Learning and Development Manager - Lively Minds

Lively Minds, an award-winning NGO, is partnering with Ghana Education Services (GES) to roll-out an innovative, early childhood development programme. We are hiring in Ghana to support our exciting plans to scale the programme to 60 districts, in 8 regions. To find out more about our programme, please visit www.livelyminds.org.

Job Description

Main Duties and Responsibilities

L&D Strategy 

• Develop an effective L&D strategy that proactively supports our expansion and scaling ambitions by firstly conducting an in-depth skills and behavioural gap analysis and understanding the reality of how we work 

• Ensure that our L&D strategy speaks to our own people requirements, but also the requirements of our eco-system of funders, research and government partnerships and other significant stakeholders/partners 

• Ensure that our L+D strategy not only develops the leaders, and future leaders of our organisation, but deveops all of our staff in a way that is meaningful and motivating and is understood to be part of the Employee Value Proposition 

• Ensure that we have the right platform, processes and tools to manage L+D appropriately for our organisation 

Capacity and Capability Building Initiatives  

• Create an ongoing suite of creative, clear and measurable L+D initiatives to deliver the strategy in a timely manner and demonstrate value for money 

• Test new initiatives (where required) in a pilot environment and manage expectations accordingly  

• Use your experience, network and best practice to leverage/create and manage structured “learning opportunities” within, and external to, the organisation as well as virtually.   

• Create “new country” briefings, that includes culture and behaviour training, for staff  before we start working in different countries 

Create L&D courses, Deliver and Measure Effectiveness 

• Create a range of L+D courses (including co-creation of activities with external partners where required) for different cohorts (including leadership) 

• Deliver courses, this will be a blend of remote and in person learning activities. 

• Monitor the progress and impact of courses, analysing feedback and making improvements as needed and ensure that they deliver value for money 

• Identify external learning opportunities and manage relationships with external L&D providers, ensured these are aligned with the L&D strategy and within budget 

Career Paths and Succession Planning 

• With the support of the Head of HR, L&D create structured career paths across teams in the organisations and design learning and support interventions to support these 

• Support the Head of HR, L&D in succession planning L+D activities (including at an individual level) 

• Design a process to flag and monitor “flight risks” working closely with the HR team 

Onboarding and Quality Assurance of L&D  

• Create and manage (including delivey of specific modules) effective onboarding training that includes activtiies at pre-join, first month, first 100 days etc.  

• Support, train and monitor hiring managers/teams in the onboarding process 

• Onboard any contractors (in existing countries and in new entry countries) and ensure they can “live and breathe” the LM values and behaviours 

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.

Required Skills or Experience

To succeed in this role, you: 

• are passionate about developing others and love to find creative and fun ways to enable others to learn and thrive  

• are able to drive high performance in others by setting clear goals and expectations  

• are an excellent planner, communicator & trainer - you thrive when teaching others, whether that is in a formal classroom, or by finding clear opportunities in day-to-day activities 

• can deliver great results within a strict budget  

• can travel to Uganda, Ghana and other countries that we operate in 

• are able to deliver high-quality thoughtful work in a fast-pace high pressure environment  

• are proactive and creative but have a keen awareness of the environment that we operate in and are sensitive to this  

• are a team player that values and prioritises inclusivity 

• ensure that you bring external best practice and learning to Lively Minds by networking, attending conferences and having a large appetitie for learning and continually developing 

Technical abilities 

Essential 

• Experience in creating and implementing L&D strategies for an organisation that spans multiple countries (preferably within the Global South) 

• Experience in developing and delivering training programmes and achieving proven results  

• Ability to manage a complex and varied workload and to work under pressure 

Desirable  

• If you have experience coaching others, a coaching certification is desirable. 

• Behaviour-change experience 

• Worked in a charity or NGO operating within or across the Global South