Employer Partnerships and Alumni Coordinator at Hatua Likoni

About Hatua Network:

In Kenya, and across the continent, today’s youth bulge is a unique opportunity for economic growth and development. Hatua Network is a community organization working to simultaneously address the needs of youth and employers, thereby strengthening the supply and demand sides of Mombasa’s employment market.

We do so by providing top performing students from low income families with scholarships, mentoring, career guidance and access to career opportunities. These programs enable youth to develop the character, values, skills and networks they need to successfully contribute to and benefit from Kenya’s growing economy.

Our transformative, interlocking programs support youth over a period of 10 years, through high-school mentoring focused on soft skill, leadership development programs for secondary graduates, one-on-one professional career coaching for university students, and career linkages and workplace skills for our tertiary graduates. Throughout we work closely with the private sector to source for mentors and career opportunities for our youth, while ensuring our programs prepare youth with the skills and character traits employers seek.

To date we are serving 560 young people, including 470 of whom we are currently sponsoring and mentoring through secondary and tertiary education, and 90 who have completed college or university. Of those who graduated more than 1 year ago 93% are working, earning an average income that is 3X the combined average income of their parents. This is a total transformation from poverty to professional careers.

About the role

We provide access to education, but completing a university degree doesn’t always guarantee that students successfully transition into the workplace. As the Employer Partnerships and Alumni Coordinator, you will support our alumni in securing employment opportunities in industries they are interested in, and have been trained to work in. You will cultivate relationships and referral opportunities with employers and by positioning Hatua Network alumni as a high quality talent pool for employers across the country, you will help build a large, strong and diverse network of companies eager to hire them. You will also supervise career coaching for alumni by managing the alumni officer to ensure they have the job search skills to succeed in the application process.

Over the years, you will help build a thriving network of alumni, who succeed in their careers, life and communities, and who are deeply committed to Hatua Network and give back to future generations of youth.

Your responsibilities will include:

Cultivate meaningful Employer Partnerships  to create and leverage synergies between Hatua’s programs and employers

• Cultivate Hatua’s industry relations by positioning our value to employers around the country and pitching Hatua’s alumni pool as a recruitment channel to relevant individuals and organizations.
• Network with target employers sought by our alumni. Help students secure meetings with professionals who can help them build their network in their field and coach them to take advantage of these networking opportunities.
• Understand employer needs and support Hatua’s curriculum development and mentoring teams to help ensure our programs meet these needs.
• Partner with employers to co-develop internship programs for Hatua alumni and accompanying performance assessment tools to offer work experience opportunities to recent graduates.
• Create and implement a strategy and systems to follow up with the employers of our alumni to assess their performance on the job and provide constructive feedback to alumni during their first year on the job in order to improve their soft skills and workplace skills.
• Create and implement a communications strategy for employers. Ensure high priority employer partners receive personalized and frequent communication.
• Maintain up to date relationship management tracking for all companies.
• Present to employers Hatua’s university student mentoring program and refer those who are interested in nominating mentors to the team for follow-up.

Ensure 100% of Hatua alumni transition into jobs relevant to their career:

• Manage and support the alumni officer, who is responsible for 1-on-1 and group career coaching that prepares alumni to excel in the job search. You will ensure the alumni officer successfully:
  •  Manages and runs alumni boot camps, which will equip recent graduates with the mindset and skills needed to successfully navigate the job search process.
  • Provides personalized coaching to graduating students, and any alumni who is not employed, through their job search process, and support them in their networking efforts.
  • Collects and provides feedback on CVs and cover letters from all graduates.
  • Refers alumni for relevant opportunities and follows up throughout their application process to ensure their engagement with our network of employers is positive and helps build Hatua’s reputation.
  • Ensures alumni compliance with employer requirements as they prepare for new jobs.
  • Monitors alumni income and identifies those who are unemployed or underemployed, supports these alumni to seek and secure job opportunities.

Support Hatua’s mentors by developing appropriate tools and trainings that help mentors support their mentees job search process.

