Country Project Director TESS - India

Job Title	Country Project Director TESS - India
Directorate or Region	South Asia		Department/Country	TESS - India
Location of post	New Delhi		Pay Band	E
Reports to	TESS-India Project Director, Open University, UK Director – Education, British Council India (for administrative purposes only)		Duration of job	Fixed term contract till May 2015
Purpose of job:  Is responsible for the strategic direction and planning of the project across India, identifying opportunities to extend reach and sustainably grow the TESS-India network. Acts as a senior ambassador for the TESS-India project in India, building relationships with key stakeholders at national and state level. Manages the TESS-India academic team in country. Context and environment:   The British Council Our operations in the four main metro cities and through libraries in five further cities engage with over 2.5 million people a year. We aim to increase our reach to 3 million (including 1.5 million enquiries) by 2013. We work across 3 strategic business units, Education and Society, English and the Arts.    We have 4 teaching centres in Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai. Our nine libraries have a membership of more than 60,000, while our Exams business offers UK qualifications to more than 160,000 Indians wishing to enhance their English language, academic and professional skills. We operate through centres in New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai. In partnership with the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, we run libraries in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, and Pune. India also hosts the British Council Management Services office in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, which provides finance and IT services for the global network. The Open University Since its foundation in 1969 The Open University has become the largest university in Europe, teaching well over 230,000 people every year, and it is continuing to expand its activities globally. The OU has been one of the top three UK universities for student satisfaction in the National Student Survey every year since the survey began in 2005. In 2010/11 it had a 93 per cent satisfaction rating. In the UK’s latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008) the OU was ranked in the top third of UK higher education institutions and 50% of OU research was assessed in the RAE as internationally excellent, with 14% as world leading. The Open University is: Open as to people and plays a leading role in the transition to mass higher education by serving an increasingly large and diverse student body Open as to places and contributes to a widening of educational opportunities by making its programmes, courses and services available throughout the UK and more widely in Europe and the world Open as to methods and uses distance-teaching methods and new learning technologies and teaching techniques to serve home-based and work-based students Open as to ideas and is a vibrant academic community dedicated to the expansion, refinement and sharing of knowledge. Programmes of study include BA and BSc degrees; taught and research-based postgraduate courses leading to Masters and Doctoral qualifications; professional training in the fields of management, health and social welfare, education, languages,  manufacturing and computing; and family, personal and cultural education and leisure interests. The University has successfully transferred its expertise in developing curriculum content and innovative pedagogy and in supporting students to programmes and projects across the world. TESS-India ( Teacher Education through School based Support in India)   TESS-India, a £10M project, funded by DfID and led by The Open University, will address the urgent need to improve the quantity and quality of teacher education in India, improving the classroom practice of teachers that is essential for successful education reform. TESS-India seeks improve significantly the classroom experience of millions of pupils in schools across India. The impact of this project will be to contribute to: •    The development of a better educated teacher workforce at elementary and secondary level through an enhanced teacher education system that embeds practice-based and school-focussed training and which has increased capacity. •    Changing teacher educators’ and teachers’ attitudes and classroom practices, through improving provision of, and access to, high quality practice based teacher education. The project will deliver: •    A sustainable network of key teacher education organizations and institutions where capacity building and sharing fosters and promotes internationally recognized best practices in teacher education. •    An accessible bank of high quality and activity-based Open Educational Resources (OERs) available to support the development and professional practice of teacher educators and teachers. •    New and redesigned teacher education programmes, which have strong practice-based and school-based strands, built around TESS-India OERs, supporting enhanced and sustained change in the pedagogic practice of teachers. •    Rigorous monitoring and evaluation of policy maker, teacher educator and teacher experience, to assess project impact and promote policy change at state, national and international level. The British Council will be a key partner and sub-contractor in TESS-India and will provide some consultancy services around some specific content areas of the project such as English language as well as administrative, financial, operational and logistical support. The TESS-India team is being recruited by The British Council in India on behalf of the Open University. The core team is based at the British Council office in Delhi and is headed by Country Project Director. It is anticipated that the core team based in Delhi will consist of 10 key staff. There will also be key team members working in each of the seven focus states. Accountabilities, responsibilities and main duties:  (including people management and finance) •    Line manages the TESS-India in-country academic and administrative team in both Delhi and the 7 initial TESS-India states of West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Assam. •    Represents TESS-India at both internal and external events and acts as its ambassador in India; building the Open University UK and TESS-India brand across India. •    Plays a lead role in relationship development and management for the project, building strong professional relationships with key stakeholders in DfID, GoI, State governments, HEIs, NGOs and state and national Teacher Education institutions. •    Responsible for building a sustainable network of key teacher education organisations and institutions in India where capacity building and sharing fosters and promotes best and internationally recognised teacher education practice. •    Works actively with the Academic Director to identify key Institutions and individuals who can contribute to the production, development, review and testing (monitoring & evaluation) of the learning materials. •    Works actively with the Acedemic Director to identify new and redesigned teacher education programmes for embedding T-India OERs and which support enhanced and sustained change in the pedagogic practice of teachers •    Works actively with the Country Project Manager to ensure high quality and timely project deliverables within the agreed budget across all aspects of the Indian based implementation •    Works to extend the reach of TESS-India in line with project plans and priorities •    Chairs, and is responsible for, the outputs of the State Advisory Group, sharing across states best practice, transmitting information, facilitating partnership activities and ensuring quality •    Actively manages specific TESS-India academic activities in country (activities may vary but will be clearly defined by the Academic Director) acting responsively and using initiative where appropriate in order to ensure the timely delivery of agreed project tasks, log frame outputs and outcomes to a high quality. •    In conjunction with the Project Director, is responsible for strategic direction and planning in country providing accurate, timely and appropriate input to drive forward the implementation of the project in a cohesive manner. •    Seeks potential development opportunities for the Open University beyond the life of the project. •    Carefully manages the key relationships with DfID and the British Council and keeps regularly in touch with other partnership teams. •    Provides dynamic leadership to create a cohesive, motivated TESS-India team in country; delivering to clear aims and objective. •    Takes responsibility for the academic line management, induction and personal development of the TESS-India in-country team in line with British Council and Open University requirements. •    Uses appropriate and up to date tools and methodologies in conjunction with the UK team. •    Is a key member of any TESS-India Management committee which might be formed to oversee the development of the TESS-India programme and its delivery. •    Undertakes ad hoc duties as required by the Project Director from time to time. Key relationships: (include internal and external) Internal TESS-India team in India and UK British Council key  internal stakeholders Director Education, India and Assistant Director English Partnerships Assistant Director English Digital Partnerships Head English Partnerships East India, West India, South India and North India Senior Project Manager East India, South India, West India, North India Head Programmes (all regions) Senior Training Consultants and Training Consultants (all regions) Head Resources and Human Resources (all regions) External DfID Government of India State governments Senior Managers, HEIs Senior Managers, NGOs Teacher Education Institutions Other important features or requirements of the job  (e.g. travel, unsocial/evening hours, restrictions on employment etc) Fluent Hindi High levels of travel across India will be required, and the flexibility to occasionally work unsocial/ weekend hours. There may also be the requirement to travel internationally.
Please specify any passport/visa and/or nationality requirement.		Post holder will need valid work permit to work in India.
Please indicate if any security or legal checks are required for this role.		Reference Checks as per British Council India HR policy

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Interested candidates should complete the application form (part 1and part 2 separately) and save it in their full name and email to careers.bcdelhi@in.britishcouncil.org by Sunday, 28 April 2013.

Only short listed candidates will be informed.