Roles of Senior Technical Advisor and Senior Program Officer in C-EFE

1. Roles of Senior Technical Advisor and Senior Program Officer in C-EFE Brenda Cooke, Senior Technical Advisor Elsa Sumido – Senior Program Officer CARICOM Education for Employment Program (C-EFE) June 2, 2013

2. C-EFE Context • CARICOM Education for Employment – 20M, 5 years • 3 STAs in field • Regional Coordinator/STA, OECS, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados • STA, Suriname and Guyana • STA, Belize and Jamaica • Administrative & Finance Officers (Local – FT)

3. Head Office Personnel • MJF, Director, International Partnerships • Operations Manager (PT) • Senior Program Officers (2 - FT) • Admin Coordinators (2 – PT) • Canadian consultants (Gender, LMI, Entrepreneurship, Leadership specialists) • Caribbean consultants (Regional Advisor, Social Marketing, Suriname specialists) • Plus overall organizational support (VP, Finance, Admin, HR, Marketing)

4. STA and SPO jobs • Operations Manager’s job • Responsible for overall operational program mgt and successful delivery of C-EFE • Sustain relationship with partners in Canada • STA’s job • responsible for quality and timely implementation of C-EFE workplans in their countries of responsibility • Regional responsibilities for particular areas (Leadership and Career Guidance) • Sustain relationships with partners in the field • SPO’s job - Provide day-to-day support to STAs/field offices to ensure - Provide day-to-day support Manager of Operations in ensuring successful delivery of program

5. STA - ‘Senior’ • Representative of ACCC in the country • Need to connect with Senior persons ---Ministers, Presidents, business leaders • Need to be able to work at senior level: • Aware of big picture • without supervision • demonstrating sound judgment, integrity, propriety • Knowing when to raise an issue to a higher level

6. STA - ‘Senior’ cont’d • managing time, multiplicities, ambiguity • as part of a team with other colleagues • Senior level experience in Canada is a help – credibility. (Ph.D. definite bonus) • Should know about international development –millennium goals, global initiatives, approaches by other donors, international groups (UNESCO, ILO, etc.) • Work with partners to help them implement their initiatives without imposing Canadian solutions • e.g. C-EFE example re CVQ, NTAs etc.

7. STA - ‘Technical’ Subject matter expert Technically competent Skilled in use of computer Office – (word, excel, ppt) – competent, quick, professional looking, Email Web meeting programs (GotoMeeting, Webinar, VOIP programs, LMIs) Equipment - use and source Internet research Everyday technical survival skills - get a lease, read a map, drive a car, arrange transportation, do banking, keep records, call long distance, etc. • E.g., Curriculum, QA, Strategic and Business Planning, LMI, etc. • People expect you to know a little or a lot about every subject area • Often asked to review country’s approaches and provide feedback or help them with their initiatives • Have resources available to share e.g. business plan template • Able to produce templates

8. STA - ‘Advisor’ • Advisor versus Manager • We do not set up a Program Management Unit. • Expected to be a support to partner who implements the initiative • Leadership from behind

9. C-EFE WBS

10. SPO – support to field offices • Standardize systems for delivery and administration in the field – Operations Manual (so STAs don’t get bogged down with procedures and will have more time to do technical work) – events, hiring, reporting, etc. • Align operations with ACCC and CIDA rules • Address budget issues – financial support for what needs to be done in the field

11. SPO – Support to Manager of Operations • Respond to CIDA requests / queries – get inputs from STAs • QA all standard reporting requirements, including workplans, progress reports and core document revisions (LM, PMF, RR) • Oversee budgeting, spending & reporting • Manage electronic files of everything C-EFE • Oversee all contracting and contract management processes

12. Operational Division of Labour & Collaboration • General rule: Everything Canada is led by Ottawa, everything field is led by STAs • Institutional Partnerships – SPOs deal with Canadian partners for contract compliance (including reporting); STAs deal with Canadian and Caribbean partners for technical advise and linkaging support • Lead and support roles • Share everything to team – circulation of meeting reports by STAs • Solicit inputs/comments from team – circulation of major outputs by lead • STAs meet, Ottawa staff meets, team water cooler meetings

13. Admin Coordinators, IP Management and SPOs and ACCC Corporate Staff • Admin Coordinators support SPOs and MO • Lessons learned and templates developed by SPOs for other projects • Corporate support as needed.

14. Some quotes / rules we live by • “Let (ask) the STAs think, write, make decisions and do all the technical stuff – that’s why they are paid the big bucks.” • “The Ottawa people are not just pretty faces, they have brains too. So use them!” • Never read between the lines. • Ottawa and field offices – two different worlds. • Share and celebrate each others’ successes.