INOVASI 3 - Foundational Skills Specialist

INOVASI 3 - Foundational Skills Specialist

Project Overview and Role:

Indonesia’s Vision 2045 sets the goal for Indonesia to transition from a resource-based economy towards an advanced service, technology, and knowledge-based economy by the centenary of its independence (2045). The 2025-2045 National Long Term Development Plan emphasises the urgency of Indonesia’s human resource development to fully realise 2045 goals.

Faced however with persistent low student performance that is emblematic of a learning crisis, significant improvement in student learning will be required to reach Indonesia’s 2045 goals. Government of Indonesia (GoI) has started an ambitious program of education reforms. Successive education ministers have set out to modernise the education system through reforming the national curriculum and teaching and assessment approaches, to produce citizens with strong foundational skills, open minds, and inclusive values.

Australia is a long-term supporter of the Indonesian basic education sector, with continuous investments supporting education quality improvements for the past two decades, including through the INOVASI program (Phase 1 2016-2020; Phase 2 2020-2023) that focused on supporting acquisition of literacy and numeracy foundational skills in early grades classrooms; exploring local problems and solutions; and generating evidence to inform government policy development and practices.

This third phase of INOVASI (2024-2027) builds upon the existing program’s approach and lessons learned and takes the focus on the development of foundational skills through to the end of the primary grades. Phase 3 will engage with priority issues of Australia’s development policy: gender equality, effective inclusion of children with a disability, responses to the climate change challenge in education. It will focus on the challenge of policy implementation and the gaps that exist between national policies and practices at district and school levels, and use the well attested-success of INOVASI’s local problem-based approach to continuously support policy development for effective fit between policy and implementation context.

The Program is managed by Palladium on behalf of DFAT.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Purpose of the Position:

The Foundational Skills Specialist has responsibility for supporting subnational and national teams to achieve INOVASI’s intended outcomes through providing technical advice and support to the design, development, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of INOVASI approaches to accelerating achievement of foundational skills. The Specialist will work primarily to support subnational teams but will also provide input and advice into national policy and programming as relates to foundational skills. The Specialist will work collaboratively across program teams and in ways that builds understanding and capacity in INOVASI in relation to achievement of foundational skills.

Working with children
Is this position likely to come into contact with children? Yes No

Duties: Under the direction of Deputy Director – Education Ecosystems and Subnational Management (hereafter Deputy Director Subnational), the Foundational Skills Specialist will:

• Support/manage the development of a foundational skills strategy for INOVASI Phase 3, in collaboration with other deputy directors, provincial managers and external advisors and consultants.
• Support INOVASI sub-national and national teams develop and implement facilitation strategies and tools to service partners in the ecosystems develop their foundational skills strategies.
• Manage technical assistance to build the capabilities of key partners in the ecosystems to develop and/or revise and adapt foundational skills materials such as training modules, Bahasa Indonesia and mathematics scope and sequence documents and assessment tools in line with the foundational skills strategy, evolution in GoI policy, and the INOVASI 3 program logic.
• Coordinate INOVASI technical assistance in the design of interventions, pilots, and GOI and/or partner led approaches to developing teacher, principal, supervisor, parent and/or community capacity to support acquisition of foundational skills.
• Provide advice and support to provincial teams in relation to collaboration within the ecosystem, particularly the BGPs and universities (LPTK) in developing teacher, principal and district ability to support achievement of foundational skills.
• Facilitate relationships and collaboration between districts and the district ecosystem with MoECRT/MoRA literacy, numeracy and character programs.
• Coordinate and/or provide technical and advisory support to key GoI national counterparts in relation to foundational skills, in the key related areas of the five program IOs.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key GoI national counterparts to ensure INOVASI’s support is aligned to their needs while also contributing to achievement of the five program IOs and the EOPOs.
• Ensure GEDSI priorities are pursued in activities, pilots, interventions, and content developed to support achievement of foundational skills. Explore opportunities to pursue climate change outcomes within foundational skills development.
• Collaborate with external advisors and partners in Indonesia and internationally to ensure policy support to GoI partners is technically sound, draws on up to date global knowledge, expertise and networks, and politically feasible in the Indonesian context.
• Work closely with the Performance and Learning team to inform design of MERL approaches to measuring the effectiveness of INOVASI support in improving foundational skills achievement.
• Utilise MERL findings to improve ways of working and approaches to continually make progress towards the five program IOs.
• Maintain strong communication and information sharing within the Education Ecosystems and Subnational Management team and across other national and subnational teams, to ensure both learning within and across teams, and facilitate opportunities for national-subnational collaboration.
• Contribute to six-monthly reporting and to routine and ad hoc reporting to DFAT and GOI.
• Other duties as may reasonably be required by Deputy Director, Education Ecosystems and Subnational Management

Required Qualifications:

The Foundational Skills Specialist will possess the following qualifications and experience:

• A degree in a relevant subject, e.g. education, language, mathematics, science, social sciences, international relations, public policy.
• Significant experience in education related development programs which include program design, implementation and related activities, preferably within Indonesia.
• Strong understanding of basic education, literacy, numeracy, and soft-skills development, and the challenges and conditions for improving and sustaining quality education.
• Knowledge of the Indonesian education system and significant experience developing the capacity of teachers, principals, supervisors, communities, teacher working groups, local government and universities. Experience in teaching will be highly regarded.
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize tasks, manage time and complete projects in a fast-paced, changing environment with minimal supervision.
• Demonstrated ability to seize opportunities and work collaboratively with other teams to achieve shared goals.
• Strong problem-solving skills, interpersonal and communication skills, a positive attitude, and pro-active approach.
• Fluency in Bahasa Indonesia and a good working knowledge of English.

Application closed on Friday, May 17th 2024 at 11.59 PM (Jakarta time)

Palladium is a child-safe organisation, and screens applicants for suitability to work with children. A copy of Palladium’s Child Protection Guidelines is available on our website: thepalladiumgroup.com/policies

Due to the anticipated volume of applications, only successful candidates will be contacted. All applications should be submitted through the Palladium website. Should you experience any issues lodging an application online please contact inovasi.recruitment@thepalladiumgroup.com stating the position in the subject line.

Company Overview:

About Palladium - Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the worlds most pressing challenges. With a team of more than 3,000 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of over 35,000 experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, peoples lives.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.

Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.