Programme Manager

RESPONSIBILITIES:
Management of the Dell Young Leaders programme at UP:

- Operationalise the programme at UP in line with the foundation’s strategic guardrails and goals.
- Build and manage relationships with key stakeholders within UP and the foundation.
- Identify strategies to remove barriers to success for students at UP. Actively problem solve and identify resources to leverage to drive student outcomes.
- Build a strong understanding of the university services and resources and identify opportunities to leverage services and relationships to support scalability of the Dell Young Leaders operating model at scale at UP.
- Understand and monitor key workflows and policies at UP that impact student success and retention - and design support mechanisms to manage associated programme risks.
- Case manage Dell Young Leaders students as required to ensure all support services and mechanisms are coordinated to support needs and risks.
- Lead advocacy with role players within the institution in high risk or high complexity cases.
- Manage assigned communications from students using the programme’s integrations Communications Centre within the technology toolset.
- Build effective relationships with students on the programme to ensure the Dell Young Leaders programme’s brand is managed and positively promoted, with a view to ensuring life-long student association through Alumni programming.
- Manage relationships with any external service providers to the programme at UP as required.
- Support line management of Dell Young Leaders support staff at UP.

Grant Management:

- Act as the key point of contact between the university and the Foundation.
- Report on key grant milestones and tracking delivery of programmatic interventions and projects.
- Develop reports and analytical presentations required by stakeholders to understand programme
- performance and outcomes.
- Support development of annual grant proposals in line with the approved programme strategy.
- Ad-hoc hosting of external and internal stakeholders as required.

Financial Management:

- Manage the Dell Young Leaders scholarship fund, including ensuring accurate dispersal of funds in accordance with the programme’s Financial Manual and UP policy and processes.
- Work with UP’s Financial Aid Office, as well as the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), to gain full accounting of the student cost of attendance and unmet funding needs.
- Model student costs to ensure adequate funding is in place for students on the programme.
- Manage the Dell Young Leaders programme’s wrap-around support grant and maintaining full accounting of budget and expenses, working within the programme’s Financial Manual and UP policy and processes.
- Reconcile and manage the return of any unused grant funds to the foundation within the grant terms.

Delivery of the Application and Selection Process:

- Annually recruit a selection panel consisting of the varied programme stakeholders.
- Deliver the annual launch event for newly selected Dell Young Leaders at UP.

Report, Monitor and Present:

- Produce reports in line with the grant agreement to both the university and the foundation.
- Present programme outcomes and insights to UP’s leadership team at leadership updates.
- Work with the programme’s technology tools to track and report on programme delivery and impact.
- Record all data, activities, and interventions in the programme’s technology toolset.
- Manage programme metric reporting, including but not limited to graduate pipelines, graduation rate, persistence rate and on-time graduation rate. Identifying trends to ensure impact is maximised.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

- A relevant postgraduate degree or Bachelor’s degree and a professional body qualification equivalent to a postgraduate degree.
- Four years proven project/programme management and/or co-ordination experience on medium to high complexity projects.
- Own transport and willingness to work outside business hours and travel within South Africa as necessary.

REQUIRED COMPETENCIES (SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND BEHAVIOURAL ATTRIBUTES):

- Knowledge of managing a range of projects in terms of scope, budget, time, risks, issues and costs.
- Knowledge of compiling business cases, business requirements and process maps, as well as project risk management in a controlled environment.
- Knowledge of project integration and change management, budget and cost estimation, as well as control procedures.
- Work with senior management to create product plans and roadmaps to ensure projects releases are launched correctly and on schedule.
- Coordination the efforts of a team of professionals (both on site and remotely) to ensure delivery.
- Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint as well as the ability to learn and utilise programme specific technology quickly and easily.
- Quantitative analysis.
- Managing a project or a range of projects in a portfolio in terms of scope, budget, time, risks, issues and costs