View Vacancy - Skills for Prosperity Mexico – Programme Lead

Main purpose of job:

Your job will be to manage implementation of the £7.5m Mexico component of the global Skills for Prosperity programme which supports the development of Higher Education (HE) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Mexico, with the objective of:

• Reducing poverty and inequality, including gender inequality, and stimulating inclusive, sustainable economic growth
• Addressing skills gaps and increasing the relevance, quality and equity of HE and TVET
• Opening new markets for international businesses, including UK companies.

You will work closely with the delivery partner to ensure that the programme:

• Delivers impact in Mexico and represents good value for money
• Remains adaptive and flexible, in line with the established programme structure and theory of change
• Is coordinated with wider HMG efforts to build education links with the UK, identifying opportutnities and synergies with other areas of the Embassy’s work in Mexico, in the region and with other countries within the Skills for Prosperity Programme.

This a short term role to provide temporary cover for the Skills for Prosperity Mexico Programme Lead position. There is no guarantee that the role will be extended beyond six months.

Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve?:

Background:

The Skills for Prosperity Programme is part of the UK government’s £1.2bn Prosperity Fund, which itself forms part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA). This innovative Fund represents a step change in HMG’s approach to promoting economic development and prosperity overseas. The primary objective of the Fund is to support the broad-based and inclusive growth needed for poverty reduction. As well as contributing to inclusive growth in recipient countries, we expect the reforms brought about through the Fund to generate secondary benefits, including opportunities for international business including UK companies.

Through the Skills for Prosperity Programme, the UK Government plans to invest around £74m to support TVET/HE development in nine countries including Mexico. The £7.5m Mexico component of the Programme started delivery in December 2019, and is due to complete implementation in March 2023. Programme interventions are focussed primarily in four states: Chihuahua, Jalisco, Puebla and Oaxaca. The Programme has good ongoing engagement with Federal and local governments, and a wide range of relevant stakeholders.

The role:

The Skills for Prosperity programme in Mexico completed its inception phase in April 2020, and is now in the implementation phase which will last until March 2023.

The following requirements for the role are divided into a Programme Adviser element and a Programme Manager element:

Programme Advisor role (70%):

• Using technical expertise and operational leadership to steer programme delivery. Provide expertise alongside delivery partners to maximise high-quality implementation and outcomes of the programme.
• Ensure that the programme is run effectively, working alongside delivery partners to ensure key milestones are met and that risks are mitigated appropriately.
• Plan and implement engagement with government and wider stakeholders to achieve specific programme outcomes to influence the government’s approach and build their understanding of the TVET/HE sectors.
• Faciltate delivery activities, e.g. inward visits/ virtual visits by technical advisors and government engagement. Provide reporting from own activities.
• Conduct analysis and research on relevant policy developments, using this knowledge to shape programme delivery. E.g. analysis of UK priorities and/or local context.
• Act as the representative for the Skills programme with the Mexican government. Working with the delivery partner(s) and government officials to identify capability gaps, develop technical assistance and then contributing towards implementation of these capacity and capability building activities.
• In support of this, you will need to reflect host government interests to HMG officers within the Embassy and to relevant HMG officers in London. You will need to understand the broader UK offer and ensure we’re able to articulate it to a wide range of Mexican stakeholders (given that the skills development agenda permeates through all areas of economic development work).
• Build wide stakeholder networks in Mexico and in the UK to support and enable programme implementation and ensure that the programme is de-conflicted with other UK Government and donor work in Mexico.
• Support partnerships between relevant international organisations and local stakeholders/implementers to drive the development of the programme and TVET/HE sectors in Mexico.
• Support the Prosperity Fund’s policy and guidance on gender equality, women’s economic empowerment and inclusive growth.
• Secondary Benefits and non-ODA activity (5% of Advisor role):
  • Support generation of secondary benefits opportunities through the programme, including working with delivery partner and the UK’s Department of International Trade to ensure that commercial opportunities are followed up and realised.
  • Draw on a small additional non-ODA fund, in coordination with DIT, to build trade/investment links.

Programme Manager role (30%):

• Manage successful roll out of externally procured contract with the delivery partner. Ensure good value for money and monitor implementer compliance (e.g. SLAs). The role will require strong management of implementing partners ensuring they are performing well, finances are correctly administered and the programme’s benefits are realised. This will include ensuring the programme continues to offer value for money and is well managed.
• Deploy Embassy diplomatic levers to support the programme’s primary aim of reducing poverty and inequality and deepen Embassy engagement in the TVET/HE sectors (this may involve regional within Mexico). Work across Departmental and other boundaries to manage programme team dynamics effectively.
• Maintain a strong network with your Skills programme colleagues in the UK and other partner countries, adapting the programme on the basis of lessons learnt and opportunities arising from potential synergies with other country programmes (this may involve international travel).
• Provide specialist technical advice to the programme team / HMG, including including on Monitoring, Reporting, Evaluation and Learning (MREL), working with the programme team to monitor and evaluate programme effectiveness.
• In coordination with the central programme team in the UK, sign off delivery partner milestones and feed into centralised reporting systems, including internal programme reporting, both to wider HMG and into the Prosperity FUnd Monitoring and Reporting platform, working directly with the Global Britain Education and Skills Hub.

Underpinning requirements of the overall role:

• Ensure the programme remains aligned with UK government priorities and approach.
• Ensure the programme is ODA compliant, in accordance with OECD DAC rules.
• Ensure the programme complies with the International Development Act, including the International Development (Gender Equality) Act 2014; meets the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC)’s criteria; is untied; meets UK government transparency commitments on ODA spend; and complies with UK Government audit requirements.

Resources managed (staff and expenditure):

• Programme manager for large-scale multi-year contracts from 2019-23 (£7.5m)

We are looking for a proactive, creative self-starter who can quickly get up to speed and operate in a fast-paced environment, largely unsupervised, delivering to deadlines. S/he/they will need excellent interpersonal and communications skills to build strong relations within the Embassy, with delivery partners and stakeholders in Mexico and the UK.

Essential on arrival:

• Graduate with a university degree
• Knowledge of the education sector from having worked in the public and/or private sectors
• Experience in developing policy advice/analysis and delivering successful programmes
• Minimum 3 years experience in education/skills policy and programming, ideally in a development context
• Passion for education and a desire to improve skills development
• A strong understanding of gender issues
• Computer literate, working with Microsoft Windows and able to manage information effectively with available computer systems
• Language: fluent in both written and spoken English and Spanish