Openings -Leadership For Equity (LFE)

Leadership For Equity (LFE) is one of India’s high-growth education non-profits based out of Pune, India. Founded by the Alumni of BITS Pilani, Ashoka, Acumen, TFI & Tata Institute, LFE is a systems change and policy advisory organization aimed at improving the quality of marginalized school-going children of India. In its two-fold approach to change, LFE builds the capacity of government system leaders and also influences system processes. In partnership with the local and state education bodies, LFE co-creates programs that shift teaching-learning practices and improve student learning and well-being, at scale.

Over the last 6 years, by engaging with district & state government bodies, LFE has built the capacity of 5,500+ system leaders, and 170,200+ teachers to impact more than 05 million students across 4 states in India. LFE has partnered with State governments (Maharashtra, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh & Tripura) and multilateral organizations like The World Bank, Brookings Research Centre, etc. along with top-tier CSRs & Foundations in India including Amazon, CISCO, DSP, Central Square Foundation, etc., to support education reforms of public school systems – ensuring they deliver quality education at scale.

1. Communication & Branding Associate

About the Role
The purpose of the Communications & Branding Associate is to assist the senior leadership teams at both LFE in strengthening their online presence and communications, building and implementing a branding roadmap and managing the day-to-day online (and offline) presence to ensure the organisational impact is shared, advocated and conveyed to various stakeholders including Board members, partner governments, CSRs, funders, NGOs, CSOs, and an ecosystem of influencers in the education sector at large.

Roles and Responsibilities

Strategic Communications:

➢ To design various collaterals (monthly newsletters, centre exhibits, brochures, annual reports etc.) required for the organisation and keep them updated.

➢ Online Presence: Manage LFE brand presence through: NGO portal listings, articles on relevant blogs, updating the website, partnerships with various agencies

➢ External Communication: Draft documents to communicate with prospective partners, government stakeholders, funders, donors, mentors and other such stakeholders.

Online Marketing & Branding:

➢ Design a communication strategy for different stakeholders and translate it into annual communication plan for LFE

➢ Social Media: To keep online platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn) of the organizations up to date and share updates on platforms as per the social media calendar

➢ To assist in promoting the brand LFE (online and offline marketing, media, events etc.) and ensuring that the guidelines are followed by the team

➢ Website: Maintain the LFE website with relevant, up-to-date information, and interesting clear content

➢ Create additional communication collateral as and when required

➢ Branding Compliance: Ensure compliance of the whole organization with branding guidelines, and maintain a consistent message and voice for the organisation.

Offline Marketing & Branding:

➢ Media: Cultivate relationships with traditional media outlets and online media to co-publish articles

➢ Design and share press kits with the media during any events or launch of any new initiative or training programs

➢ Manage press inquiries and write press releases as required

➢ Event Support: Design and implement brand representation for events where LFE is represented and programme events

Branding & Event Support:

➢ Publications: Types of publications this role is responsible for include:

○ Articles/infographics

○ Media – photo essays/videos

○ Blogs & Case Studies

○ Formal research reports

○ Organisational Annual report

➢ Profile Raising: Finding and obtaining opportunities to raise the organisations including:

Awards applications, fellowships, partnerships

➢ Speaking engagements: Sourcing speaking engagements for the LFE Leadership team in various forums to present our work

➢ Supporting the leadership team (CEO+Directors) prepare speech content and publicise speaking engagements to maximise the outcome

➢ Team Management: Intern & Volunteer Management: Train / Manage / Review the work of Communications Interns, if any

➢ Research and Support: Assist the Research & Monitoring team in designing and conceptualizing the publications

➢ Event Support: Assist team in conducting org-level events

➢ Other duties as assigned.

