About us

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

Geopolitical/SBU/Function overview: 

Rwanda- Vision Statement –

By 2020, our work in English & Exams, Education & Society and Arts will create opportunities for Rwandans, link them to the UK and position us well as a partner of choice for educational and cultural interventions.

Our ambition is that the UK is widely acknowledged as a partner and positive contributor to the cultural lives, prosperity, security and development of Rwandan citizens, and that the English language remains widespread in education and commonplace in business, enabling preferentially strong relationships and trade with the UK.

The British Council has operated in Rwanda since 2008 becoming a full country directorate in 2012 with the aim of building cultural and educational relations between Rwanda and the UK. British Council Rwanda offers a range of British Council services and programmes including Exams, Education, English in Education Systems and Arts.

The Role:

Programme Manager

The aim of the role is to increase the impact of the British Council’s work in Education and Society and English for Education Systems through managing the planning, delivery and evaluation of a portfolio of large-scale and local projects to meet the British Council’s objectives and targets and partner expectations.

The post holder will manage a network of internal and external service providers and partners to meet all project targets, thereby ensuring our work is delivered to high quality, and with maximum effectiveness, efficiency and impact.

Main Accountabilities:

• Project Management and Delivery- To implement a portfolio of large scale and local projects through partnerships to meet all project targets
• Risk management- To identify, assess, report and monitor progress in addressing risks to the achievement of project objectives.
• Budget and financial management- To manage project budgets and ensure that all financial transactions related to project activity are done to corporate standards
• Procurement- To ensure all procurement and contract for service are in line with corporate and client policy and that documentation is robust and stored appropriately for future reference
• Marketing and Communications- Where required, to ensure that a project is marketed internally and externally to the highest standards in print, digitally, and at events
• Monitoring and Evaluation- To ensure that all projects have a monitoring process embedded, project outcomes and impacts are measured and reported according to corporate and donor / partner standards and expectations.

Role Requirements:

• Good written and spoken Kinyarwanda and English (Aptis – B2)
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Highly organised and deadline oriented
• High level of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Degree or Higher Education qualification.
• Experience of financial planning and management
• Proven success in working with customers, clients and/or partners and maintaining and developing stakeholder relationships

Please refer to the role profile for more information on the role responsibilities/accountabilities and person specification, by clicking on the links for relevant document to support your application:

Note that you should only fill out the application after thoroughly reading through the ROLE PROFILE & GUIDANCE NOTES.

Closing date for applications is 27 February 2020 (23:59 UK time)

About us:

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.   We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

Our Equality Commitment:

Valuing diversity is essential to the British Council’s work. We aim to abide by and promote equality legislation by following both the letter and the spirit of it to avoid unjustified discrimination, recognising discrimination as a barrier to equality of opportunity, inclusion and human rights. All staff worldwide are required to ensure their behaviour is consistent with our policies.

The British Council is committed to a policy of equal opportunity and is keen to reflect the diversity of UK society at every level within the organisation. We welcome applications from all sections of the community. In line with the British Council’s Child Protection policy, any appointment is contingent on thorough checks.