Save the Children
Child Safeguarding Statement for Adverts
Save the Children is committed to ensuring that all our personnel and programmes are absolutely safe for children.
We undertake rigorous procedures to ensure that only people suitable to work with children are allowed to join our organisation and all candidates will be therefore be subject to this scrutiny.
CS positioning statement:
We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.
Youth Development & Child Poverty National Lead
Do you have what it takes to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable young people? Are you interested in working innovatively with government and private sector partners to help youth develop their skills and confidence to gain employment? Save the Children is looking for an energetic, proactive manager to lead its youth development initiatives. A person with experience of developing and managing vocational skills and employability programmes and trainings, and collaborating with multiple stakeholders (government, academics, trade associations and private sector) to achieve the programme goal of enhancing decent employment of youth.
JOB TITLE: Youth Development & Child Poverty National Lead
TEAM/PROGRAMME: Program Development & Quality
LOCATION: Beijing
Number of Positions: 1
Grade: 2
Type of Contract: fixed term
CHILD SAFEGUARDING: Level 3: the role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process for staff.
ROLE PURPOSE:
As a member of the Program Development and Quality team, the Youth Development & Child Poverty National Lead is responsible for leading the development of high quality and innovative programs that deliver immediate and lasting change for young people in China.
SCOPE OF ROLE:
Reports to: Director of PDQ
Staff directly reporting to this post: no direct reports
If this role is a budget holder, approximately how much budget is the role managing: budget for capacity building and national level activities. Project budgets will be held by project managers in the provinces.
External Representation:
Interpersonal contact regular and varied in both oral and written forms. Negotiation and representation with senior level representatives including government level decision makers, donors, private corporations, and the wider Save the Children global community.
Travel: Frequent (over 6 working days per month)
Key accountabilities
KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:
Strategic Planning
· Provide strategic vision and direction to the Youth Development & Child Poverty program in Save the Children China
· Take ownership of the 2016-2018 & 2019-2020 the Program Strategies, and through coordination of field teams and with other members of the PDQ ensure the achievement of its goal and objectives while tracking progress against indicators. Year on year progress will be assessed against the strategy’s yearly milestones
· Be part of Save the Children’s regional and global networks and providing strategic input to regional and global thinking on youth development & child poverty on an as needs basis. Lead development and growth of the Program
· Ensuring that all country-wide initiatives are in alignment with the Program Strategy and follow Save the Children’s Theory of Change
Program/Project Development
· Develop and regularly review the thematic strategy for Youth Development & Child Poverty, including the development of a funding strategy.
· Lead on the design of cost effective, innovative and high quality project proposals working closely with member technical advisors, and program implementation and donor management teams
· Working with colleagues, positioning Save the Children as the leading organization for youth development in China, including representation of the program at national and international conferences and external events
· Network with external stakeholders and donors in coordination with the Communications and Donor Relations team
Technical Assistance and Programme Quality
· Develop, commission and/or manage research (of a high enough quality to publish) that can maximize the impact of Save the Children’s work on the Program.
· Directly provide or procure technical support and advice for baseline and end evaluations, development of packages for trainings, etc. at program and project level.
· Conduct internal workshops to disseminate learning, best practice and ensure that a high level of technical capacity is maintained.
· Regular monitoring of the Program Strategy indicators, in addition to global indicators, and feed this learning back into project design and implementation
· Working closely with Save the Children regional and global technical advisors to ensure the programs technical approaches are in alignment with regional and global initiatives, and learning is shared
· Ensure evidence of impact of interventions is rigorously maintained, documented and disseminated internally and externally as appropriate, to contribute to improvements in programme quality and policy engagement efforts.
· Ensure that Save the Children’s regional and technical expertise is reflected in our programming.
· In cooperation with the MEAL Specialist develop indicators and MEAL tools that assist the project staff to deliver quality project and create data to inform future program development and application to project proposals.
· Review of internal and external reports, with an emphasis on technical contents, and provide feedback and suggestions for improvement to colleagues.
· Lead in the development of a planning cycle for the Child Poverty sector, including annual, quarterly and monthly planning, including the follow-up of work plans.
Management of Key Policy Engagement Efforts
· Lead the development of policy engagement priorities and strategies in close liaison with the project team and the Communications team
· Prepare key policy briefing documents for positioning Save the Children on issues
· Track and maintain an up-to-date mapping of government and private sector developments in the field, including changes to policy and investment, and track their impact upon the program and its advocacy efforts Knowledge
Management and Learning
· Initiate and coordinate capacity building activities for key program staff, including identifying external training opportunities, and organizing peer learning groups and seminars
· Strengthen technical expertise by keeping up to date on the global debate, and incorporating learning from key research initiatives and regional/global trends to activities and program development
· Ensure that learning materials, related policies, operational research and good practice documentation are stored, sorted and shared on a timely basis
· Present the Program overall progress, strategies, learning and good practices in extended SMT and program meetings.
Person specification
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:
ESSENTIAL:
• Master’s degree on labour and social security, human resource development, business management, social science or equivalent fields;
• At least 5-7 years working experiences with preferably experiences on program development, monitoring and evaluation, policy research and stakeholder engagement in a given or broader field related to labour and economic development, youth empowerment, vocational education, entrepreneurship;
• Knowledge of project management cycle and experience in program strategy development, project design and proposal development
• Strong strategic thinking and analytical skills to interpret and present the Program Strategy, approaches and results.
• Ability to lead the thought and guide the Program team through constructive interaction and communications
• Advanced fluency in both Chinese and English
Desired:
• In-depth understanding on economic programming, sustainable approaches and the value of engaging the private sector
• Experiences working and connecting with high level government agencies, academics, vocational education system, trade associations and private sectors on related issues
• Experiences in developing employability skill training, vocational skill training program and provide training directly
• Passionate about helping vulnerable children and young people
• Excellent listening and inter-personal skills and ability to work well with disadvantaged and diversified populations
• High level of self-awareness and willingness to take criticism as an opportunity for growth
SCI values are indicated below and we expect all candidates to align with such values.
Accountability – Ambition – Collaboration – Creativity - Integrity
If you are interested in this position, please read the Child Safeguarding first, fill in the Application Form and send it back to beijingoffice.china@savethechildren.org before 28 Apr., 2018
