Education Project Coordinator -Better Learning Programme (BLP)

Role and responsibilities:

NRC’s Better Learning Programme (BLP) is a psychosocial support (PSS) programme which can be integrated within education programming. It is NRC’s flagship classroom-based PSS intervention for children in crisis-affected communities. The programme is a holistic approach to supporting children’s recovery and improving their conditions for learning. The BLP consists of three components of programme intervention. The first – BLP-1 – is a general, classroom-based PSS approach targeting all children and young people. The second – BLP-2 – is a small group intervention to support resilience amongst a more specific target group of academic under-achievers. The third – BLP-3 – is a specialised PSS approach to address nightmares, which many children experience as a chronic symptom of traumatic stress.

The BLP Technical Coordinator will work under the Education core competency and be responsible for: 

• providing technical support and monitoring the implementation of the BLP in the area offices in Ethiopia
• mapping capacity building needs,
• designing and implementing capacity building packages,
• monitoring programme quality using existing tools and guidelines and providing implementation support and guidance to each AO to ensure that BLP is implemented and reported according to the programme log frames and proposals.

Generic Responsibilities:

• Adherence to NRC policies, guidance and procedures.
• Ensure that projects target beneficiaries most in need of protection, explore and assess new and better ways to assist;
• Promote the rights of IDPs/returnees in line with the advocacy strategy;
• Contribute to the development of education guidance both technical and implementation;
• Support the roll-out of the NRC BLP education activities under the technical management of the Education CC Specialist;
• Provide PSS technical direction and ensure high technical quality of project activities;
• Provide regular progress reports to the Education Specialist;
• Ensure capacity building of AO staff and transfer key skills Country offices (BLP, Teacher’s in Crisis Contexts, Child Safeguarding);

Specific Responsibilities:

• Support the mainstreaming of BLP into the Education strategy\ programme and contribute to the BLP Action Plan (2023-2025).
• Ensure BLP is planned, implemented and reported in accordance with the education log frames and proposals and in line with the BLP manuals, and toolkits including capacity building, students’ sessions and data collection.
• Ensure all BLP activities are carried out with the active inclusion of the most vulnerable people (girls, children with disabilities, teaching and non-teaching staff and guardians).
• Responsible for mapping the BLP staff capacity needs, to deliver capacity building to project staff and transferring key skills through on-the-job training and mentoring in coordination with the education specialist, PMs, and PCs.
• Focal person for BLP M&E and responsible for keeping accurate records of assessment activities, BLP baseline, workshop and training reports.
• Participate in the NRC- MoE BLP technical steering committee meetings and work closely to MoE members on following up on the contextualization\ integration of BLP with the education specialist, PMs and PCs.
• Provide support to the Education Specialist in the development of BLP activities in proposal development and reporting requirements.
• Support the education teams (NRC staff and partners staff) in implementing and monitoring of BLP activities
• Act as BLP technical person for upcoming BLP partnerships which includes capacity building, technical support and quality monitoring;
• Develop a workplan to support AOs supporting their BLP-PSS and Educatiaon Strategy;
• Roll-out across relevant Area Offices BLP materials (such as the BLP Guidance Kit, Monitoring Evaluation and Research toolkits, the BLP children\ youth wellbeing programmatic documents, the capacity development Kit etc.);
• Compile and disseminate best practice, lessons learnt, recommendations, and case studies from BLP implementation, creating and tracking against a project improvement plan.