Assistant Lecture for Soft Skills
About Kepler College
The challenge: All across sub-Saharan Africa, millions of young people struggle every day with access to education and employment – and the kinds of livelihoods that lead to economic security and mobility for themselves and their families. Every young person deserves the chance to be educated; every young person deserves the opportunity to have a meaningful job.
Kepler College has been established in Rwanda to offer affordable, scalable and competency-based higher education programs with best job prospects for graduates, ensuring a job for graduates being a key driver of everything being done at the College.
The key aspect of Kepler College pedagogy is learning by doing with a primary focus on equipping students with 21st century transferable skills that make them stand out at the labor market. In this program, students gain knowledge and skills needed to succeed in today’s global economy.
Vision: To become a leading competency-based higher education institution in Sub-Saharan Africa with outstanding graduate employment outcomes that lead to economic mobility.
Mission: To offer competency-based, accessible, employment-driven tertiary education, conduct applicable research and offer innovative and scalable community service to support the development of Rwanda.
Motto: Educating Africa’s youth for tomorrow’s opportunities
Core Values:
- We work with Purpose
- We drive Innovation
- We embrace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
- We practice Transparency
- We seek Balance
The Graduate Employment Program (GEP)/Soft&Skills Career Development (SCAD)
In an effort to improve TVET employment outcomes and enhance teachers’ active pedagogy, Kepler is working with Rwanda Polytechnic to provide the Soft Skills and Career Development (SCAD) project. Under this joint partnership, senior leaders of Rwanda Polytechnic and Kepler have consulted about how Kepler could provide technical support on soft skills and career development to support TVET sector priorities in line with the Ministry of Education’s Education Sector Strategic Plan.
Leadership at Rwanda Polytechnic has identified needs for technical support in the SCAD project in several areas including digital, pedagogical, and language competencies among teachers and optimal system to support students’ career development. Both Kepler and Rwanda Polytechnic have reached a shared understanding that Kepler will provide technical support to Rwanda Polytechnic during implementation of the envisioned soft skills and career development program that will impact thousands of students, hundreds of teachers and career staff across Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centers (IPRCs).
The long-term goal of the SCAD project is to improve student outcomes by empowering TVET instructors to effectively implement and iterate on soft skills, career readiness and industrial attachment curricula that will prepare students for employment. The project works around the following major objectives:
- Prepare soft skills development modules
- Tackle teachers’ capacity gaps on teaching soft skills and career service modules
- Offer jointly with Rwanda Polytechnic teachers’ soft skills training and career services to RP students
- Support graduates’’ employment
About the Role
In line with the GEP/SCAD Project, Kepler College is looking for an outstanding candidate to fill the role of Assistant Lecturer for Soft Skills. The role will include designing materials for both teacher and student training and running coaching and ongoing support for Rwanda Polytechnic staff teaching in soft skills through the use of active pedagogy in order to improve employment outcomes for Rwanda Polytechnic graduates.
In addition, the Assistant Lecturer will collect data on a regular basis and will use the data to plan for student interventions based on their needs and advise both Kepler College and Rwanda Polytechnic leadership on further interventions needed for better ways to support students for improved employment outcomes.
In contrast to traditional lecturing positions, Assistant Lecturers at Kepler College are focused on creating student learning experiences that are active and encourage students to be self-guided learners.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Innovatively work to implement strategies leading to a high graduates’ employment rate
- Create and/or modify lesson plans based on individual college needs using the specified format provided
- Teach classes/offer training and coaching to Rwanda Polytechnic instructors in areas of active pedagogy, instructional technology, and soft skills teaching and learning
- Work with Kepler College’s SCAD Team and collaborate with assigned Rwanda Polytechnic instructors to co-teach soft skills modules to Rwanda Polytechnic’s final year class in compliance with terms and conditions of the SCAD Project
- Regularly evaluate student learning through competency/project-based assessments, including both formative and summative assessments and provide clear and actionable feedback to students
- Conduct and facilitate other forms of assessments as needed
- Utilize student data to make informed decisions to guarantee all student progress through the curriculum
- Support Trained TOTs to conduct students’ office hours and create other channels for open and positive communication with students
- Advise and collaborate with both Kepler College and RP staff on ways to improve curriculum and instruction based on data and observations
- Under the direction of the faculty leadership, collaborate with the Learning and Design team in planning and implementing new learning content
- Participate and/or co-lead various activities such as meetings, workshops and seminars as may be scheduled from time to time
- Undertake any other activities assigned from time to time by the Manager of Special Projects
Required Qualifications
- Masters Degree in Management, Project Management, Education, Communications, Leadership, or any other related field
- 2 year of experience teaching, preferably at higher education level in East Africa;
- Ability to support students in their various learning needs;
- Knowledge of trends and development in the fields of Employable Skills, with emphasis on skills most sought by employers in Rwanda and East Africa.
- Excellent communication, interpersonal, organizational and networking skills;
- Good command of English as a language of instruction;
- Demonstrated problem-solving and critical thinking skills;
- Proven ability to work independently as well as collaboratively with colleagues to productively contribute to teams with less or minimal supervision;
- Ability to coordinate and manage multiple tasksks/projects and competing and conflicting priorities in a fast-paced, changing environment;
- Working knowledge of Microsoft, Google suites, and conferencing software such as Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Zoom, etc;
- Passion for education and interaction with students;
- Demonstrated understanding of how students learn and how to support the most struggling ones;
- Willingness to experiment, try things out, and learn constantly
Preferred Qualifications and Experience
- Doctorate degree in Management, Project Management, Education, Communications, Leadership, or any other related field with 2 years of experience
- Master’s degree in Communications, Leadership, Management, Project Management, Education or any other related field with 4 years of experience
- Experience teaching in non-traditional, learner-centered teaching environments (either in a formal education setting or less formally through mentoring, management, coaching, etc.) ideally with a focus on employability and using competency/project-based learning
- Demonstrated adaptability and commitment to innovation in Learning and Teaching pedagogy
- Experience evaluating the effectiveness of programs and making recommendations for improvements
- Demonstrated ability to manage and maintain positive external stakeholder relationships
Reports to: Manager of Special Projects
Application link:
https://kepler1.bamboohr.com/careers/185
Deadline:
Apply by November 10th, 2023
Benefits:
- Competitive salary (calculated in USD) commensurate with experience
- Kepler College will pay for work-related expenses and trips that have been initially approved by the line manager.
- Health insurance
- 18 days/year for annual leave
- Additional days of vacation during December and April breaks
Kepler College values diversity as a paramount aspect of growth and provides equal opportunities. Discrimination against employees based on gender, race, religion, physical abilities, social status, beliefs, and cultural values is strictly forbidden
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