a  member of the Program Development and Quality team, the ECCD Program Advisor is responsible  for leading the development of high quality and innovative early childhood care and development (ECCD) program for children aged 0-6 to deliver immediate and lasting change  for deprived children in China.

The role may be required to offer support in a humanitarian response situation.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: National Education Lead

Staff reporting to this post: No

Budget Responsibilities: According to SOD

Role Dimensions:

Staff directly interacting with this post: Director of Program Development and Quality, Director of Programme Implementation, education program staff, health program staff; communication team; donor relation team, monitoring and evaluation team, SCI technical Advisors.

External interacting with this post:

Universities and research Institutions, International and domestic NGOs, local education bureaus in project areas, project schools

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY :

Strategic Planning

• Support National Education Lead to develop strategy for ECCD program following the Country Strategy Planning cycle, proactively introduce the ECCD program strategy internally, and provide strategic vision and direction for ECCD program in Save the Children China. Lead thoughts on exploration of new program delivery platforms, partnerships, and promotion strategies for the purpose of scaling up and bigger impact.
• According to the Country Strategy Plan, through coordination with provincial teams and with other members of the PDQ, to review and progress, track progress against indicators to ensure the achievement of its goal and objectives.Year on year progress will be assessed against the strategy’s yearly milestones
• Be part of Save the Children’s regional and global networks, contribute input to regional and global thinking on ECCD program rooted in evidence and practice from China.

Program development

• Lead on the design of cost effective, innovative and high quality ECCD project proposals working closely with program implementation, donor management teams, and member technical advisors (if necessary) in line with the ECCD program strategy.
• Lead and update ECCD program introduction package and relevant information to assist both internal and external communications.
• Working with colleagues, contribute to positioning Save the Children as one of the leading organizations in education in China, including representation of the program at national and international conferences and external events.

Technical Coordination and Programme Quality

• Lead the development of relevenat technical solution (such as intervention approach, curriculum or activity manual, ECCD workers/kindergarten training manual) for ECCD program of high quality, working closely with Save the Children regional and global technical advisors to ensure the programs technical approaches are in alignment with regional and global guidance
• Identify program innovation areas and support strategically important projects to experiment with the innovation (such as new intervention models), generate effective tools and experiences for application and future replication.
• In cooperation with the in-house Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning (MEAL) UNIT, to  develop indicators and M&E tools that assist the project staff to deliver quality project; Directly provide or procure technical support and advice for baseline and end evaluations, development of packages for trainings, etc. at program and project level; Develop, commission and/or manage research (of a high enough quality to publish) that can maximize the impact of Save the Children’s work on the Program; Ensure the evidence generated is used to inform continuous programme improvement.
• Regular monitor of the Program Strategy indicators, in addition to global indicators and feeding this learning back into project design and implementation.
• Review internal and external reports, with an emphasis on technical contents, and provide feedback and suggestions for improvement to colleagues.

Management of key Advocacy Efforts

• To support the development of advocacy priorities and strategies in close liaison with the National Education Lead, the project team and the Communications team
• Prepare key policy briefing documents for positioning Save the Children on issues
• Track and maintain an up-to-date mapping of government and private sector developments in the field of early childhood care and development, including changes to policy and investment, and track their impact upon the program and its advocacy efforts
• Support the National Education Lead in initiating and maintaining partnership and communications with the relevant department in existing education platforms at national level, academic and research institutes to mobilize technical resources, communicate success, inform public policy and promote good practice at scale.

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Initiate and coordinate capacity building activities for key program staff, including identifying internal and external training opportunities, and organizing peer learning groups and seminars
• Ensure that learning materials, related policies, operational research and good practice documentation are stored, sorted and shared on a timely basis
• Document, share and present the program overall progress, strategies, learning and good practices on internal and external platforms (including, but not limited to, internal and external annual reports)
• Strengthen technical expertise by keeping up to date on the global debate, and incorporating learning from key research initiatives and regional/global trends to activities and program development

 

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

Holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values

Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same.

Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others

Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters

Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength

Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions

Willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

 

QUALIFICATIONS 

Master in Education or Psychology, preferably on pre-school education, child development psychology

Masters in Social Studies or Sociology with practical working experiences in ECCD sector  will also be considered

 

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential:

At least 3 years practical working experiences related to ECCD such as project implementation, teacher training, curricuclum development, or research.

In-depth understanding of situation of child development in different settings, government policies and guideline, existing service provision system, effective models to support teachders, parents.

Hands-on skills on project design, proposal and logframe development and solid knowledge of project management cycle in NGO sector.

Strong strategic thinking and analytical skills to interpret and present the program strategy, approaches and results.

Ability to lead the thought and guide the program team through constructive interaction and communications.

Recommended advanced fluency in both Chinese and English.

Have a high self-awareness, self-driven and taking initiatives, being innovative.

Desired:

Experiences working with high level government education department, academics and research institutes.

Connection with existing platforms of NGOs, research organizations  home and abroad.

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.

Child Safeguarding:

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

 

Health and Safety

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.