Program Officer – Sustainability Education – Wipro Foundation

Wipro Foundation represents the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of Wipro Limited. Going back over two decades, we focus on social initiatives in Education, Health, Ecology, and Disaster Response.

Background: Wipro’s formal engagement with social and ecological issues goes back more than two decades. It is led by the conviction that engagement with social issues must be deep, meaningful, and formed on the bedrock of long-term commitment. Wipro Foundation’s work in partnership with people and organizations covers a spectrum of issues in education, ecology, healthcare, disaster response and sustainability.

Launched in 2011, Wipro earthian is one of India’s largest sustainability education programs for schools and colleges.It is designed to act as acatalyst forfostering excellence in sustainability thinking and action among youth. This initiative actively engages with faculty and students in 29 states and 3 UTs across India with an annual participation of 2000 educational institutions.

The platforms of engagement are both at scale and complemented by deeper interventions. These include one of the largest sustainability competitions in India for schools and colleges, college sustainability internships,India’s only college sustainability quiz, field experiential workshops for schools, development of academic literature in colleges, faculty-led symposiums on sustainability, faculty and post-doctoral research grants, and a grassroots sustainability educator program.

Role Description: We are looking for someone to join the core team of Wipro earthian, Wipro’s Sustainability Education Program, to further strengthen our engagement in the higher education space. Our endeavor through the program is to curate platforms that bring together relevant stakeholders – faculty, students, policy makers and communities – in diverse disciplines to integrate sustainability thinking using multiple frameworks (e.g., UN SDGs and ESD). Inthe coming yearswe intend totake forward our work to its logical end -infusing sustainability ideas, concepts and practices into education curricula across disciplines.

The individual would have a keen interest in areas of education, issues related to sustainability, and their intersections and linkages. They will be expected to play a proactive and critical role in coordinating and executing multiple program initiatives with partners (NGOs, government bodies, higher education institutes, internship partners, domain specialists, college faculty)acrossthe country, which are both at scale andfocused interventions. They should beable to effectively hold deep conversations, communicate the program’s broad objectives and curate platforms for impact. Flexibility in approach, handling ambiguity, and patience but persistence in achieving long-term objectives are qualities that will go a long way.

An ideal candidate would have good understanding of the academic environment, drivers and motivations.

Primary Responsibilities: To anchor sustainability education initiatives in the higher education program, which include national competitions, multiple academic collaborations, sustainability internships and relevant research

1. Facilitation

a. Assist the team in facilitating and curating multi-disciplinary symposiums for leading institutes on the topic of ‘Sustainability in Higher Education’ aimed to bring together academics, highlight specific case studies, promote larger advocacy and nurture the potentially transformative role that integrating sustainability education can play in multiple disciplines

b. Forge new partnerships with organizations tohost sustainabilityinternships, maintainand nurture existing partnerships, and liaise with placement teams of academic institutes forplacement of sustainability interns

c. Curate and develop interesting programs that engage with the student fraternity – internships and college competitions, and other similar initiatives

d. Develop understanding of environment and sustainability topics and highereducation in India, and its connects, with Wipro earthian material and design

2. Content Development and Curation

a. Analyze and understand the status and usage of environment and sustainability in education curricula and use that information to identify potential ideas for content and pedagogy development

b. Regularly develop conceptual frameworks and concept notes that will help the program visualize its impact and value addition in this space

c. Liaise requirements with communications team on program messaging, collateral requirements, mailers, newsletters, etc.

d. Play an active role in stewarding the college competition, especially in areas of content creation and program design

3. Program Management

a. Make key contributions to the team, including active identification of stakeholders, channels, objectives and goal setting for the sustainability education program

b. Strive to constantly ideate and develop new avenues and forms of partner engagement and conceptual frameworks

c. Strengthen relationships ofWipro earthian and its partners through regularandengaging communication and monitoring and evaluation (calls,newsletters, status reports, field visits, due diligence)

d. Program administration activities like grant/contract/MOU drafting, liaising with Wipro teamslike legal/finance/procurement,finance teams,paymenttracking, among others

Desired Qualities:

• Deep commitment and interest in sustainability and education
• Proactive goal setting and self-driven
• Ability to handle simultaneous tasks that are both programmatic and administrative in nature
• Agility and ability to handle ambiguity and not adopt a rigid approach
• Excellent networking and communication skills (written and verbal) to articulate the program toa diverse set of stakeholders (students, faculty, institute administrators)
• A fast and keen learner who is willing to experiment, research and find ways to constantly help the program evolve and stay relevant
• High proficiency in Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) Educational Qualification: Graduate degree in Ecology, Sustainability, Education, Development, (or similar) preferred. However, we are also open to graduates from other disciplines who have a keen interest in this area.

Work Experience: 3-5 years. The candidate is expected to have a minimum of 2 years of relevant experience.

Note: This is a full-time role and will involve regular travel to locations within India.

Employment Type: Initially on Contract (12 Months).

Send your applications to wipro.foundation@wipro.com.

Note: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.