Head of Training

Summary

Lively Minds is seeking a Head of Training. The postholder will be part of our senior management team and will be responsible for developing strategies, action plans, content and material to achieve our scale goal.

In particular, finding creative, fun and effective ways to build government motivation and technical ability to run the programme to quality standards.

The postholder will also build the capacity of the Lively Minds staff team to support them to provide technical assistance to government partners.

About the role

The programme is delivered using a training of trainer’s approach, with Lively Minds staff training local government teams, who in turn train community-based trainers.

In order to scale successfully, we need to ensure that government partners have the will and the skill to deliver the programme with fidelity and to quality standards.

We therefore provide a standardised 2-year package of technical assistance (training, coaching, mentoring, tools) to government, with the expectation that after this period the programme will be embedded and government partners can sustain it themselves.

The postholder will be part of our senior management team and will be responsible for developing and implementing the technical support package.

You will need to find creative, fun and effective ways to drive high performance and ensure the package is simple and cost-effective enough to scale.

You will also need to build the capacity of the Lively Minds staff team to support them to provide technical assistance package to government partners.

The postholder will jointly line manage the Global L&D Coordinator to implement the Government Uptake strategy and capacity building for the local government teams.

Main duties and responsibilities

Strategic Development

• Contribute to the global scale and sustainability strategy for Lively Minds.
• Develop and implement plans to support the achievement of strategic goals.
• Identify and drive forward government motivation, uptake and sustainability strategies.

“Government as doer” strategy

• Develop and implement strategies, founded in behavioural science techniques, to build the motivation, generate buy-in and enthusiasm for the programme from government trainers, so they value the programme and want to do well in it.
• Ensure that programme activities and processes are optimised, so that burdens are minimised and tasks are simplified.
• Build the technical skills of government trainers to deliver programme activities to high standards, by developing training content, coaching frameworks and tools (e.g. how to monitor, how coach and give feedback, problem solving).
• Develop training and tools for government that will build their general ability to coordinate and project manage the programme (e.g skills in work planning, SMART goals, data analysis, problem solving)
• Analyse bottlenecks affecting the quality of delivery or sustainability and find creative scalable ways to raise performance levels of government implementers (e.g. normalising feedback and self-reflection, incentivising good behaviours, accountability measures for low performance)
• Work with the Head of Monitoring & Evaluation and the Head of Content (ECD) to evaluate government uptake, capacity, motivation levels.
• Review and iterate strategy and approaches in response to feedback loops.
• Create and manage organizational know-how to support government uptake.

Implementation excellence

• Support and train implementing staff teams to execute the strategy, developing coaching and training content and processes for staff to ensure an effective cascade/training of trainers approach.
• Work with COO, Head of Content and Country Directors to identify implementation challenges and risks, and create effective systems, tools, trainings, materials to improve quality of implementation, and specifically the cascade delivery approach.
• Work with other team members to identify ways to improve the programme, curriculum, approaches, systems and practices to ensure it is as simple, efficient and customer-focussed as possible.
• Manage the Learning and Development Specialist
• Line manage the Learning and Development Specialist jointly with the Head of HR,L&D.
• You may be assigned any other responsibility in agreement with your line manager, in contribution to Lively Minds work and in recognition of your experience and skills. #
• It is therefore expected for staff to be flexible and willing to contribute to the work of the wider team.

To succeed in this role, you:

• Are an excellent communicator & trainer – you thrive when teaching others, whether that be in a formal classroom, or by finding teaching opportunities in day-to-day activities
• Love to develop creative training and support materials (guides, checklists) & understand how to make learning fun, easy and stickable
• Are able to drive high performance in others by setting clear goals and expectations
• Are creative, proactive, and energetic
• Are a team player that values and prioritises inclusivity
• Are able to deliver high-quality thoughtful work in a fast-pace high pressure environment

Technical abilities

Essential

• Minimum of 8 years of developing and delivering training curriculums and achieving proven results
• Experience in creating user-friendly tools and processes to support project and performance management
• Excellent communication (English), both oral and written
• Experience managing and coaching others
• Ability to manage a complex and varied work load and to work under pressure

Desirable

• Behaviour-change experience
• Project management or change management experience
• Experience working with governments in global south