View Vacancy – Head of Chevening, Grade-HEO, Islamabad

Note: All applicants are required to mandatorily fill the complete online application form including the employment, educational details, behavioural and technical/ professional skills questions. We will be thoroughly reviewing the application forms only with all the required details and the shortlisting is not basis CV/ cover letter. Forms that are incomplete in any respect will not be considered while shortlisting for the next stage.

Main purpose of job:

The jobholder will oversee the delivery of the Pakistan Network’s Chevening programme, one of the largest in the world. 

Chevening is the UK Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office’s flagship global scholarship programme. Recently celebrating its 40th anniversary, Chevening identifies future leaders and key influencers across 160 countries and territories, providing them with an opportunity to study a postgraduate degree in the UK. Chevening has a 60,000 strong global alumni network, with 2,000 alumni in Pakistan alone. 

The jobholder will oversee its delivery in Pakistan, which includes the recruitment of applicants, overseeing a fair and transparent interview process, securing sponsorships and rich strategic engagement with alumni. They will also be responsible for compliance within the programme, adhering to BHC and FCDO guidance. They will additionally lead on Pakistan’s part of the South Asian Journalism Programme (SAJP), and Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) fellowships. 

They will work to actualise the Network’s ambition on Chevening, looking for partnership opportunities that will enable us to expand our offer, and leading on outreach which reaches people from all backgrounds across Pakistan. The jobholder makes sure our alumni are well connected with staff from our missions, ensuring alumni engagement is regular and strategic. 

The role sits in the busy Communications Section of the British High Commission, Islamabad, and the jobholder will need to be flexible to emerging and shifting priorities.

We reserve the right to review, revise or amend the roles and responsibilities from time to time reflecting the changing needs of business.

Roles and responsibilities that a jobholder will be expected to achieve:

• Supportive management of an EO Chevening Officer.
• Work alongside London colleagues to ensure value for money and impact of the Chevening scholar budget for Pakistan, manage the alumni engagement and outreach budget, and secure additional budget through the Chevening Alumni Programme Fund.
• Oversee and manage the application, interview and process for SAJP, OCIS and Chevening, including ensuring panels are properly briefed and properly staffed, and participating in interviews themself.
• Ensure the the Mission is briefed and engaged on Chevening, including on alumni engagement, outreach and interviews.
• Develop and deliver a tailored outreach promotional strategy and programme for Chevening and Commonwealth scholarships which reaches all of Pakistan, and a variety of different sectors. Engage with the rest of the Mission and Chevening alumni to make sure outreach is strategic, and leads to us diversifying our pool of candidates.
• Develop and deliver an alumni engagement strategy for Chevening and Commonwealth alumni. Foster excellent alumni relations and ensuring alumni are well connected to the wider BHC agenda and objectives contribute effectively to the work of the BHC in Pakistan.
• Successfully bidding for alumni engagement funding opportunities and managing budgets associated with these.
• Develop local partnerships to fund additional Chevening slots and account-manage existing partnerships including outreach, engagement and data management.
• Oversee the marketing, outreach and selection and administration of fellows alongside the scholarship programme.
• Develop an integrated communications strategy for effective internal and external communications of Chevening, including content creation for the website, newsletters, briefing and other promotional materials, taking ownership of social media and press messaging.
• Ensure all financial issues are dealt with affectively and in line with policy, including ensuring costs are charged to the correct budget and meeting policy guidelines. Ensure compliance of the programme is met.
• At times deputise for the Deputy Head of Communications or Head of Communications.

Resource Managed (Staff & Expenditure):

Direct line manage of 1 country-based EO. The role will report in to the Deputy Head of Communications. Oversee Chevening budgets including the alumni engagement fund, outreach fund, and specific Chevening alumni programme fund projects.

Working patterns:

This job cannot be fully flexible given the in-person nature of organising events, meeting suppliers and clients, and will involve out-of-hours work as part of delivering engagements. Travel around Pakistan will also be required.

Essential on arrival:

• Experience: 2-5 years of relevant work experience
• Education: An undergraduate degree.
• Excellent leadership skills and confident in leading and delivering large-scale projects.
• Strong understanding of the media and social media landscape in Pakistan.
• Creative flair: you will need to design and deliver innovative cross-channel campaigns to attract the brightest potential future leaders.
• Event curation: you will need to plan events for recruitment and engagement, ranging from climate debates to debunking myths on Chevening.
• Confidence to work with senior and busy officials, both within the High Commission, our senior alumni and prospective applicants.
• Experience of providing top quality work to short deadlines in a pressured environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong IT skills, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and web-based applications.
• Self-sufficient: able to run the programme independently, bringing ideas to seniors for consideration and then executing

Language Requirements:

• Language: English
• Level of language required: Fluent in written and spoken