Senior Program Associate, Education for Education (EfE)

PRATHAM Education; Pune District; On-site; INR 1,800,000 - 3,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Pratham Education Foundation in Pune is seeking a senior role to lead Education for Employment (EfE) across programs and states. You will shape the strategic direction, ensure meaningful learning opportunities for volunteers, and drive partnerships, data systems, and platform improvements.

The role requires translating long-term vision into practical systems, collaborating with central, state, and field teams, and guiding coordinators to scale EfE as a high-quality, scalable initiative.

Qualifications

• Postgraduate degree in a relevant field with 5–6 years in the social sector, including at least 2 years in managing programs and teams across districts or states.
• Experience working with volunteers and field teams, and strong program management abilities.
• Excellent communication, reporting, and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop the annual EfE strategy and course calendar for Pratham.
• Lead the design and rollout of courses based on volunteers’ needs and aspirations.
• Build partnerships with external organizations and onboard partner courses onto the platform.
• Mentor state EfE Coordinators and coordinate across states to ensure rollout and impact.
• Strengthen platforms and data systems for enrollment, assessment, and learning outcomes.
• Monitor implementation, participation, and outcomes to drive continuous improvement.
• Plan and manage the EfE budget, donor reporting, and resource allocation.

Skills

Program management

Team leadership

Volunteer management

Partnership development

Data analysis

MS Office

English and Hindi communication

Documentation

Education

Postgraduate degree (MSW/MA Sociology/MBA or equivalent)

Tools

MS Office

Data analysis tools

Digital platforms

Job description

Pratham Education Foundation (Pratham) is one of the largest education NGOs in India with a record of innovative, rigorously evaluated programs that have inspired similar programs across three continents. With a history spanning 30 years, Pratham’s work today extends from programs for early and elementary years to girls and women, and youth skilling. Through programs covering 25 states and Union Territories, in an average year, Pratham usually reaches over 6 million children and youth. This is achieved through a combination of efforts: directly working with children and youth in communities, as well as through collaborations with state and district-level governments.

Pratham has 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 CNN-IBN Indian of the Year for Public Service. Pratham also received the 2021 Yidan Prize for Education Development and the Yashraj Bharati Samman in 2025.

The Education for Education (EfE) program is built around volunteers, that is, youth and mothers from the community, who support children’s learning in their villages. In return for their participation, volunteers receive vocational and educational courses and other learning opportunities throughout the year. The aim is for volunteers to see pathways for their own growth, learn new skills, and gain experiences that are valuable to them. When these activities are linked together, they sustain a learning environment for children while moving ownership of that environment to the community.

Role Summary

The role will provide overall support for Education for Employment (EfE) across Pratham, positioning it as a cross-cutting initiative that runs across programs and states. The role will be responsible for shaping the strategic direction of EfE, ensuring that volunteers across different program verticals have meaningful learning opportunities that support both their contribution to Pratham and their own development.

Key responsibilities include developing the annual EfE strategy and course calendar, leading the design and rollout of courses based on volunteers’ needs and aspirations, and building partnerships with external organisations that can contribute learning opportunities through Pratham’s platform. The role will also support and mentor the network of state EfE Coordinators, work closely with the relevant teams to strengthen platforms and data systems, and regularly review implementation, participation, and outcomes across states to inform continuous improvement. This role requires someone who is equally comfortable thinking strategically and working closely with implementation teams. The ideal candidate should be able to translate a long-term vision into practical systems, collaborate across functions and states, and solve implementation challenges while ensuring that EfE continues to evolve as a high-quality, scalable initiative across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategy and Direction

• Vision and cross-program integration: Establish EfE as a common thread across all of Pratham’s programs. Work with program leads in every vertical so that any volunteer, in any program, can access EfE courses and opportunities, and so that participation, retention, and community ownership grow stronger wherever Pratham works.
• Program strategy and planning: Lead the national EfE roadmap: identify learning needs across programs and stakeholders, and plan the rollout of EfE offerings across states, programs, and geographies. Work with program and state teams to determine where each offering is most relevant and when it should be delivered .
• Understanding volunteer needs: Build an evidence-based picture of who Pratham’s volunteers are and what they need, across programs and states. Use this to decide which courses to offer, which to adapt, and which to drop.