• Curate professional industry groups which allow students to have broader access and insight into professional advice and networks:
• Set up industry specific groups consisting of Hatua alumni, mentors and students, and provide clear guidelines on how groups will run.
• Encourage and prepare alumni to take the lead in coordinating the meetings of the various professional groups.
• Support champions within each group to regularly bring alumni, mentors and students together under professional themes.
• Track the progress of professional industry groups, and provide support where needed and continuously iterate on the program to optimize its impact.

Ensure Hatua alumni remain closely connected to each other and to Hatua, and that these relationships are of ongoing mutual support.

• Manage and support the alumni officer, who is responsible for engaging alumni in community building and community service activities. You will ensure the alumni officer successfully:
  • Creates and implements an alumni communications strategy
  • Connects all Hatua students, alumni and mentors using LinkedIn or another platform
  • Hosts regular alumni engagement activities online and in person
  • Supports alumni to recruit fellow alumni into open roles with their employers.
  • Oversees the growth and impact of Hatua’s alumni network
  • Engages alumni to support Hatua by donating funds, time or participating in mentoring.
  • Recognizes alumni for outstanding achievements and service to others
  • Drafts monthly alumni highlights for social media and Hatua’s newsletters.
• General Program Management:
  • Track alumni related programs and successes, maintain updated alumni data, and ensuring regular reporting.
  • Regularly collect alumni and employer feedback on ways to strengthen the department
  • Continuous iterate on our methodologies, stay updated with industry trends and best case practices, finding innovative ways to provide value to our students and partners.
  • Work closely with curriculum and mentoring departments to jointly improve quality of our soft skills and career skills trainings, career fairs and mentorship programs.
• Overall program quality control to ensure every alumni has a support they need to realize their career potential.

Who we are looking for

You are highly passionate about advancing the social sector and you have a strong interest in youth empowerment and workforce development. You are excited by the thought of supporting young people towards great careers.

• Sales and Partnership Building:
• You have past results in pitching an idea, product or service to organizations and nurturing the relationships required to make the idea come to live
• You have relationship building skills and past results growing partnerships over time
• Strong networking skills and ability to open doors
• You are confident, persuasive and able to pitch the value of our students to potential employers.
• The idea of networking with professionals and HR departments in different industries is energizing to you.  Existing networks with employers is a plus.
  • You have strong managerial skills and a track record of supporting a direct report to achieve their goals.
  • You have experience rolling out a new program, service or product. You are action-oriented and develop creative and practical strategies to implement new ideas to deliver the desired results.
  • You have at least five to seven years of total work experience with clear results relevant to this role, for example in either youth employability, sales, partnerships, marketing, recruitment or HR.
  • You have strong project management skill and mindset and proven ability to organize your own workload with diverse priorities.
  • You track data with attention to detail and draw insights that inform the strategy of your work.
  • Experience in providing career guidance and having a strong understanding of the challenges facing entry level job seekers is an added advantage.

You have the cultural fit to work with the team at Hatua Network, if

• You are 100% values driven and want to instill strong values in the next generation
• You enjoy working with and for the community
• You are a great team player, people talk about you being helpful and collaborative
• You are able to work independently and bring results in an unstructured environment
• You enjoy diversity and you are generally optimistic about the future

Why work with us?

• We get a lot of fulfillment by working with underprivileged youth and seeing them transform their lives over the 10 years they engage closely with us.  If you enjoy building deep emotional connections and seeing the impact of your work, this job is for you
• Our team has a deep sense of ownership over the organization. Everyone has the chance to take a leadership role and contribute to the organization’s growth
• Build interesting networks
• We believe in personal growth and you will have a lot of opportunity for career development as the organization grows
• We have a strong sense of family within our team and understand the importance of having some level of flexibility around working hours

Other information

The successful candidate will start in December 2020. You will be based in Mombasa, and work between our offices in Likoni and on Mombasa Island. We’ll arrange a 6-month probation period with learning and delivery objectives.