Wadhwani Foundation Job Vacancy For Program Manager NEN and GSN

The National Entrepreneurship Network endeavours to support ‘job creation’. It purports to do this by mainstreaming entrepreneurship in education for national impact and by supporting start-ups and SMEs to grow their companies.

The Skills Development Network and initiative is an attempt to alleviate the skill gap in knowledge of workers while mainstreaming employability in education for national impact.

The Wadhwani Foundation has set to enable the education and SME eco-system to function with higher relevance, support, knowledge and know-how so that thousands of young people can develop entrepreneurial skills, able to leverage the opportunities in the country and SMEs get the necessary support and networks to grow their businesses competitively. Also to enable the Vocational & Professional education eco-system to function with higher relevance, skilling and supporting thousands of young people into entry level jobs in industries.

The Wadhwani Foundation (WF) works in three key ways in the different countries that it operates in:

1. Partnerships with educational institutes including Engineering and Management institutes and Colleges to provide entrepreneurship education as an integral part of the training, exposure and experience for the students, so that they are skilled entrepreneurially.

2. Support Start-ups and SMEs through learning, connects and other resources for sustainability and growth.

3. Develop city based entrepreneurship eco-systems with strong networks of mentors, investors, service providers and entrepreneur-peer groups that can support new start-ups and growing SMEs in those cities.

This exciting role is one of high importance and impact to launch and manage the NEN and GSN initiative and will involve interface with national APEX bodies in Industry, Education and Investors, as well as Educational Partners to deliver a new paradigm of industry driven mainstream education. We are looking for smart motivated self-starters who want to make a difference at a national level. The scope is large, but the individual tasks are byte sized and doable in a systematic and organized fashion.

Additional Role Description:

The Program Manager will own all activities related to launching and making the NEN program in the region successful while working with the local partners and WF team members. This role is primarily that of a Program and Partner Manager. Key activities will be in the area of planning, implementation coordination, interfacing with the Engineering and Management institutes, Entrepreneur and SME organizations, Mentor and Investor groups. While the manager needs to have or develop expertise in the area of entrepreneurship development and education, the intent is to engage, and monitor individuals and partners, working with them with WF learning and content resources etc. so that students, start-ups and SMEs have more support. Additional responsibility would be to monitor results including new companies started by graduating students and growth indicators including jobs in the companies that are supported. Will own all activities related to launching and making the GSN program in the region successful while working with the local partners and WF team members. This role is primarily that of a Program and Partner Manager.

More specifically the role may be broken into the following key responsibilities:

1.  Project Management for the GSN & NEN Program

·    Scope the Entrepreneurship and SME development stakeholders and framework in the country for a strong understanding of current status, challenges and opportunities

·    Help identify the needs and define the goals and scope of the program with clear roles and deliverables of the entities involved.

·     Work with the manager to create a detailed project plan, monitor actions and ensure timely completion of deliverables to meet the needs.

·      Liaison with all parties involved, ensuring common understanding and that deliverables meet the requirements.

·     In general, ensure WF involvement is properly utilized and resulting in valuable deliverables that meet the objectives of the program and WF NEN initiative.

·     Scope the Skills development stakeholders and framework in the country to develop a strong understanding of current status, challenges and opportunities.

·     Help identify the needs and define the goals and scope of the program with clear roles and deliverables of the entities involved.

·     Create a detailed project plan, monitor actions and ensure timely completion of deliverables to meet the needs.

·      Liaison with all parties involved, ensuring common understanding and that deliverables meet the requirements.

·       In general, ensure WF involvement is properly utilized and resulting in valuable deliverables that meet the objectives of the program and WF Skill College’s initiative.

2.  Entrepreneurship education network

·    Responsible for developing and managing the NEN institutions & other partner Organizations including Entrepreneur & Startup Associations in a given market

·    Qualify and sign up relevant institutes as per target & within timelines

·    Facilitating the capacity development of member institutes –this includes working with the head of the institution, faculty leaders, and students to help structure, design and execute the right experiential programs

·    Facilitate access to different resources from within and outside the Wadhwani Foundation.

·    Initiate and lead collaborations, networking & training programs on ground

·    Identify & develop local resource teams including key faculty, mentors & entrepreneurs

·    Work with individual institutions to visualize and build goals & annual road maps

·    Work with the Central Team in mapping the market training needs and help implement these programs on ground

·    Help administer the surveys on campuses at regular intervals

·    Catalyze interest in entrepreneurship amongst students on campuses

·   Drive participation for programs

3.       Start-up and SME network and support

·         Identify and enroll high potential startup entrepreneurs and SMEs for different kinds of programs

·         Identify and strategically engage all the relevant ecosystem partners such as mentors, investors, incubators, accelerators

·         Deploy the NEN service offerings intelligently to the respective target customers in each region

·         Monitor the impact of the program through jobs created

·         Identify critical needs of startup entrepreneurs in the region and provide recommendation to program and product teams for modifications or development of relevant programs and content. 

4.  Training Industry Sector Skill Councils (and possibly Companies/Association) Interface

Be connected with designated points of contact from the Industry – Companies and Associations – to facilitate an industry driven program.

·   Obtain the specific jobs and their corresponding duties->Tasks->Skills composition – from within the industry as defined by the government and or relevant industry sector councils (if any). Get Specification of requirements (National Occupational Standards) and validation of curriculum/ coursework from Industry Sector Skill councils) /Company subject matter experts.

·   If using own or specially developed curriculum, liaison between the Education partner curriculum/coursework development and the Industry sector skills council/companies’ point of contact. Ensure Curriculum covers all aspects of training – Classroom instruction material, Faculty Guide, Learners/Student guide. In addition, help arrange Faculty Development training through Subject Matter Expert(s) from SSCs/Industry (with industry input/participation). This may involve identification, networking and development of Master Trainers who can deliver the Faculty Training courses. Work with SSC/Industry to organize and deliver the training course logistics – schedules, venue, facilities, faculty registration and signup, etc.

Coordinate with all stakeholders including from industry, educational and training institutes and government as relevant to ensure success for the Program.

Candidate Qualifications, Skills & Experience:

Qualifications: Master’s degree in Business, Social Work or other equivalent degree

Experience: Minimum 8 years with at least 3 years in roles with Entrepreneurial ecosystem, higher educational institutes, government departments and other entities. Strong analytical, conceptual and strategic planning skills. Excellent interpersonal and supervisory skills.