2. Courses, Content, and Partnerships

• Course design and content: Coordinate with internal and external teams to design, pilot, refine, and finalize learning offerings. Facilitate pilots, gather user feedback and insights, and oversee translation and adaptation, including for WhatsApp delivery, to ensure quality across languages and contexts.
• Partnerships with other organizations: Identify and build relationships with organisations, institutions, and course providers whose offerings fit Pratham’s volunteers, whether vocational, educational, or certification linked. Assess their content and delivery models, negotiate terms of collaboration, and work with the digital team to onboard partner courses onto Pratham’s platform so volunteers can access them seamlessly. Manage these partnerships on an ongoing basis, including quality review, data sharing, and renewal decisions.
• Expert engagement: Arrange expert calls and sessions for courses, and build a bench of resource people who can strengthen course offerings.

3. Teams and Delivery

• Leading the EfE team: Guide state EfE Coordinators in setting priorities, work plans, and progress review. Anchor each course cycle across states from launch to completion, run regular review, feedback, and next steps meetings with state coordinators.

4. Systems, Data, and Reporting

• Digital platforms and data: Work with the relevant teams to strengthen the existing platform and the enrollment and assessment systems. Make sure data from every course cycle is analysed, and shared with the teams who need it.
• Outcomes and evidence: Analyse enrollment, participation, and completion trends alongside what volunteers actually gain from each learning opportunity. Develop simple follow-up systems for state teams to engage volunteers after courses end, and build the evidence base on how EfE influences their knowledge, practice, and continued engagement.
• Issue resolution: Serve as the escalation point for program, data, and technology issues raised by states, and work with the relevant central teams to close them quickly.
• Documentation and reporting: Document progress, learnings, and outcomes, and prepare reports and presentations for leadership and partners.

5. Budget and Resources

• Budgeting: Plan and manage the annual EfE budget, including course development, training, technology, and state-level delivery costs. Track spending against plan and donor grants; work with state teams on their EfE budget lines; prepare budgets for proposals, etc

6. Field Engagement

• Field visits: Make regular field visits to states a planned part of the role rather than a response to problems. Observe courses in progress, meet the field teams running them, and see how the content and platform hold up at the ground level. Connect directly with volunteers, including those who dropped off partway, about content, timing, language, assessments, and what the courses are opening up for them. Record each visit in a consistent format, share it with program teams, and make sure it informs course revisions, training design, and rollout planning.

Qualifications and Experience

• Postgraduate degree (MSW, MA Sociology, MBA, or another relevant stream) with 5 to 6 years of experience in the social sector, including at least 2 years managing programs and teams across multiple districts or states.
• Proven knowledge and skills in program design, program management, and team development.
• Experience working with volunteers, youth, or community-based programs is strongly preferred.
• Experience building and managing partnerships with external organizations, such as training providers, universities, or skilling platforms, is an advantage.
• Strong command of MS Office, with comfort in data analysis and digital platforms.
• Excellent communication skills in English and Hindi. Any additional Indian language will be an added advantage.
• Strong reporting and documentation skills.

Skills and Attributes

• Strategic thinking combined with willingness to solve day-to-day problems around courses, enrollment, data, and the portal.
• Leadership skills and the ability to build, mentor, and hold together a team spread across states.
• Ability to work across program verticals and build alignment among central, state, and field teams, including digital and skilling teams, and where those teams do not report to the role.
• Strong interest in technology and data. Interest or skill in content creation is preferred.
• Willingness to be based in Pune and travel frequently around the country.

Location

The position will be based in Pune with frequent travel across the country.

Reporting

The selected applicant will report to the Lead, Operations, Direct Elementary Programs

Note: Due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may not be able to provide individual responses to every applicant. We will reach out only to shortlisted candidates. We appreciate your understanding and patience.