Core Skills & Requirements:

➢ 01-03 years of work experience in the social sector, with a background in handling communications in an education-based NGO. Previous Experience of working in the State of Maharashtra is preferable

➢ Proficient in designing software like Corel draw, Photoshop or online tools like Canva etc. Additional skills of working on Wix, MailChimp etc. is preferable

➢ Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and a functional knowledge (oral and written) of Marathi would be highly preferred

➢ Belief in the potential of the government sector and that government systems can and will change towards overcoming systemic inequities and ensuring improved outcomes for all

➢ A basic understanding of social equity, development discourse and Indian education policy

➢ Being able to take initiative and work in an autonomous, semi-structured environment

➢ Adaptability to changing responsibilities and resourcefulness to respond to them

➢ High openness to learning and ability to build and sustain relationships with multiple stakeholders & partners across public and private spaces

➢ Strong ability to create outstanding presentations, work with Microsoft Excel, Google Suite, and varied data sets

➢ Patience and resilience to stick it out in the face of setbacks and uncertainties

Location: Pune

Compensation: 4,80,000 to 5,40,000 LPA ( based on your experience and skillsets )

Leadership For Equity is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits

Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. We do not discriminate on the basis of caste, race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other non-merit factor.

Click here to Apply

2. Advisory Consultant | FLN

APPROACH: In our two-fold approach to change, we build the capacity of government system leaders and we influence system processes. In partnership with the local and state education bodies, we co-create programs that shift teaching-learning practices and improve student learning and well-being. This work coupled with our research and advisory support to influence policies, we hope to create an effective government education system.

Over the last 5 years, LFE has built the capacity of 2100+ system leaders, and 40,200+ teachers to impact 8 million students across Maharashtra. Additionally, LFE has recently expanded its operations and started working in another 3 states of India including Haryana, Tripura & Andhra Pradesh. In Maharashtra, LFE works with 5 districts (Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Satara & Akola), 3 municipal bodies (Pune MC, Pimpri Chinchwad MC & Nagpur MC) & 5 state level education bodies (School Education Dept, SCERT, Samagra Shiksha, Tribal Development Dept, & TRTI). In Andhra Pradesh, LFE works closely with the Samagra Shiksha Office, SCERT & The World Bank on a multi-year strategic project to improve the quality of learning across 13 districts of the State. And lastly in Haryana & Tripura, LFE works with SCERTs of both states in setting up targeted program management units (PMUs) to strengthen delivery of large-scale academic programs.

BELIEF: We believe Public Education Systems are the gatekeepers of social EQUITY, especially when India’s 120 million children continue to go to government-run schools. A multi-layered, complex, and systemic problem of educational inequity, will require a solution rooted in the SYSTEMS CHANGE approach. We believe that a COLLECTIVE effort by forging partnerships with governments, like-minded philanthropists, corporates, donors, nonprofits and grass root organisations will help bring scalable and sustainable social change.

About Advisory vertical

The Advisory vertical of LFE has a dual function. The first one is to ensure the smooth functioning of the current verticals and the second is to establish LFE as one of the central and important knowledge partners in the education sector. The larger goal of the vertical is to engage with policymakers to multiply the impact of our existing programs and process by institutionalising some of the piloted interventions. It works with an understanding of three major objectives –

a) Ensuring smooth relationships with different government bodies and doing a health check-up of LFE’s relationships with government stakeholders

b) Propelling the impact of LFE’s projects through our government influence, and thus in-turn influencing the government to have policies which include learnings from the ground

c) Influencing the larger ecosystem (of NGOs and CSRs) through mutual learning forums, conferences, communication, and project learnings

About the FLN Mission

The Ministry of Education (previously Ministry of Human Resource and Development – MHRD) passed National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) this year. NEP 2020 in its principles, accords the highest priority to achieving Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) in all students of Grade 3 by 2025.

The announcement to set up the National FLN Mission is one of the path-breaking initiatives that the new policy prescribes for solving India’s learning crisis. It goes a step further and sets a deadline of 2025 to achieve FLN in the country. However, this new direction would require a common understanding of well-defined indicators to measure foundational skills like word recognition and oral reading fluency. To ensure attainment of FLN among all students, the State needs to focus on this growth trajectory, and continue to build on the factors which have led to earlier successes. And therefore LFE as an advisory partner to the Maharashtra State Department of School Education is keen to support the strategy and implementation of the state-wide FLN mission. For this, LFE is proposing to set up a support team under the SCERT, School Education Department to support the state authorities to lead this mission.

