About Pratham

Pratham was founded in 1995, to provide pre-school education to children in Mumbai slums. Over the last 25 years Pratham has grown to be one of the largest non-profit organizations working to provide quality education to children and youth in over 20 states and union territories across the country, through a range of interventions.
Pratham is a widely recognized organization, having received notable awards such as the Lui Che Woo Prize, WISE Prize for Innovation, Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the Henry R Kravis Prize in Leadership and the CNNIBN Indian of the Year for Public Service. For more details, refer to www.pratham.org

Junior Associate, Program Management – Job Description

The Junior Associate position in the Program Management group offers young, motivated, energetic people the opportunity to be an integral part of Pratham’s work across the country. This person supports the link between the state or program implementation teams, the central teams, and the donors. Their responsibilities stretch two ways:
supporting the state or program in documentation and implementation, as well as supporting collaborations with
donors and external partners. Currently, the Program Management Team comprises 14 people from a range of educational and professional backgrounds and together, is involved in all the educational programs and states at Pratham.
In this team, one can expect a culture of “getting things done”. The role is cross-functional and often dynamic and hence provides the Junior Associate with exposure to a wide spectrum of teams, projects, and experiences. Successful team members will get the opportunity to build a holistic understanding of the educational ecosystem from people with rich experience and knowledge in the field, both internally and externally, as well as contribute to the effective implementation of key education programs across a variety of contexts.

The minimum expected responsibilities under the role are as follows:

Program Review / Program Support
• Ongoing coordination and documentation support: This will involve facilitating and documenting the communication between state/program and central teams with respect to emerging needs and demands at any point of time through proposals, reports, and planning. The Junior Associate will also continuously
collaborate with relevant teams across the organization (content, M&E, finance etc.) as required to ensure smooth operations and timely implementation.
• Program tracking and reporting: Planning will need to be followed up with regular tracking of progress against the plan. This will include special focus on programmatic data and analysis.
Donor Management
• Proposal creation: The Associate will be responsible for the creation of proposals for new potential donors.
This will include defining objectives, conceptualizing models of implementation, designing implementation timelines, budgeting, designing reporting cycles, etc. in discussion with Program Management team members and program/state heads.
• Regular reporting and communication: The Junior Associate will contribute to the creation of regular reports on progress of the project and engage in periodic conversations with the donor on program updates and future planning.
• Other functions: This includes facilitating visits for donors and any other form of communication with them.

Desired Qualifications and Experience

Required:
• 0-2 years prior work experience in a similar role in private sector firms, NGOs, or foundations
• Willingness to travel regularly and extensively in rural areas of India, with limited amenities
• Ability to build rapport with people from various academic, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds
• Ability to communicate in Hindi or at least 1-2 other regional languages
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English
• Ability to work well in teams and on tasks ranging from simple to complex
• Ability to adapt to dynamic contexts and scenarios
• Self-motivation and pro-activeness
• Ability to organize and manage multiple tasks efficiently
• Strong work ethic and attention to detail
• Ability to take initiative to support processes in an unstructured or ambiguous environment
• Keeping oneself constantly updated on the broader educational context in assigned states and in India

Preferred:
• Exposure to the non-profit sector through previous experience or otherwise
• Coursework in international development or management
• Experience living and working in a developing country

Application Process
Please apply with the following We will reach out to you to set up the applicationprocess. We may not be able to respond to all applicants.
1. Current Resume: Resume should contain
• Contact Information for Applicant
• Academic Background
o Universities Attended, Degrees Acquired
o Past work experience, highlighting relevant skills
o Relevant Coursework: List Courses in Development, Management, and Education
o Experiences in development, teaching and/or education (if applicable)
o Languages Spoken
2. Statement of Purpose – Why are you fit for this opportunity? (500 Words)