Country: Lao People's Democratic Republic (the)
Closing date: 04 May 2018
The purpose of the Laos Reading Readiness Activity is to improve reading skills of primary school students in early grades, particularly for non-Lao speaking children from disadvantaged populations.
The Senior Reading Specialist is responsible for technical leadership in assuring high quality early-grade reading programming in Laos. He or she will collaborate closely with government counterparts to assure integration with current primary education activities. The post requires expertise in instruction, assessment, training and materials development and supervising other technical personnel. The Sr. Reading Specialist will ensure effective planning, delivery and documentation of basic education interventions. This individual shall participate and engage in technical meetings and maintain positive relationships with officials, partners, and implementing partners.
Accountabilities:
- Provide technical leadership in a specific technical component and/or program wide activities.
- With technical oversight, provide technical leadership in design, development, planning, implementation; and capacity building of specific technical components of programs.
- Participate in resource development activities.
- Responsible for accomplishing assigned job responsibilities, and following the standards and practices of the department and division.
- Responsible for planning and scheduling own work flow and timetables, within area and function guidelines.
- Identifies areas for improved efficiency or effectiveness within prescribed parameters, and institutes enhancements to procedures.
- Maintains a constructive dialogue and technical exchange with field counterparts and technical staff of implementing partners.
- Develops and maintains collaborative relationships with donor/client organizations, relevant government agencies, bilateral and other NGOs.
- Develops tools for the design and implementation of specific technical components.
- Ensures that project implementation adheres to the appropriate global strategy and remains technically sound.
- May serve as a departmental resource on procedural, administrative and operational issues.
- Performs other duties as assigned.
Applied Knowledge & Skills:
- Ensures appropriate and timely technical support to field programs.
- Ensures the quality of implemented technical activities and systems at all levels.
- Conducts routine coordination with employees and consultants, on-site and in the field.
- Strong knowledge and skills in specific technical area/function and general understanding of concepts and principles of related technical areas/functions.
- Solid knowledge of standards for the technical area/field, operational processes and procedures, work and task flow.
- Ability to manage own work to job and performance standards.
Problem Solving & Impact:
- Demonstrates ability to assess needs within agreed upon duties and considers course of action best to meet those needs.
- Effectively applies knowledge of technical area to solve range of problems.
- Demonstrates ability to develop solutions to problems that cannot be solved using existing methods or approaches.
- Faulty decisions/ recommendations /failures to complete assignments will normally result in serious delays to assigned programs resulting in considerable expenditure of additional time, resources and funds.
- Decisions and actions impact primarily work flow, project processes and timeframes.
- Problems encountered are generally varied, requiring review of practices and precedents to resolve.
- Problem solving involves evaluating and resolving discrepancies with data, analyses, processes, etc. within prescribed guidelines.
- Policies or guidelines generally exist for most problems; others must be referred to supervisor or more senior professional.
Supervision Given/Received:
- Coordinates own work flow and sets individual priorities.
- Works under general guidelines for completion and accuracy as determined by the supervisor.
- Accomplishes results through lower level staff managers or through experienced staff who exercise independence in their assignments.
- May manage a centralized functional area of activity.
Education:
- Advanced degree in education with a concentration in early grade reading, literacy, language acquisition or related field
Experience:
- At least seven years’ experience of which at least five is within a developing country context, with a focus on the primary education.
- Demonstrated ability to work with host government and other relevant partners in central and/or local government settings.
- Proven expertise early grade instruction and assessment, including transition from mother tongue (L1) to Language of Instruction (L2)
- Leadership skills, including ability to collaborate and to guide professional and support staff
- Management experience including oversight and evaluation of staff performance and deliverables, and engagement with other areas of operation such as contracts and finance to assure high quality products and services
- Experience working in Laos or Southeast Asia preferred; Lao language a plus
- Significant experience required in, a) developing, organizing and conducting professional development workshops for primary teachers, b) design of lesson plans and other instructional materials, c) pupil materials development
- A strong understanding of monitoring, evaluation and learning
- Demonstrated experience scaling up activities of similar scope
- Strong writing and communication abilities are essential. This includes the comfort in the use of common software, such as MS Word and Excel.
Typical Physical Demands:
- Typical office environment.
- Ability to sit and stand for extended periods of time.
- Ability to lift 5-50 lbs.
Technology to be Used:
- Personal Computer, Microsoft Office (i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), e-mail, telephone, printer, calculator, copier, cell phones, PDAs and other hand held devices.
Travel Requirements:
- 10% - 25%
This job description summarizes the main duties of the job. It neither prescribes nor restricts the exact tasks that may be assigned to carry out these duties. This document should not be construed in any way to represent a contract of employment. Management reserves the right to review and revise this document at any time.
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