About The Role
We are seeking full-time Field Officers to join our team and be our “eyes and ears” on the ground. You will play a central role in helping us answer the question “Is what we’re doing working?” by assessing pupils and performing other data collection activities, both electronically (i.e. via smartphone or tablet) or using hard-copies. You will also lead quality control efforts to help ensure that any short-term assessor teams we are collaborating with are collecting accurate data. Finally, you will act as a trusted advisor to the M&E team to provide insights into your country to ensure that our projects are successful.
Responsibilities
Your day-to-day schedule will vary from project to project, but your responsibilities will likely include
Assess pre-primary and primary school pupils. You will undergo extensive training on how to assess pupils, and become a “master assessor.” You will then spend a significant portion of your time performing assessments of pupils between 3 and 10 years of age at Bridge academies using these assessments. The goal of these efforts could be to test out and calibrate new assessments or collect information to inform how pupils grew academically over the course of the academic year.
Assist with planning, preparation, and coordination of data collection projects. You know your country the best and the M&E team will rely on your knowledge to plan a range of data collection efforts, both large and small. You will help us determine schedules, select schools to visit, and ensure that logistics happen smoothly.
Assist with training and monitoring short-term assessors. The M&E team often undertakes large-scale assessments to test the impact of Bridge’s academic efforts. To do so, we must train and manage a large team of short-term assessors. You will support this training in various ways. For example, as a “master assessor,” you will work closely with an M&E team member during training to provide feedback to new assessors and talk about your experience in the field. You may also lead some of the sessions over time. You will also conduct quality control checks by reassessing certain pupils so that we can know if the short-term assessors are performing accurate assessments (and also not making data up under trees).
Perform phone survey and data entry activities. Sometimes, the data we need to collect can be done by phone. For example, you may make calls to Academy Managers (principals), teachers, and parents to collect information. You will be expected to enter your findings into a survey interface or directly into Google spreadsheets or Excel.
Conduct investigations where the data fails to reflect the reality on the ground. There are times when we receive conflicting data from different sources, or there is missing data and information we need to track down. We rely on you to become a detective and sort out discrepancies, or use your problem-solving skills to track down missing information. We also then count on you to summarize and effectively communicate your findings back to the global team.
This job will be based out of our head office in Nairobi, Kenya. However, while you will be based in the head office, much of your time will be spent traveling.
Your Qualifications
BA in Education, Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Statistics or other related field.
Field work experience performing surveys or conducting community outreach.
Experience working with primary school pupils. Experience working with nursery pupils is a plus.
Proficiency in English and one or more local languages.
Ability to use public transit to travel long distances.
Familiarity with computers, tablets, and smartphones a big plus. Data entry experience using Google Spreadsheets and/or Excel even better.
Your Characteristics
Can communicate effectively in person, by phone, and by email – your supervisors are likely not next to you each day, so you must be able to consistently provide updates and be in contact, even while travelling.
Attention to detail and well-organized – every data point counts and we need them to be correct. You will need to keep track of various assessment materials and be able to provide detailed reports of your activities.
Adaptable – plans often change and you always need to be ready for the next thing.
Patient and engaging – you need to be able to work well with small children.
Hard working – days often will start at 7 am and you won’t return to your home or hotel until 8 pm.
Looking to grow – the M&E team will give you a lot of responsibility and provide a lot of professional development, but we want someone who is aiming for constant improvement.
Able to work with minimal supervision – often the M&E team will discuss an objective for a week and then you will execute. We’ll always be available for questions, but you will be running the program.
Willing to travel extensively and for extended periods of time – you must be able to navigate public transit systems to get to where you need to be, and often be away for 1-3 weeks at a time.
Application Requirements
We are accepting applications on an ongoing basis, and they will be reviewed in the order they are received. Please include a resume, cover letter, and references in your application.
