Global Programme Manager

The Micro:bit Educational Foundation is a global not-for-profit organization with the aim of bringing micro:bit inspiration to children around the world. Our mission to inspire every child to create their best digital future is delivered through a holistic offer of educational products, services and resources designed for teachers that appeal to a broad range of children including those who think tech might not be for them. Our work is grounded in the belief that an ability to understand, participate and work in the digital world is vitally important to a young person’s life chances and we should allow as many children as possible to have the opportunity to expand their own digital world.

Partnerships all over the globe have helped deliver the learning of digital creativity using micro:bit to over 44 million children globally and we aim to reach 100 million children impacted by micro:bit by 2028. The Foundation is working with UNICEF to deliver the ‘Tinkering with Tech: Innovating and Developing 21st Century Skills for Teachers and Students’ programme. This programme will be delivered across three countries: Honduras, Montenegro and Vietnam. This programme aims to develop critical 21st century skills in children, such as problem-solving skills, digital creativity, computational skills, collaboration and communication through using micro:bits. The programme will train and empower teachers and school leaders to use a tinkering approach and guide their students to use a playful, explorative and experimental approach to make simple builds using micro:bits and in doing so develop these critical 21st century skills whilst instilling a love for STEM, especially among girls. The programme works through 7 main elements:

1. Developing programme design through workshops with the UNICEF country offices and government officials
2. Shipment of micro:bits to the three countries
3. Aligning existing micro:bit resources with the national curriculum of the country
4. Organizing the delivery of teacher training
5. Developing communities of practice for the trained teachers
6. Holding a ‘do your :bit Grand Challenge’ in each country
7. Supporting monitoring and impact assessment of the programme

This role will be responsible for developing and managing the delivery of the programme, working alongside UNICEF and their Country Offices in each of the three countries. You will build up a strong relationship with UNICEF and develop an understanding of how the programme needs to be developed to address the specific needs in each of the three countries. You will need to collaborate and lead all partners involved in the programme development and delivery including the UNICEF global office, a research organisation and the internal Foundation project team, as well as any other partners who are chosen to support the delivery this strategically important programme. You will work closely with other teams at the Foundation such as the tech, education and data teams.

You will be supported by the Global Partnerships Team who are located in EMEA (London), North America, LATAM and APAC and have expertise in the nuances of their regions and digital landscape. You will also have the support of an internal project coordinator who will help keep the project deliverables and budget on track.

This role is strategically important to the Foundation and will help to deepen our understanding of the impact the Foundation can have with children all over the world. If deemed a success there is potential for this project to run for subsequent years, although this is not guaranteed. Ideally this role will be UK based but we will accept applications from wider Europe. The role may require travel to the three countries. This is a 3 day a week role fixed term contract for 12 months.

Key Responsibilities:

• Work with Strategic Partnerships Director and the Global Partnerships Team to deliver the Tinkering with Tech programme and it’s 7 elements across Honduras, Vietnam and Montenegro
• Work closely with the Education team including the Chief of Learning and other key members of the education team
• Lead the programme internally and externally for the Foundation ensuring alignment with our values and 3 year strategy
• Build strong relationships with UNICEF global office and the relevant teams internally leading to successful implementation of the programme
• Ensure the programme meets its deliverables and KPIs working with the Project Coordinator
• Work closely with the research organisation (contracted by UNICEF) to grow our understanding of how to inspire children from all backgrounds ensuring a robust monitoring and evaluation plan is in place
• Work with our Head of Marketing and UNICEF to generate stories and case studies to share globally about our work
• Work with the Project Coordinator to create and maintain comprehensive project documentation, including schedules, budgets, internal project management processes, progress reports and manage allocation of resources to ensure efficient implementation.
• Identify and mitigate project risks, proactively addressing issues to minimize impact on project timelines and objectives.
• Foster a collaborative and communicative environment among team members and stakeholders to ensure clarity and alignment throughout the project lifecycle.
• Communicate project status, updates, and key milestones to stakeholders, senior management, and other relevant parties.

This is a general guide to the key responsibilities of this role, it is not exhaustive. Similarly, the amount of time that you spend on various aspects of the role may vary.

Requirements

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Essential:

• Belief in the Foundations mission to broaden participation in digital creativity reaching more girls and under-served groups.
• Experience in establishing and delivering multi-faceted programmes with multiple stakeholders, ideally globally
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with a wide range of people – e.g. teachers, third sector organisations, business leaders, colleagues, governments
• Excellent communication, relationship building and networking skills; able to work effectively at senior levels and influence others’ priorities
• Ability to bring people with different skills and objectives together behind a common goal
• Ability to work independently and flexibly within a rapidly changing environment
• Experience of working in a global setting
• Ability to travel to meet with partners

Preferred:

• Experience within the education sector (K12 not Higher Education)
• Knowledge of the Edtech market
• Experience of having delivered projects/programmes which engage a young person audience.
• Experience of having worked with funders as a key stakeholder in programme development.
• Have embedded an evidence-based approach in delivery.
• Experience of working with UN partners · Ability to demonstrate the micro:bit and talk about its place in education systems and curriculum Desirable · An additional language (Spanish / Vietnamese / other)

Application & recruitment schedule

To apply, please send us your CV and a covering letter letting us know how you meet the role requirements.

The closing date for this role will be 21st February 2024, however this is a rolling recruitment so we may interview and appoint someone ahead of this date.

Benefits

The Micro:bit Educational Foundation is a UK-based not for profit with the goal to inspire every child to create their best digital future.

One of the greatest benefits of working at micro:bit is knowing that the work you're doing is contributing to something positive, constructive and with beneficial social outcomes. The Micro:bit Educational Foundation offers the opportunity to include outreach activities in your work, these can include working with tech community groups, teaching with the micro:bit at code clubs and so on.

We are a small organization with a large audience and reach. We thrive on creative problem solving and are open to new ideas and solutions. This gives each individual the chance to have enormous impact, as well as ensuring that your days will be diverse and the challenges complex.

Once probationary period is complete, contractual benefits include; group private medical and group life insurance plan, EAP plan, flexibility in working hours, flexible annual leave policy (taking at least 20 days a year not including national holidays) and pension arrangement.