Research Associate – Data and Research – Pratham Digital

Pratham was founded in 1995, to provide pre-school education to children in Mumbai slums. Over the last 20 years, Pratham has grown to be India’s largest NGO working to provide quality education to underprivileged youth and children in over 20 states across the country, with a range of interventions.

Pratham is a widely recognized organization, having received notable awards such as the WISE Prize for Innovation, Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the Henry R Kravis Prize in Leadership and the CNN IBN Indian of the Year for Public Service. For more details, refer to www.pratham.org About Pratham’s Digital Innovations

Pratham started its digital intervention with the Hybrid learning program in 400 villages of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh in the year 2015. In 2017 with the support of Google.org, and Sarva Mangal Family Trust this program expanded to over 1000 villages. The support led to the formation of core groups within Pratham which produced over 350 videos in and about 70 learning games and software needed to deploy and monitor digital resources in the village communities. These resources are present in 11 regional languages and English.

Subsequently, the digital resources were also made available in Pratham’s foundational programs and in the Early Childhood Education support program on an experimental basis. The digital learning material (games and videos) created for different age groups is available on Google Playstore as the PraDigi app and Read and Speak English App along with YouTube and other learning platforms.

The digital hardware and software are currently available in various Pratham programs across 21 states with content in 11 languages including Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali, Odiya, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi and English.

Roles & Responsibilities

The Associate position in the Digital Innovations team offers young, motivated, energetic people the opportunity to be an integral part of Pratham’s digital work across the country. We are seeking a highly motivated individual with strong problem-solving and analytics skills to support the analysis and monitoring for the Aanganshala project. The successful candidate should have excellent communication skills, be self-motivated, be able to navigate working in a challenging and fast-paced environment, be able to function independently with minimum guidance.

The Research Associate will work on the following:

● Undertaking periodic data analysis to inform programmatic decision making

● Managing all project data operations to data quality and timely reporting

● Identifying and implementing strategies to streamline data systems and processes

● Design and develop standardized report formats on Excel and BI tools like PowerBI

● Supporting program management in reporting for all stakeholders

● Leading training of implementation and program management teams involved in data systems quality checks

● Any other responsibilities as needed

Qualifications and Experience

 Desired:

● Working-level proficiency in BI tools like PowerBI or Tableau.

● Ability to build rapport with people from various different academic, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds

● Ability to communicate in Hindi or at least 1-2 other regional languages

● Good analytical (qualitative and quantitative) and communication (verbal and written)

skills

● Ability to think strategically, handle ambiguity, and problem solve in a fast-paced, limited-structure and multicultural environment

● Ability to organize and manage multiple tasks efficiently

● Keeping oneself constantly updated on the broader educational context in assigned states and in India

● Willingness to travel regularly and extensively in rural areas of India, with limited amenities (as per the COVID-restrictions)

● Willingness to commit to at least 2-3 years of work with Pratham

Preferred:

● Prior work experience in a similar role in private sector firms, NGOs or foundations

● Experience of handling big datasets using SQL and R

● Exposure to the non-profit sector through previous experience or otherwise

● Experience living and working in a developing country

Location While remote work is ongoing, we are location agnostic. However, once offices reopen the candidate will need to be based out of New Delhi.

Application Process We are hiring on a rolling basis. send the following to digital@pratham.org with cc to vani.shree@pratham.org and proma.bhattacharjee@pratham.org and mention ‘Application for the position of Research Associate – Digital Innovations’ in the subject line, with the following attachments.

1. Current Resume: Resume should contain:

a. Contact Information for Applicant

b. Academic Background I. Universities Attended, Degrees Acquired

II. Academic Record (Marks or GPA, if applicable)

III. Past work experience, highlighting relevant skills

IV. Relevant Coursework: List Courses in Development, Management, and Education

V. Experiences in development, teaching and/or education (if applicable)

VI. Languages Spoken

2. Statement of Purpose (500 words)

Early applicants will be given preference.

Date of Joining: Immediate