Education Associate

Closing date – Friday 22nd July 2022 at 1700hrs

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Role and department: Education Associate – Technical Team
Location: Lusaka, Ndola or Kasama – Zambia
Reporting to: Education and Partnerships Lead (based in the UK)
Contract length: Fixed-term – 6 months with a possibility to extend for a further 6 months
Start date: ASAP

About PEAS (Promoting Equality in African Schools)

We are PEAS. We are an international education not-for-profit with the mission to ‘expand access to sustainably delivered, quality secondary education across Africa.’ Our vision is for a world where all children enjoy an education that unlocks their full potential.

For the last ten years PEAS has built and operated quality secondary schools in under-served communities in Uganda and Zambia. We now have a network of 35 schools across Uganda and Zambia educating over 15,000 marginalised students. PEAS has strong evidence from a number of external studies showing that our schools in Uganda are more equitable, better quality and more cost-effective than comparison private and government schools.

PEAS has achieved great things in the last 10 years, and we want to achieve even more in the next 10 years. We are proud of what we have already achieved, but we are ambitious for our schools and students. We now want to make PEAS schools some of the best in Uganda and Zambia. At the same time, we also want to support the wider education systems in the places where we’re working and globally by sharing our evidence and know-how.

About the UK Technical Team

The PEAS Technical Team is a small team of experts who work to continually strengthen PEAS’ impact across our network of schools and beyond. Areas of work on the team is varied and exciting. The Technical Team:

• Supports education leads in Uganda and Zambia to design and implement high-impact education programmes within our school networks.
• Provides technical education and monitoring and evaluation advice and support to our country programmes in Uganda and Zambia.
• Designs and runs internal and external research projects to make sure we are learning as much as possible about how best to improve the quality of education in our schools
• Establishes collaborative partnerships with the Ugandan and Zambia n government and other organisations to impact as many young people as possible.
• Proactively share our evidence and know-how with partners and the international education community.

The Opportunity

The Education Associate is an exciting 6-month role based in Zambia but working within the UK-based Technical Team, with the possibility of extension.

The role will include working with leads in Uganda, Zambia, and the UK to support PEAS to grow its impact. This will involve developing content for strategic education projects supporting the design of new education programmes that ensure PEAS students receive the highest quality education. Additionally, the successful candidate will get involved with project monitoring and evaluation, aiding PEAS in approaches to ensure ongoing learning is generated in relation to the education programmes.

The successful candidate will need to be a quick learner, highly organised, and adept at working flexibly to support evolving team and organizational needs. Strong written and verbal communication are essential, as well as enthusiasm for working with multi-national teams.

Roles and Responsibilities

Specific responsibilities may adjust depending on the specific background of the successful applicant.

Support delivery of PEAS education approach

• Support tool and content development for strategic projects in collaboration with UK colleagues and programme leads in Uganda and Zambia to address priority areas of improvement. This could include supporting the team to develop a secondary-level numeracy and literacy programme, designing content for educational software, supporting the design and implementation of activities under our girls approach in Uganda and Zambia and supporting the development of an exam strategy in Zambia.
• Develop training resources for teachers and leaders in Uganda and Zambia, including training manuals and presentations to support colleagues to deliver virtual or in-person training.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning

• Review of external studies to ensure an updated library of relevant research.
• Supporting with the development and adaptation of surveys and forms for data collection. Assisting with the analysis of survey and other quantitative and qualitative data, including data cleaning and presenting analysis in PowerPoint presentations.

Support to wider Technical Team

• Support in coordinating and minuting meetings relating to programme implementation and MEL.
• Support PEAS’ research and documentation of potential new countries for operations.

Who we are looking for

No matter the role, we are looking for people who believe in what we do and how we do it; is passionate about transforming lives through education and aligned to our values.

Someone who has…

• Teaching experience focused on improving student learning outcomes
• Strong understanding of best practices in teacher development, underpinned by international evidence
• Passion for international education with a genuine interest in latest research and thinking
• An understanding of, and ideally relevant experience in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Excellent English written and verbal communication skills – able to adapt writing for different audiences including funders, governments, technical audiences and teachers or leaders. Advanced Maths skills, to a recognised high standard, would also be preferred.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, including PowerPoint and Excel. Experience in use of STATA or R would also be an advantage.
• A strong ability to synthesise secondary research
• At least a Bachelor’s Degree
• Skills in data analysis would be an advantage

And who is…

• A qualified teacher
• Resilient and professional – works well under pressure; deals with challenges professionally and calmly and doesn’t let setbacks hold them back or discourage them
• Open-minded – willing to listen to others and consider new ways of approaching problems
• Zero ego – prepared to get stuck in
• Entrepreneurial – excited by the opportunity to join a fast growing, fast-changing teams; adaptable and able to work flexibly
• A self-starter – who shows initiative and is interested in finding solutions to problems
• Thorough – has strong attention to detail