View Vacancy – Programme Officer – Education, CG3 Health and Education Team, Grade- EO, 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:
FCDO Pakistan is looking to immediately recruit a suitably qualified and experienced Programme Officer (EO grade). This is an exciting and career-oriented position based within the Education Team in Campaign Goal 3 (CG3): Health and Education. The CG3 leads on policy and programmes aimed at advancing more effective, inclusive and resilient health and education systems, provide quality services for all resulting in a healthier and more literate population. In the education sector, the UK’s contributions have improved access and quality of education for millions of girls and marginalised children. Between 2015 and 2021, the UK supported at least 4.5 million children (2.1 million girls) to gain access to a decent education across Pakistan. Our bilateral education portfolio has transitioned out of financial aid, to provide an end-to-end approach with a greater focus on technical assistance and direct delivery. Our support in education in Pakistan combines the FCDO, the British Council and the Department of Business and Trade, providing support to children starting at early children with a focus on foundational learning, through primary and secondary school, to higher education and vocational skills.

The programme officer will work alongside a team of vibrant professionals including Technical Advisor and Programme Managers to manage the implementation of Girls and out of School: Action for Learning (GOAL) programme. GOAL aims to increase access to education for girls and marginalised children and improve teaching quality and learning outcomes for children in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 
Over a period of six years 2022-2028, the programme will fund technical assistance to build the capacity of relevant education departments in Punjab and KP, and direct service delivery with partners across six components of the programme. This is a demanding and fulfilling role which requires agility to support and collaborate with teams across the mission and with commercial, INGO and other partners to deliver programme’s goals and team objectives.

Roles and responsibilities of the jobholder:
The role requires strong programme management skills, and strong financial management expertise (including forecasting, HERA Procurement, AMP, OACS reports and EPM) and knowledge of the FCDO PrOF Rules. The jobholder must be a confident self-starter with strong ability and behaviour to work independently as well as part of a team. The Programme Officer may also be project manager for one or more components of the programme. Specific tasks include, but are not limited to:

Supporting effective management of the Programme overall. This includes: (50%)

• Lead on the project management and implementation of designated GOAL components ensuring successful mobilisation, completion of inception phase followed by progress and performance management as per the agreed plans.
• Draft and/or contribute to developing high quality and compliant programme documentation, including submissions to the PRO/SRO draft grant arrangements, MOUs, exchange of letters etc.
• Support GOAL team in managing procurement activities by contributing to planning of procurement, drafting of Terms of Reference, procurement related forms, and other tasks.
• Work with the GOAL PRO to maintain/update the Programme Delivery Plan ensuring key partner/supplier deliverables are tracked and any slippages/challenges are escalated appropriately.
• Monitor programme-level risks and ensure appropriate mitigating action is taken and flagged to the SRO/PRO and escalated further if necessary.
• Conduct monthly and quarterly review meeting for progress review of designated project/s and communicate results, key lessons, risk and challenges linked to the project to the GOAL team and propose mitigation actions.
• Ensure regular programme monitoring including leading the visits to the field as well as working with independent monitors and contributing to quarterly and annual performance reporting including supporting the GOAL AR.
• Update different Programme tracker i.e. Gantt Chart, Risk Register, DDA tracker and Event and visit tracker.
• Proactively participate in responding to corporate commissions, as needed
• Knowledge management – ensure all key documents are regularly uploaded and updated on relevant GOAL Team site and AMP.
• Contribute into other objectives of the programme/mission e.g. Annual reviews or due diligence assessments etc.

Leading the financial management for the assigned programme: (40%)

• Lead on financial management of the GOAL programme. Maintaining offline database of programme finances and regularly updating it and appraise programme SRO and PRO on the financial progress, challenges and risks.
• Responsible for AMP and HERA are kept up to date including managing/updating programme budgets/forecasts on EPM, updating accruals and prepayments, creating and managing purchase orders/suppliers record on HERA procurement system and creating/updating/closing components on AMP and regular housekeeping.
• Responsible for tracking and reviewing the partner invoices/fund requests/expenditure report and conducting financial spot check before processing the payments.
• Manage programme audit requirements, ensuring reports and/or Annual Audited Statements are received, reviewed and findings followed up.
• Conduct needs base system specific financial management sessions for Team to build their capacity.

Managing events effectively supporting GOAL team in achieving its results: (10%)

• Lead on managing programme events, visits, workshops, and supporting on away days, etc.
• Ensure administrative and logistical arrangements are made efficiently and effectively to achieve VFM and a clear record is maintained.
• Ensure all risks around the arrangements are clearly communicated and recommendations are discussed with the visit lead / Programme Responsible Officer / Senior Responsible Owner (as appropriate) for decision making.

Resources managed (staff and expenditure):  

No Line Management responsibility. The Programme Officer is expected to provide programme management oversight on one or more components of the Goal Programme. The total budget approved budget of the programme is £130 million. 

• Bachelor’s Degree in any discipline
• Minimum 2 years of programme management experience
• Good programme financial management expertise including MS Excel, FCDO HERA system P2P, EPM and AMP
• Fluent in spoken and written English and strong interpersonal skills
• Good knowledge and understanding of FCDO Prof rules