Programme Manager Education and English, Lebanon

About us

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

Geopolitical/SBU/Function overview

We have been in Lebanon since 1946 and have 50 staff, including colleagues from our regional and Syria teams. Our activities are broad based, including a growing Exams business and a substantial portfolio of grant, partnership and externally funded programmes and projects across our English, Education, Arts and Society sectors.

In everything we do we are seeking to strengthen relationships between people and institutions in Lebanon and in the UK and to create opportunities for them through our programmes and services. We work with many UK and Lebanon partners to deliver our objectives, ranging from governments, NGOs, examinations boards, universities and school networks, arts organisations and the wider private sector.

Our work in education and English is aligned to the overarching strategies in place and agreed between government of Lebanon and the international community through Reaching All Children Through Education (RACE II) and with the principles of No Lost Generation which fit within the wider context of the Regional Response Plan and the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan whilst recognising the importance of moving from crisis response to longer-term reform and development.

This work contributes to our Country Plan objective: Building Hope and Opportunities through ‘Skills & Qualifications’ (Pathways to Prosperity): Improving quality of schooling and school systems, qualifications and livelihood opportunities for young people.

Aligned to our regional vision of ‘Changing young people’s lives, inspiring hope, connecting opportunity’

Main opportunities/challenges for this role

Opportunities going forward include:

• Opportunity to lead an exciting portfolio with an established track record and build a new strategy for 2025
• Working to establish Programme Based Planning within the portfolio by 20-21
• Strategic partnership and engagement with the UK sector
• Building an offer that incorporates all Education platforms and wider UK offers

Challenges include:

• Ensuring the portfolio remains relevant and sustainable in a fast-moving external context where there is a considerable amount of competition for donor funding.
• Integration Education and English strategy and teams, and maximising benefits of that integration at the country level
• Increasingly demanding requirements around measuring impact outcomes and demonstrating value for money (being addressed through the new Research and Evidence Framework).

Main Accountabilities

Strategy and Direction

• Leads on development of the Lebanon Education and English country strategy and identifies areas to shape medium to longer term business objectives
• Participates and achieves knowledge sharing across the MENA Education and English team(s).

Business Delivery and Management

• Manages (as SRO) and oversees a number of high-profile projects and/or programmes within areas of specialism
• Monitors the financial performance of project portfolio, in line with global standards of the impact and results framework, project budgets and financial targets
• Ensure partners and/or internal teams/consultants deliver to the standards expected by the internal or external client
• Provides technical inputs to commercial contracts and or non-commercial programmes, either at country, regional or global level as required

Business Development

• Guides team on a strategy for business development in their area, ensuring that individual pursuits are resourced and managed effectively, setting or applying higher strategic direction, developing and maintaining relationships with partners and key consultants as well as client relationships (NB this includes engagement with UK partners as well as local). Pursuit will be led by Principal Consultant Business Development and Delivery, but technical content and strategy will be led by this role.
• Leads, managing and writing small/medium proposals related to education and English in Lebanon and provides significant inputs to larger/higher priority proposals with an emphasis on providing high quality context analysis and ensuring methodology appropriate to that context.

People Management

• Supports the professional development of team members and guides them on specific areas of sector expertise
• Effectively line manage reports including creating a positive, inclusive and customer focused work environment, acting as a role model by applying British Council policies and principles as appropriate and actively managing performance and engagement

Key Stakeholder & account management

• Build trusting relationships with key internal and/or external clients, partners and associates
• Develop and maintain networks of freelance consultants and associates

Key Relationships

External:

• Ministry of Education and Higher Education, MEHE
• Centre for Educational Research and Development, CERD
• International and local development organisations
• Teacher associations
• Private Sector: Corporate Social Responsibility Fund Managers
• Donors and agencies – EU, DFID, UN,  USAID and Nordics          
• Key influencers in education and English language teaching in-country
• Media channels in Lebanon

Internal:

• Country Director, Lebanon
• Principal Consultant Education and English, MENA
• Regional English Manager, MENA
• Levant English Cluster Lead
• Deputy Director, Lebanon
• Programmes Manager, Arts & Society
• Lebanon Programmes team and Exams teams. 
• Syria team
• Business Operations teams (marketing, finance, resources & customer service) country and regional level. 
• English Project Managers in the Levant cluster and across MENA.
• MENA Regional Schools Manager
• UK-based sector specialists

Role Requirements

Passport requirements/ Right to work in country: Candidates are expected to have researched whether they have the right to live and work in the country in which the role is based.  Given that our offices have different legal status depending on the work we do in those countries, we recommend that you contact HR in country for additional information on the likelihood of securing a visa if you are not a UK national. 

Direct contact or managing staff working with children? Yes

Person Specification

Language requirements:

Minimum / essential

• English C2 or equivalent

Desirable

• Arabic and French

Assessment Stage

• Shortlisting

Qualifications:

Essential

• First degree in field related to English or Education or First degree along with an equivalent level qualification (e.g. DELTA)

Desirable

• MA in Education or relevant qualification
• Project and programme management qualification
• Post-graduate qualification in Monitoring and Evaluation

Assessment Stage

• Shortlisting

Specific Knowledge & Experience:

Essential

• Proven sector knowledge on education policy and education systems development
• At least two years proven experience and demonstrable success as a project manager in a complex educational context       
• Proven experience of business development and delivery for a range of clients and partners, with specific focus on Ministries of Education, UN, World Bank and DfID
• Financial management
• Proven experience of developing and managing a range of strategic partnerships
• Ability to influence senior internal and external stakeholders

Desirable

• Sector knowledge in English
• Experience gained from work in education systems, either formal or non-formal.
• Experience in design and delivery of capacity building in education sector
• Experience of analyzing complex data and writing winning proposals, academic and policy related reports and speaking at events.
• Experience of Child Protection / working with children / managing staff and partners working with children.

Assessment Stage

• Shortlisting and/or interview

British Council Core Skills

Managing Projects 

Leads smaller projects – Experience of analyzing requirements with the sponsor/stakeholders, defining the specification, planning, revising, implementing and evaluating on small-to-medium scale and/or low risk projects.

Communicating & Influencing

Is creative and adaptable in communications – Able to use a range of non-standard and creative approaches to inform, and/or persuade others, extending beyond logical argument to influence decisions and actions.

Finance & Resource Management 

Supports budget management – experience of monitoring and controlling an agreed budget within a defined area, producing reports and analyses and contributing to planning.

Managing risk

Supports a risk management culture – Track record of identifying and highlighting risks and suggesting and managing mitigating actions.

Commercial & Business Development

Develops profitable business – able to define and develop profitable products/programmes/services within a defined area of business that respond to market opportunities and align to wider corporate strategies.

Assessment Stage

Shortlisting and Interview

British Council Behaviours

Creating Shared Purpose - More demanding

Creating clarity internally and externally about strategy and direction and inspiring others to play their part in it. 

Connecting with Others - More demanding

Showing a drive to understand and build connections with people beyond immediate need or task. 

Working Together - More demanding

Creating the environment in which people that have different aims can work together.

Being Accountable - More demanding

Aligning oneself and others to the mission and needs of the organisation. 

Assessment Stage

Interview