Education & Training Coordinator

PROGRAM/DEPARTMENT SUMMARY: Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities. The agency pursues its mission through emergency relief services, sustainable community development, civil society and economic development initiatives. Mercy Corps has been present in the Middle East since the 1980s and currently has offices in Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libya. Working in Lebanon since 1993, Mercy Corps promotes economic development and increased opportunity for marginalized communities while responding to emergencies as they have emerged. Until recently Mercy Corps’ focus has focused on bolstering civil society and give voice to under-represented groups through the empowerment of young leaders. Recently, the country office portfolio expanded in response to the massive refugee influx from Syria, to address key needs like non-food items/winterization, water and sanitation, child protection, and capacity building. The conflict that began more than three years ago in Syria has resulted in a steady increase in Syrian refugees to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey.  To date, more than one million refugees have fled to Lebanon, and the numbers continue to mount. All refugees who have entered Lebanon are staying with host families or in rented accommodation.  As numbers rapidly increase, humanitarian conditions are deteriorating.  The burden on host communities and the financial and emotional stress on refugees and their hosts is tremendous. Mercy Corps is responding to these needs by addressing urgent basic needs, child protection as well as the psychosocial impact of the conflict and displacement. With the support of the Government of Canada, Mercy Corps will support Syrian and Lebanese adolescent boys and girls, between the ages of 13 – 17 who are not currently enrolled in school or are at high risk of dropping out of school as a means of providing them with life skills, drawing adolescents away from their segregation, and encouraging greater interaction between host communities and refugees. Furthermore, program will reach out to young adults between the ages of 20 – 24 from among refugee and host communities, seeking their involvement and building their skills to act as mentors and facilitators within the program. GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY: The Coordinator will provide support to the Program Manager and the team by training hired consultants in the Busma profound stress framework and platform, ensure that all curricula is developed with a similar format, ensure material is comprehensive, appropriately levelled, includes layering and different techniques necessary to teaching youth under profound stress, coordinate schedules and supervise their instruction for quality review. In addition, the coordinator will work alongside coaches to help with curriculum development and support them in the implementation of life-skills by providing evaluations, feedback and performance review. He/she will closely work with local partner organizations to ensure accountability to Mercy Corps’ policies and donor rules and regulations, as well as other local actors including municipalities and service providers   ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS: Program Implementation: Help in the recruitment of consultants to teach life-skills and support in the development of vocational skills  through creative methodology – ie experiential learning and cooperative learning, as well as train coaches in respective fields; Implement Mercy Corps’ Gender Equity policy where and applies Do No Harm approaches; When appropriate, enhance programming through curricula; Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission; Code of conduct and complaint mechanisms are developed, implemented, and enforced; Other assigned tasks, as necessary.  Train the hired consultants in the profound stress framework  platform and ensure all curricula is developed incorporating methodology; Review and evaluate the curricula developed by consultants to ensure appropriately levelled, sequenced, and sequenced to deliver to both coaches and adolescents; Supervise the training of the coaches by the consultants and provide quality feedback and performance review; Supervise the instruction for the coaches to the adolescents and provide feedback, guidance, performance review, and support to improve; Work with hired consultants to create evaluation tools for education indicators to measure growth and impact; Provide day-to-day support and coordination with local partners and consultants, Busma staff and team, coaches, including administrative, financial and logistical support. Trouble shoot any administrative problems and report any challenges or bottlenecks to Program Manager; Coordinate trainings, meetings and schedules with each respective community center and consultants; Ensure material is culturally sensitive, with  appropriate relevance to the youth and community; Support the Program Manager to identify consultants; Participate in monitoring and evaluation system design and implementation for all aspects of the project, including monitoring  program progress by developing and applying monitoring tools to inform reports to donors and key stakeholders; Prepare weekly reports to be submitted to the Program Manager. Contribute to quarterly reports and other ad hoc reports to meet donor and internal requirements; Organize local organizational training sessions and support to improve the organizational and technical capacity of local partners to provide adolescent life-skills and psychosocial services; Support the Program Manager to coordinate with humanitarian and development partners including United Nations, international and local NGOs, municipalities and other stakeholders; Assist in and development of filing and record keeping  systems of program activities; SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY: N/A ACCOUNTABILITY: REPORTS DIRECTLY TO:  Curricula & Training Advisor WORKS DIRECTLY WITH:  Program Director, Operations, Finance, and M&E Team KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:  Experience working with adolescent boys and girls or broader youth engagement preferred; Protection-related programs experience preferred; Experience in community mobilization preferred; Understanding of refugee issues in the current Lebanon context; Understanding of relevant cross-cultural issues and ability to work with refugee and host community populations; Written and oral communication skills in English, including report development, writing and editing; Positive, respectful attitude and collaborative approach to problem solving; Demonstrated attention to detail; ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently as well as cooperatively with team members; Significant knowledge and understanding of the current political, economic, cultural and historical context of South Lebanon preferred; SUCCESS FACTORS: The successful Adolescent Program Assistant will combine program management skills and experience in adolescent programming. S/he will have an outstanding ability to implement innovative programs within the current and future program structure of Mercy Corps in the country. Multi-tasking, prioritizing, problem solving and simultaneous attention to detail and working independently are essential. Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving is essential in a complex security and political environment like Lebanon. The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.