Major responsibilities of the team working on FLN include, but are not restricted to –

● Co-creating and building a contextualised FLN Roadmap for Maharashtra aligned to National Guidelines

● Supporting in the Statewide launch of the FLN mission in Maharashtra

● Supporting Senior leadership for Social Media Campaign and consistent communication for creating awareness about the program among stakeholders as well as during the execution of the program

● Research & identify potential partners for implementing a structured pedagogy program

● Supporting in designing the State’s roadmap to roll out Blended FLN Training program for reaching 1.5 lakh Govt school teachers

● Supporting SCERT to adapt & contextualize the learning-outcomes & Sub/micro-outcomes framework for the State FLN mission and create a blueprint of FLN diagnostic/ base-line

● Support government officials as and when needed in various responsibilities like data gathering, data analysis, documentation and so on.

Job Description and Responsibilities

Advisory consultants will work with the Program Manager, government stakeholders and external partner(s) to ensure goals set by the Education Department and LFE team for the FLN mission are achieved. Additionally, they will lead the end to end planning and implementation of conclaves, conferences, panel discussions to bring forward a focus on best practices from the work being done by government departments and advocate for a dialogue around important topics, issues in the larger education domain.

The key responsibilities are as follows:

Project management and implementation support (30%)

• Supporting senior officers within the Project Management Unit in all aspects of programme delivery including arranging and attending meetings, taking minutes and co-ordinating actions arising from the meetings, and dealing with routine questions and issues.
• Providing research, coordination and liaison support to implement strategic plan under the education department.
• Drafting impact report for the initiatives undertaken by the department
• Conduct district and school visits as and when required to garner sufficient understanding and context of government schools, government departments and support program team in execution of project priorities
• Conduct regular supervisory field office visits to assess the status of project activities or to participate in technical or evaluation work.

Stakeholder management (40%)

• Work with senior officials from the education department members to build long-lasting relationships that aid project design, execution and M&E plan.
• Promote collaboration amongst officers across the state (education dept) to support and help to achieve the stated goal under the FLN mission for Maharashtra state
• Plan and execute program review and update meetings (whenever necessary) with stakeholders and provide progress towards the goals of the project in a consumable format to all stakeholders.
• Able to influence all respective stakeholders to drive and lead mission as per the decided plan

Technical Responsibilities (30%)

• Advise on the design, development, and quality control of academic activities and deliverables
• Track, analyse, and share the latest international evidence and development trends and priorities with regard to reading, particularly in developing country contexts
• Participate in the design, implementation, and analysis of key research agendas for FLN aligned projects
• Participate in and contribute to education forums, such as technical working groups, learning events, and blogs
• Provide support in developing the capacity of government staff and serve as technical expert in education

Knowledge, Skills & Capabilities

● Masters in Education / Social Sector is preferred.

● 4 to 6 years of experience in education primarily executing projects, working with govt officials (at least 2 years of which should include directly working with Senior government stakeholders/leadership would be preferable)

● Experience working in Maharashtra would be preferable

● Prior experience in the Advocacy and Advisory sector would be highly preferred

● Experience in policy implementation would be highly preferred

● Excellent written and oral communication skills and functional knowledge (oral and reading) of Marathi would be highly preferred

● Belief in the potential of the public sector and that government systems can and will change towards overcoming systemic inequities and ensuring improved outcomes for all citizens

● A basic understanding of social equity, development discourse and education policy in India

● Being able to take initiative and work in an autonomous, semi-structured environment

● High openness to learning

● Ability to influence people, taking initiatives, build and sustain relationships with multiple stakeholders & partners across public and private spaces

● Strong ability to create outstanding presentations, work with Microsoft Excel, Google Suite, and varied data sets

Location and Compensation

Location: Mumbai/Pune. Will involve travel across state as and when required

Compensation: The consultant renumeration will be at par with industry standards and will be decided depending on the previous work experience, suitability for the role. Apart from monthly salary, external travel and accommodation costs will be reimbursed as per LFE’s HR Policy.

