Programme Manager Higher Education

The British Council builds connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language.

We work in two ways – directly with individuals to transform their lives, and with governments and partners to make a bigger difference for the longer term, creating benefit for millions of people all over the world. We help young people to gain the skills, confidence and connections they are looking for to realise their potential and to participate in strong and inclusive communities. We support them to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Our work in arts and culture stimulates creative expression and exchange and nurtures creative enterprise. We connect the best of the UK with the world and the best of the world with the UK.

These connections lead to an understanding of each other's strengths and of the challenges and values that we share. These builds trust between people in the UK and other nations which endures even when official relations may be strained. We work on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2019-20 we connected with 80 million people directly and with 791 million overall, including online and through our broadcasts and publications.

Pay Band: 6/G

Location: Dhaka, South Asia, Bangladesh

Contract type: Indefinite Contract-Local.

Requirements - Candidates must have the pre-existing right to live and work in Bangladesh

Closing date: Monday, 4 November 2024. Closing Time: 23:59 Bangladesh Time

Role Purpose:

Leads the successful delivery of a range of education projects from start to finish including managing the contract or project plan, managing client or internal stakeholders, successfully achieving reporting and meeting compliance standards. Or works within a larger program or multi country program on a particular component. These can be funded by British Council or by another client or funding mechanism.

Main Accountabilities:

Relationship & Stakeholder management

• Has relationships with delivery partners and stakeholders within country and is able to procure services and contract delivery partners.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with the government education stakeholders, internal stakeholders in Bangladesh and the UK to facilitate the smooth running of the projects and ensure alignment of interests.
• Holds suppliers to account for delivering against contract.
• Build strong internal relationships and networks

Commercial and Financial Management

• Ensure sound financial planning, working closely with finance teams to ensure British Council and client financial year plans are up to date.
• Ensure accurate and timely monthly (re)forecasting is in place, by running regular reports in the SAP system on actuals, monitoring outstanding purchase orders, reviewing commitments, analysing and commenting on reasons for variances to plan and recommending corrective actions.
• Monitoring monthly finances, including correct expenditure, ensuring the P2P process is being followed and correcting any mis-postings or journals needed.
• Lead on British Council, partner or client reporting (including, with Finance Manager, financial reporting) and ensure reports are delivered on time, to budget and to a high standard.
• Compliance to BC financial policies and procedures.

Project Management

• Contributes to develop, own and deliver Project Management Plan
• Identifies risks in a project or program and puts together mitigation strategies with SRO
• Responsible for internal and client, procurement, contracting, compliance and reporting pm
• Checks on and reports on compliance.
• Manages procurement on a project/program
• Responsible for data management including timely data entry, quality assurance of data, undertaking basic analysis of monitoring data, and developing progress reports to meet funding needs
• Undertaking program-specific data collection as needed. This includes working with colleagues to identify indicators and tools for data collection, quality assuring all data, and undertaking basic analysis.
• Manages finance, procurement, compliance and reporting on a project.

Business Development

• Supports the identification and development of professional networks, relationships and partnerships to increase the British Council’s impact and reputation.
• Ensures high quality and accurate pipeline data for country/pillar.
• Conducts specific pipeline and partner/competitor analysis to contribute to business development planning and prioritisation.
• Provides support with development of new business proposals, ensuring that internal and external professional standards are met

Role specific knowledge and experience

Qualification:

• Excellent written and spoken communication skills both in English and Bangla.
• Master’s level qualification in Education/ Development/ Social Science

Minimum/essential:

• Experience of managing projects from start to finish and familiarity with project life cycles.
• Knowledge of education, preferably in HE sectors in Bangladesh
• Track record of working in education sector
• At least 3 years’ experience in a similar role. Proven track record in business management and or general office management.
• Understanding of procurement, evaluation and reporting requirements of projects.
• Proven experience of managing project finances.
• Experience of managing stakeholders
• More than 2 years working in project or programme management.
• Experience of using technology and project delivery.
• Good understanding and experience of supporting monitoring and evaluation.

Desirable

• Knowledge of UK HE sector
• Working in both public and private sector organisations.
• Experience of managing people

Additional Information:

• All necessary background checks as per the British Council Pre-Appointment Screening policy along with medical check-up will need to be completed successfully prior to signing the final employment contract.

Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted and called for interview. We will only shortlist applications submitted on a British Council application form submitted electronically through our career portal. Any hard copies of the application and incomplete application in the portal will not be accepted.

To apply, please click on the following link that will take you to the career portal of British Council

Apply Here

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.

Equality Statement

The British Council is committed to a policy of equality and to valuing diversity and is keen to reflect the diversity of the societies in which we work at every level within the organisation. We welcome applications from all sections of the community. We aim to abide by and promote equality legislation by following both the letter and the spirit of it to avoid unjustified discrimination, recognising discrimination as a barrier to equality of opportunity, inclusion and human rights. All staff worldwide are required to ensure their behaviour is consistent with our policies.

The British Council has Disability Confident Employer Status. We offer a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role. Applicants are encouraged to highlight any specific requirements or adjustments needed to enable participation in the recruitment process.

The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.

We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.

Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.