The Sabre Charitable Trust Ghana Jobs (April 2017)

The Sabre Trust is a partnership between two independent but linked charities, registered in the UK with the Charity Commission and in Ghana with the Department of Social Welfare. We work in southern Ghana to improve the futures of poor and marginalised children.

Through ten years of grassroots work in rural schools and a long term relationship with the Ghana Education Service, the kindergarten sector has emerged as our priority intervention area. Kindergarten represents the start of formal education for 4 and 5 year old children, and the sector faces a number of challenges including poor learning environments and weak teacher capacity. Our Brighter Futures Programme provides an innovative and carefully considered response to these challenges, delivered through Building Better Schools and providing Transformational Teacher Training.

Our mission is to give young Ghanaians the best possible start to their education, enabling them to achieve their full academic potential and contribute to Ghana’s future economic development.

Our vision is an education system where all children in Ghana are engaged in active and play-based learning, which equips them with the skills and knowledge they need to progress through primary and junior high school and complete their basic education. This will help to bring about a critical shift in mind-set amongst teachers and pupils at all levels of the Ghana education system.

Job Description

Job Title: Learning Manager (Research, Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning)

Job Location: Elmina, KEEA Municipality, Central Region with regular travel to Sekondi-Takoradi, Western Region

Reporting to: Country Director

Main Role / Purpose:

• The Sabre Trust is a development organisation working in close collaboration with the local education authorities in the Central and Western Regions to support the implementation of the Ghana Education Service’s plans to scale up quality kindergarten education nationwide. The Sabre Trust believes that education empowers people to improve socioeconomic conditions for their families, communities, country, and future generations. Through the opportunities that only education can provide, we strive to break the cycle of poverty, one child at a time, through early intervention in Kindergarten to support the Ghanaian government in achieving Sustainable Development Goal #4: to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education opportunities for all.
• Sabre’s Transformational Teacher Training (TTT) programme is an innovative approach preparing student teachers for their teaching postings, using a network of model classrooms and mentor teachers, as well as training in service teachers. In addition, our Building Better Schools (BBS) programme constructs safe, sustainable, child-centred kindergarten complexes.
• The main role of the Learning Manager is to manage all elements of research, monitoring, evaluation and learning relating to the Sabre Trust’s programmes across the Central and Western Regions, and potentially new regions, and to ensure that activities are carried out on time and to the highest standard.

Data collection & collation:

• Understand and communicate project-specific learning activities (log frames) to the wider Learning team.
• Ensure that all data outlined in the project-specific learning templates is collected and collated in a timely manner.

Reporting:

• Lead on the collation of internal monthly reports, to (i) inform the team’s activities; (ii) feed into periodic reports for funders and partners.
• Liaise closely with the Fundraising Team in the UK to ensure that all stakeholder reporting is carried out in a timely manner, and to the highest quality as specified by the individual partners

Supervise the Learning team to:

• Design, implement, and manage programme-specific research, monitoring, evaluation and learning systems. These include, but are not limited to the Teacher Monitoring Tool, Trainer Monitoring Tool, and the Pupil Achievement Records, and should be expanded to include more effective monitoring of the BBS programme.
• Synthesize and analyze data and write summary reports
• Regularly update and maintain the internal Learning report for internal reference, collation of key learning and developing programme activities.
• Update the indicator tracking tool on an ongoing basis.
• Liaise with GES Officers to share data and plan field monitoring of participants on the programme.
• Undertake the collection, collation and analysis of field data to monitor progress of participants on the TTT programme, providing regular feedback to the Regional Education Project Managers, including catalogued photographic evidence of change in KG classrooms, both indoors and outdoors from pre-programme to end of programme.
• Collect and analyse College of Education exam results and grades.
• Maintain contact with a selected number of student teachers who complete the programme and carry out the Teacher Monitoring Tool to monitor their implementation of the programme as newly posted teachers.
• In addition, support other office administration and teacher training activities where necessary.
• Develop and manage the annual research agenda.

Programme Strategy & Organisational Structure:

• Supervise the Learning team with staff located out of the Central and Western region offices.
• The Learning Manager will organise and lead Learning-related meetings as often as he/she sees fit, and ensure that Programme Managers are made aware of important issues.
• Attend senior management meetings when appropriate, and contribute to the development of the overall programme strategy.
• Support the work of the independent impact assessments and other consultants as necessary
• Support the Country Director in developing a programme expansion strategy
• Develop and manage the professional development of the Learning team
• Develop and manage the Learning team’s budget
• Network with other non-profits running similar programs to find areas of collaboration and knowledge sharing

Required Skills or Experience

• Degree in education or a related field (such as, program evaluation, research methods, or statistics), masters preferred.
• Minimum 5years’ experience in monitoring and evaluation with at least 2 years with an international organization
• Proven previous experience in leading and conducting research, monitoring and evaluation, preferably in education
• Strong technical competence in research, monitoring and evaluation methods
• Strong analytical skills and report writing
• Strong quantitative and qualitative analysis skills, with proven ability to work with data software packages such as Stata/SPSS/SAS and qualitative data analysis software
• Excellent computer knowledge with command on MS Excel among other packages of MS Office
• Excellent English language skills
• Proven track record of achieving results
• Good interpersonal skills and a strong team player
• Able to thrive in a non-hierarchal work environment

How to Apply

Kindly forward a CV, cover letter and application form to [email protected] latest by midnight Sunday 30 April 2017.
Application forms can be downloaded from http://sabretrust.org/downloads/LM-AF.doc

The Sabre Trust offers a competitive salary. The non-monetary compensation includes a unique opportunity to be part of an innovative, meaningful, fun, and growing organization transforming kindergartens across Ghana.