Leadership For Equity is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits

Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. We do not discriminate on the basis of caste, race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other non-merit factor.

Click here to Apply

3. Project Associate

BELIEF: We believe Public Education Systems are the gatekeepers of social EQUITY, especially when India’s 120 million poorest of the poor children go to government-run schools. A multi-layered, complex, and systemic problem of educational inequity, will require a solution rooted in the SYSTEMS CHANGE approach. We believe that a COLLECTIVE effort by forging partnerships with governments, like-minded philanthropists, corporates, donors, nonprofits and grassroots organisations will help bring scalable and sustainable social change.

VISION: We envision Public Education Systems that refuse to let children down.

APPROACH: We focus on building system leaders by strengthening capacity of field officers (i.e. middle management cadres). This includes enabling Academic & Administrative Officers (Extension Officers, BEOs, DIETs, SCERTs) to effectively lead quality improvement programs and run their departments. As well as, equipping Teachers Mentors (URCs, CRG, BRG, CRCs) to improve teacher training, support, coaching & mentoring, ultimately effecting classroom practices in improving the foundational learning and well-being of children. In the last 5 years, we built the capacity and impacted 2100+ system leaders, and through the programs we influenced 40,200+ teachers reached out to 8.2 million students. We have co-created and implemented 8 different programs and have multi-year MoUs with 9 govt. bodies including Zilla Parishads (self-governing district & city bodies), DIETs, SCERTs, Department of School Education across 4 states in India.

About the project : DIKSHA coordination and capacity building for SCERT, Haryana LFE is working with MSCERT, Pune since 2017 as a Project Management Unit (PMU) for the DIKSHA portal launched by the Ministry of Education. DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge SHAring) is a mobile application and web portal designed with an aim to provide free, contextual and high quality learning resources to teachers and students. More information about the portal can be found at https://diksha.gov.in/

Along with MSCERT, LFE has worked with several government officers, teachers across Maharashtra for setting up processes to get content on the portal and also drive its usage through a number of outreach initiatives. In the last one year, Maharashtra became the leading state in the nation for usage of DIKSHA portal accounting for 46% of the total content plays recorded on the portal.

This year, LFE has partnered with SCERT, Haryana with an aim to set up processes, structures and build capacity of their officers, teachers for managing Haryana’s instance of DIKSHA portal. The project involves working closely with SCERT leadership, department heads and subject matter experts to train and support them to manage DIKSHA portal. It will also require coordination with various content partners to get their content onboarded on the DIKSHA portal. The project will give a team member the experience of end to end planning, implementation with Government stakeholders and strengthening a learning platform that will potentially be used by 22 lakh students of Haryana.

Job Description and Responsibilities

We see the Project Associate role at LFE to be highly aspirational where the scope to learn and create impact at a systemic level is immense. The Project Associate will work with the Project Manager/Senior Manager to play a critical leadership role in ensuring planning for and execution of the responsibilities listed below. They include but are not limited to:

Training and capacity building (50%) 

• Work on planning/designing the overall project strategy in conjunction with the Project Manager and SCERT officials.
• Execute the project strategy with government stakeholders that align with their needs.
• Facilitating effective and engaging training sessions with government stakeholders, content partners.
• Build capacity of and provide proximate to the appointed government teams on a regular basis.

Stakeholder Management (40%)

• Work with government stakeholders right from Director of SCERT, Haryana to on-ground officers’ team of DIET principals, subject matter experts, teachers to build long-lasting relationships that aid project operations and expansion plans.
• Plan and execute monthly update/review meetings with stakeholders and provide progress towards goals of the project.
• Create project documents and reports in coordination with SCERT, Haryana that can be shared with the Ministry of Education in a timely manner.
• Establish and finalise partnerships with content providers and orient them on the process of onboarding their content on DIKSHA. Norming SCERT officials about the same.
• Work with district officials of Haryana on a need basis.

