Education Assistant at United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

The Education Assistant will support the roll-out of Refugee Education 2030, the Refugee Education Strategy, in line with the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), which calls on States and relevant Stakeholders to contribute resources and expertise to expand and enhance the quality and inclusiveness of national education systems to facilitate access by refugee and host community children and youth to primary, secondary and tertiary education. Providing inclusive and equitable quality education is central to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the Education Assistant will assist the supervisor in ensuring UNHCR’s programming is in line with the SDGs.
Leveraging the growing global momentum, UNHCR is working to translate the objectives of the GCR into impactful results, including through follow-up on pledges made through the 2019 Global Refugee Forum. Contributing to this global roll-out of the GCR, the Education Assistant, in collaboration with the Education Section in the Division of Resilience and Solutions (DRS), will assist the supervisor in providing technical support to UNHCR countries and partners to advocate for and implement the objectives of Refugee Education 2030:

1. Promote equitable and sustainable inclusion in national education systems for refugees, asylum seekers, returnees, stateless and internally displaced persons
2. Foster safe enabling environments that support learning
3. Enable learners to use their education toward sustainable futures

The Education Assistant normally will work under the direct supervision of a higher grade Education position.
The incumbent will assist in UNHCR’s work regarding education and implementation of education programs. The Education Assistant will assist in liaising with partners to assess the education context, to develop an implementation plan and to monitor the programme and assess impact. S/he will work in collaboration with education partners to improve access to, and quality of, refugee education at all levels, both formal and non-formal. S/he supports the implementation of education approaches for emerging needs in refugee education, including attention to special needs, minorities, girls, pre-school education, and non-formal activities. The incumbent will support inter-sectoral linkages with child protection, GBV, gender, community services, livelihoods and health, among others. S/he prepares relevant documentation and follows-up on administrative requirements of education projects. Additionally, the Education Assistant will focus on strengthening education data and information as well as support follow up on individual case management and provision of counselling related to education and to general refugee protection through regular assignment to UNHCR field posts at the camp.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR’s core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties

• Assist in monitoring and supporting all existing formal and informal education programs, including implementing partner and community-based schools, and informal classes.
• Regularly collect, provide update and share information related to education, utilizing data collection to identify gaps and make recommendations as required
• Assist in the collection, analysis and reporting of core education data sets and maintenance of up to date Education Management Information System (EMIS)
• Provide regular reports on educational activities, achievements and challenges
• Perform specific administrative operational/control tasks for project/programme activities as assigned
• Undertake protection individual counselling for refugees utilising existing tools and standard operating procedures in place
• Represent UNHCR in monitoring of education projects.
• Foster inter-sectoral linkages and coordination with child protection, GBV, gender, community services, livelihoods/economic inclusion and health, among others.
• Support the training of UNHCR staff, sister UN agency staff, NGOs, and Ministry of Education officials on refugee education priorities and identified topics.
• Ensure active exchange of information and that best practices are identified, documented and disseminated.
• Prepare and support the drafting of education input in key internal and external documents and reports.
• Prepare documents and reports for clearance by the supervisor
• Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications

Years of Experience / Degree Level

• For G4 – 1 year relevant experience with High School Diploma; or Bachelor or equivalent or higher

Education;

• Social Sciences Business Administration

Relevant Job Experience

Essential

• Demonstrated work experience in education programmes. Field experience in education programme implementation and coordination in humanitarian and/or development contexts.
• Experience working with Governments, Ministry of Education and other line Ministries. Strong inter-personal skills in collaboration and coordination.

Desirable

• Demonstrated work experience in refugee education programmes. Knowledge and experience of UNHCR policies and standards. Experience in the area of child protection. Experience with educational research, teaching or education administration.

Functional Skills

• PR-Refugee Protection Principles and Framework
• IT-Computer Literacy
• CO-Drafting and Documentation
• ED-Technical support to education programmes and proposals
• CO-Cross-cultural communication
• TR-Training – Virtual and face to face
• ED-Global EiE standards and implementation

Language Requirements

• For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.
• For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.
• For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.