Learning and Experimentation Designer at Educate!

Position Overview

Learning Point is seeking a driven and passionate Learning & Experimentation Designer to join our ambitious and high-performing Learning Point Office/Program in Kenya. Based in Kenya, the Learning & Experimentation designer will play a key role in conceptualizing and designing curriculum for Learning Point's innovative out-of-school-youth program. We have developed a dynamic and high-performing team in Kenya, and as we grow, the need for exceptional individuals hungry for an opportunity to lead and build will only grow. This role presents an opportunity to impact livelihoods through the development of training programs that will ensure we create a lasting impact on the motorbike couriers and informal sector business owners we serve.

You could be the perfect fit for this role if you:

 

• Are self driven and have examples when you have kept iterating to create value
• Are collaborative, open minded and flexible
• Are passionate about youth development
• Are passionate about using human centered design
• Have demonstrable experience in producing engaging learning activities and compelling content
• Are passionate about collecting and analyzing user engagement data


 

About Educate!

Educate! is a non-profit social enterprise that prepares youth in Africa with the skills to succeed in today's economy. We've massively scaled up our program in the past several years, growing more than 4x since 2014. In 2018, we're working in 175 secondary schools in Rwanda, 60 pilot schools in Kenya, and over 700 schools in Uganda reaching over 42,000 students intensively and 530,000 more broadly. And our Vision for 2024 is even bigger -- to measurably impact one million youth annually across Africa.

Our model has proven to have a massive impact after the program, students earned DOUBLE the income of a control group and had a 44% increase in business creation. Our graduates change their lives and their communities, such as Lillian Aero who employs over 100 AIDS-affected women.

Educate!'s team includes almost 200 staff and almost 300 volunteer youth mentors. We have been backed by top foundations such as MasterCard, Big Bang Philanthropy, Mulago, Echoing Green, Ashoka, and Global Innovation Fund. Educate! won the 2015 WISE Awards, and was featured by Bill Gates, an Al Jazeera documentary, Forbes 30 under 30, Clinton Global Initiative and The Brookings Institution as one of the 14 case studies in their global scaling education learning initiative.

Performance Objectives

Curriculum Design

 

• Develop relevant, engaging curricula and assessments through research and engagement with both the youth and subject matter experts
• Manage projects from inception and design phase to production and release. This includes budgeting, planning, coordination, development and quality assurance of various programs and activities
• Utilize instructional design concepts and principles to design and develop instructional interactions to create interactive and engaging course content
• Writing, editing, and structuring course content for learner engagement and retention, evaluating content for efficacy, and implementing feedback from program reviews and experiments to inform content iterations.
• Manage and support the junior learning designers and perform quality assurance on their work


 

Training

 

• Oversee training of trainers on delivering learning material and ensure quality standards are maintained
• Conduct routine training needs assessments of the trainers
• Choose the most appropriate training methods per case (virtual, simulated, mentoring, on the job training, professional development classes, etc.)
• Oversee training and operations of various support teams
• Research and recommend new training methods

Design Experimentation

 

• Design and prioritize experiments, based on the product and business strategies
• Develop frameworks and templates for designing and documenting design experiments and validated learnings/insights
• Design experiments on user engagement, content development processes and methods of content delivery for improved content development processes
• Collect, analyze and interpret data to inform program design iterations
• Work closely with the Product Manager on the research and testing of new approaches to content development and delivery, and contribute to general innovation

Learning & Networking

 

• Complete internal designer training and certifications
• Knowledgeable of key trends, strategies, and language from the fields of education, leadership and entrepreneurship
• Learn from local field staff, experimentation, and referencing international research
• Proactively network with other organizations from diverse fields



 

Qualifications

 

• 3-5 years of experience in designing and implementation of blended learning
• Extensive knowledge of instructional design theories and implementation with the ability to complete full training circle (assess needs, plan, develop, monitor and evaluate)
• In depth understanding and application of human-centered or iterative design approaches
• Adequate knowledge of content management systems, learning management systems and other web delivery tools
• Experience with analyzing data and identifying trend lines and insights that will help improve content development process
• Familiarity with traditional and modern training methods and techniques
• Experience working with out-of-school youth and/ youth from economically marginalized communities would be an added advantage
• Advanced organizational skills with the ability to handle multiple assignments
• Strong communication skills
• Up to date on industry trends and able to stay ahead of the curve.
• Hands-on experience with running and managing exploratory and evaluative qualitative research

Educate! Culture

We're inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.

 

• We Put Youth First - The youth we serve come first. Always. In everything. That means we wake up thinking of ways we can serve youth even better and get the highest impact out of every dollar that we spend. It means Educate! doesn't own a single vehicle, because we'd rather take the bus if it means one more student can participate. It means making every decision as the future depends on it — because if we get our way, it does.
• We Are Always Learning - When you work at Educate!, educating yourself is part of your job too. We encourage every employee to find the best book on management; share the latest article on graphic design; bring in your favourite college mentor, or meet the researcher pushing the edge of the field. We are always thirsty for knowledge and love to share.
• We Only Solve a Problem Once - We are allergic to band-aids so we love the person who brings the new system to solve the problem for good, even problems we haven't recognized yet.
• We Are Flexible - We thrive on change — we're driving it. We are growing every day, so we have to adapt quickly to meet new challenges, and our team keeps up.
• We Exceed Expectations - We assume we can achieve the impossible because we already have, year after year. We want our staff to create your own challenges, ask the toughest questions, and dream scary big!

Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do.

Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community. In creating this environment, we encourage people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team.