Personal and Professional Development (10%) 
Research and lead sessions contribute towards the team’s personal and professional growth by introducing varied perspectives on education, equity, culture, monitoring and evaluation, policy reform, etc. based on one’s interest and expertise.
Participate effectively and drive learning in the team professional development days (once a  month) and team outstation stepbacks (twice a year).

Requirements: Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in humanities/engineering/development. Masters degree in education/social development is preferrable.
• Minimum 2 years of experience in planning and executing education projects.
• Experience of designing and facilitating training, workshops, seminars is desirable.
• Experience of working on EdTech solutions, platforms at scale is highly desirable.
• Experience of working with government stakeholders would be preferable.

Knowledge, Skills & Capabilities

• Excellent written and oral communication skills – and functional knowledge (oral and written) of Hindi and English.
• Strong facilitation skills to conduct engaging meetings and training sessions with government stakeholders.
• Fluency and ability to create outstanding presentations, work with Microsoft
• Excel, Google Suite, and varied data sets.
• Belief in the potential of the public sector and that government systems can and will change. towards overcoming systemic inequities and ensuring improved outcomes for all citizens.
• A basic understanding of social equity, development discourse and education policy in India.
• Being able to take initiative and work in an autonomous, semi-structured environment.
• Adaptability to changing responsibilities and resourcefulness to respond to them.
• High openness to learning.
• Ability to build and sustain relationships with multiple stakeholders & partners across public and private spaces.
• Patience and resilience to stick it out in the face of setbacks and uncertainties.

Location and Compensation

Location: Gurugram, Haryana

Number of positions: 2

Compensation: The Project Associate will draw a salary in the range of 5 to 6 lakh INR per annum depending on the previous work experience, suitability for the role. Apart from monthly salary, the local travel, mobile and internet expenses will be reimbursed as per LFE’s HR policy.

Leadership For Equity is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits

Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. We do not discriminate on the basis of caste, race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other non-merit factor.

Click here to apply

4. Program Manager, Teacher Professional Development

About Mantra4Change

Founded in the year 2013, Mantra4Change is a Bangalore based non-profit that works in the field of school improvement and education leadership development. Mantra4Change currently works in the field of education system strengthening by driving capacity building initiatives for education leaders such as school head teachers and other system actors, by creating tools for observation and monitoring, by reimagining systems & processes such as enrollment drive and parent-teacher meeting, by enabling partnerships and by promoting spaces for appreciation.

Mantra4Change currently is working with the states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh on various aspects of systemic transformation. We believe in the idea of co-creation and co-planning and hence while the underlying approach remains the same, programs are developed keeping contextual realities and needs in mind.

About SALT Project

LFE & Mantra4Change are coming together to support the Andhra Pradesh Government, which has been on an ambitious plan to revamp the government school system into a high performing schools system for serving children from underserved communities. Supporting Andhra’s Learning Transformation (SALT) project is a multi-organisational project focused on improving the quality of teaching and learning in classrooms. The project aims to enhance human capital and achieve sustained reduction in learning poverty across all districts of the state.

The SALT operation will support the GoAP in three key results areas:

(i) Strengthened Foundational Learning;

(ii)Improved Quality of Student-Teacher Interactions and;

(iii)Strengthened Institutional Capacity for Service Delivery

The project will be implemented in close collaboration with the Department of School Education (DoSE),

GoAP and state-level administrative units including the SCERT, SIEMAT and the local network of DIETs.

The focus will be to achieve the outcomes with an inherent focus on strengthening the people and processes within the public education system.

The scope of work for the entire project will be as follows:

1. Strengthen the technical and operational capacity of school complex leaders to provide evidence- and needs-based training to teachers, utilizing teacher training facilities as sites for on-site support.

2. Build the capacity at SCERT and DIETs to improve planning, implementation, and monitoring of the reform by introducing a teacher needs assessment system to formally encourage professional learning and growth.

