Support Officers and Support Managers Jobs in Kenya

Dynamic People Consulting is currently recruiting for one of its clients, Bridge International Academies. Bridge International Academies is a startup revolutionizing education across Africa with a truly unique business model and instructional program.

The company has launched a large-scale, franchise-like network of ultra low-cost, for-profit private primary schools in Kenya, and will expand across Africa. The schools profitably deliver high-quality education for less than $4 per child per month. Local school managers are able to operate their school businesses profitably, while creating a highly successful business at the central level.

This ensures that the school is not dependent on the vagaries of donor funding, but will rather continue to serve the communities as long as parents value the educational service we provide. To ensure the delivery of high quality education, Bridge International writes its own curriculum using Direct Instruction methodology. They also train and support their own teachers.

Bridge have already launched the first 12 schools in their network in the slums of Nairobi with tremendous success, and plan to rapidly scale the company to serve more than 1 million families in Africa.

1. Support Officer

We are seeking full-time Support Officer(s), who will help support and monitor the operations of a group of schools within our network.

Bridge International has developed extensive systems and tools for its operations that allow someone we hire from the local community to easily and successfully open and manage the operations of a school – we call this our “School in Box” model.
 

Most of the systems and tools we developed are low-tech and paper-based because of the environment in which we work. It starts with our very detailed Operators Manual and spans across all instructional, financial, operations and human resource management issues and systems.

Support Officers work with a group of our schools (both the school managers and the teachers in those schools) to ensure that the management and monitoring systems and tools that are part of our “School in a Box” are effectively implemented at individual schools both by school managers and teachers. This position is also critical in providing feedback to the central headquarters as to ways to improve upon these systems.

Support Officers focus on all of the elements of the operations at the school site.
 

These include:

  • Marketing & Recruiting New Students
  • Student Payment Systems
  • Monitoring instructional delivery by teachers (using guidelines and rubrics from our instruction team)
  • Personnel Management
  • Rules & Procedures
  • Facilities Management
  • And more
This is a very hands-on job, with the Support Officers spending time mainly in the field (in our case, the slums of Nairobi) working with schools about 80% of the time.

About You
  • You are a very process or system-oriented person.
  • You have experience implementing detailed systems, processes and rules in the field
  • You have experience managing and helping grow one or more small businesses in challenging environments.
  • You have proven that you are capable of motivating, supervising and supporting other managers, being supportive or tough when the situation is appropriate.
  • You have successfully mentored individuals over a long period of time
  • Experience in working in very poor communities (slums) is a real plus
  • You are not afraid of getting your hands dirty
  • You have experience managing projects with many moving pieces, and building and managing teams of people
  • You function well in a fast-paced informal environment where constant change is the norm and the bar for quality is set high.
  • You are extremely patient and have the ability to mentor & lead people who come from disadvantaged communities
  • Bachelors degree
Our team has a passionate belief that basic primary education is critical to the development of every child, family, community and nation. 

We believe that it is possible to address this critical need for poor families through new and innovative approaches leveraging the private sector, and that by providing low-cost but high-quality primary education, we will give millions of children the opportunity to accomplish their dreams. We are looking for someone who wants to join us in this rewarding task.

Requirements/Skills:
  • 5+ years experience in operations, management, education or related experience
  • Franchise or chain management experience in Kenya is a real plus
  • Driven, disciplined, self-motivated, and entrepreneurial
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Must be a team player and open to new approaches and ideas
  • Strong project management skills
  • Ability to organize, prioritize, and manage multiple tasks
  • Basic computer and web skills
  • Ability to dig deeper into issues and pay attention to detail
  • Being proactive in highlighting and addressing issues
2. Support Manager

The Support Manager will be managing a team of 4-6 Support Officers (SO’s), who in turn, would be managing 6-8 schools directly.

Bridge International has developed extensive systems and tools for its operations that enable a new hire from the local community to easily and successfully open and manage the operations of a school – we call this our “School in Box” model.
 

Most of the systems and tools are low-tech and paper-based because of the environment in which we work. It starts with a detailed Operators Manual and spans across all instructional, financial, operations and human resource management issues and systems.

Support Managers, through their team of SO’s (and sometimes directly) ensure that the management and monitoring systems and tools that are part of our “School in a Box” are effectively implemented at individual schools both by school managers and teachers.
 

This position is also critical in providing feedback to the central headquarters on how to improve these systems.

Support Managers are responsible for all the elements of the operations at the school site.
 

These include:
  • Marketing & Recruiting New Students
  • Student Payment Systems
  • Monitoring instructional delivery by teachers (using guidelines and rubrics from our instruction team)
  • Personnel Management
  • Rules & Procedures
  • Facilities Management
  • And more
This is a very hands-on job. Support Managers spend 50-70% of their time in the field visiting the schools. 

Additionally, the Support Manager is responsible for the following –
  • Authorize vendor payments to be made to the schools
  • Resolve issues arising between the SO & School Manager for smooth functioning of the school
  • Constantly evaluate and assess the performance of the school and SO’s
  • Attend parent meetings that are held at the school
  • Maintain relationships with the parent reps and the elders within the community
  • Ensure motivation of the staff at the school
About You
  • You are a very process or system-oriented person with an eye for detail
  • You have experience implementing detailed systems, processes and rules in the field
  • You have experience managing businesses in challenging environments.
  • You have proven that you are capable of motivating, supervising and supporting other managers, being supportive or tough when the situation is appropriate
  • You can set goals and targets for your staff
  • You have successfully mentored individuals over a long period of time
  • Experience in working in very underprivileged communities (slums) is a real plus
  • You are not afraid of getting your hands dirty
  • You have experience managing projects with many moving pieces, and building and managing teams of people
  • You function well in a fast-paced informal environment where constant change is the norm and the bar for quality is set high.
  • University degree and/or equivalent background, in, Business Administration, Financial Management, Economics, or related fields of operations.
Our team has a passionate belief that basic primary education is critical to the development of every child, family, community and nation. 

We believe that it is possible to address this critical need for poor families through new and innovative approaches leveraging the private sector, and that by providing low-cost but high-quality primary education, we will give millions of children the opportunity to accomplish their dreams.
 

We are looking for someone who wants to join us in this rewarding task.

Requirements/Skills:
  • 5-7 years experience of relevant professional work experience in operations, management, or education. Experience in managing diverse teams.
  • Knowledge and skills pertaining to Operations, including sales line management, financial, human resource and administration management experience
  • Detailed understanding of supply operations. Franchise or chain management experience in Kenya is a real plus
  • Driven, disciplined, self-motivated, and entrepreneurial
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Must be a team player and open to new approaches and ideas
  • Ability to coordinate various operational functions, to analyze and forecast accurately financial requirements, and to plan operations and resource management effectively.
  • Thoroughly skilful with project management
  • Proficient in Microsoft Office applications and basic web skills
Please send all applications to: Recruitment@dpckenya.com

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