Description
Do you believe that every child deserves the same quality of education no matter where they live, or who their parents are? Do you think that we need innovation in education? Do you want to challenge the status quo? Then join us!
Bridge is now the largest education organization in Africa and one of the fastest growing social enterprises in the world. We are looking for passionate, dedicated and energetic people to join our rapidly growing organization. If you believe in our mission and are looking for a fast-past, always changing working environment with room to grow and learn, we are looking for you!
The Schools Team
Being a successful school is not just about academic excellence – it’s also about an engaged and committed parent body and community. Bridge takes pride in our customer-centric approach to school and community engagement. This means that we spend a lot of time talking to families, community members, and other stakeholders to understand their needs, aspirations and experiences as it relates to education. The Schools team then implements customer life cycle (pupil, parent and community) and value management programmes. The team also designs and implements pupil, parent and community engagement programmes to drive customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty through effective academy management to help build strong schools that everyone in the community can be happy with and proud of.
About the Role
The Programme Manager is responsible for community outreach and programme management of academy programmes. Community outreach involves implementing all programmes across academies with the purpose of attracting new parents to Bridge and developing loyalty among existing parents. Outreach programmes work includes the development, testing, execution, and monitoring of academy advertising, communications, events, programmes, community relations, analysing results and suggesting improvements to future programmes and developing ad-hoc programmes as needed. The Programme Manager must be incredibly organized – a skilled negotiator, relationship builder, and conflict manager, with excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to multi-task and prioritize effectively. The Programme Manager must thrive in fast-paced environments with multiple demands.
What You Will Do
Project manage the development, implementation and evaluation of strategic, tactical and operational customer engagement plans, programmes, and initiatives to align with
Bridge’s customer service vision and strategies
Coordinate all academy-level communications to academy staff, parents, and community members including writing and tracking message content in the form of letters, emails, internal messages, advertisements, SMS, robocalls, and more
Project manage the production, purchase, execution, and distribution of community outreach materials such as posters, flyers, and signposts across all Bridge communities
Project manage the execution of all planned academy and community events and programmes including parent meetings, parent-teacher conferences, parent-teacher associations, pupil performances, community events, back to class celebrations, prize giving day/graduations, and more
Work with global or national PR teams to help prep academies, staff, parents, and/or pupils’ media engagements as needed
Working with the Regional Managers for successful execution and reporting on Area Managers community engagement deliverables as delegated by the Director.
Coordination of various departments to ensure the timely and effective delivery of academy day to day work
Create a culture which embraces high quality customer service across the organisation, ensuring that management systems and processes drive service delivery outcomes
Manage a team in accomplishing all of these goals; some national travel will be required
What You Should Have
Passion for Bridge’s vision of democratizing the right for all children to succeed
Bachelor’s degree in relevant field, graduate degrees preferred
8+ years relevant experience including extensive experience in programme management, communications, marketing, advertising, event planning, community relations, and managing a team
Results-driven, scrappy attitude with a desire for continuous improvement; flexible and ready to work hard, travel, do whatever is needed to get the job done
Proven success driving growth at a data-driven, customer-facing organisation and ability to operate to scale
Strong familiarity of the communities Bridge International Academies are in; you have lived or worked in low-income communities for several years and are accustomed to how communities work
Supreme organisational, critical thinking, and communications skills with impeccable spoken and written English; additional local language skills preferred
You’re also
A detailed doer- You have a track record of getting things done. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth company.
A networking mastermind – You excel at meeting new people and turning them into advocates. You communicate in a clear, conscientious, and effective way in both written and oral speech. You can influence strangers in the course of a single conversation. Allies and colleagues will go to bat for your ideas.
A creative problem-solver – Growing any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, Bridge works in volatile, low-resource communities and runs on fees averaging just $6 a month per pupil. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand. Every dollar you spend is a dollar our customers, who live on less than $2 a day, will have to pay for.
A customer advocate – Our customers – these families living on less than $2 a day per person – never leave your mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be happy to in the future).
You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or looked like. Every decision you make considers their customer benefit, experience, and value.
A life-long learner- You believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