3. Strengthen the technical and operational capacity of SCERT and DIETs to provide evidence- and needs-based support to teachers through developing training courses for teachers on the state Learning Management System (LMS)

4. Strengthen the technical and operational capacity of SCERT and DIETs through the development of online learning materials for teachers and students on the state Learning Management System (LMS)

5. Coordinate with various stakeholders to ensure timeline development of the technology tools as noted above including the REACH tool

The duration of the project will be 60 months from 2021 to 2026.

Job Description and Responsibilities

The Project Manager, Teacher Professional Development is an aspirational leadership position to lead the teacher professional development vertical for the state of Andhra Pradesh. This role will work closely with the State Operations Head to ensure project goals are achieved. Additionally, they will collaborate with government stakeholders and members across teams as and when required as well as be an integral part of the project leadership and drive learning across teams.

Training Design and Operations (40%)

● Design detailed iterative blended and in-person teacher training progression programs that can run successfully at scale with measurable outcomes

● Advise on and oversee design of training materials, handbooks, teacher proficiency metrics, and other auxiliary training related items

● Create detailed project operational plans, Log Frames, and monitoring mechanisms and guidelines to enable smooth implementation

● Visit training sites, classrooms, and other offices across the state to oversee implementation and use the observation data to tweak subsequent plans

● Coordinate with other teams and operations counterparts to ensure smooth implementation

● Compile training completion and impact reports in digital and print formats that are widely consumable

Team Management (20%)

● Manage a team of a manager and 4-6 training associates, focusing on their deliverables and professional support and development

● Design and implement team learning spaces to sustain a culture of collaboration, belief in public systems and conduct team review spaces to ensure strong accountability and timely project delivery

Stakeholder Management (40%)

● Work with concerned SCERT and DIET leadership, subject experts and other government stakeholders to build long-lasting, trust-based relationships that aid project operations and increase impact

● Work with a mindset of co-creation to enable capacity and ownership of government stakeholders

● Conduct regular update meetings with stakeholders and provide progress towards goals of the relevant programs in a consumable format to all stakeholders

● Constitute committees, aid in drafting government orders and memos, to ensure smooth design and implementation of state level programs

● Compile progress reports and presentations to update senior leadership regarding the project progress

Requirements

Education & Experience

● Degree in education / teacher development or related discipline. Masters’ degree mandatory

● 6-9 Years of experience leading large scale training programs, preferably with the government or with government school teachers

● Should have led at least 1-2 projects in the government education sector, at the State/district level

● Proven experience in project management and overseeing training content creation

● Possesses knowledge of various principles and frameworks of TPD and has experience in implementing projects aligned to the same

● Experience working in Andhra Pradesh / Telangana would be preferable

Important: Given the nature of the project please apply only if you qualify based on above requirements

Knowledge, Skills & Capabilities

● Excellent written and oral communication skills – and a functional knowledge (oral and written) of Telugu would be highly preferred

● Being able to take initiative and work in an autonomous, semi-structured environment

● Belief in the potential of the public sector and that government systems can and will change towards overcoming systemic inequities and ensuring improved outcomes for all citizens

● Working experience or knowledge of public policy implementation would be highly preferred

● A basic understanding of social equity, development discourse and education policy in India

● Adaptability to changing responsibilities and resourcefulness to respond to them

● High openness to learning

● Ability to influence people, taking initiatives, build and sustain relationships with multiple stakeholders & partners across public and private spaces

● Strong ability to create outstanding presentations, work with Microsoft Excel & Google Suite

● Patience and resilience to stick it out in the face of setbacks and uncertainties

Location and Compensation

Location: Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. Frequent travel to rural areas across the state.

Compensation: Apart from being a part of a young and dynamic learning team, the individual will receive a healthy compensation at par with the non-profit sector benchmark for this position, commensurate with the individual’s prior experience and qualifications. The current compensation band offered, based on fit and experience is 12-14 lakh INR per annum CTC.

Leadership For Equity is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits

Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. We do not discriminate on the basis of caste, race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other non-merit factor.

Click here to apply