GeSCI – Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme

GeSCI – Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme
Technical Officer to support the ALICT Project


About GeSCI
GeSCI, the Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative, is a non-profit organisation founded by the United Nations ICT Taskforce. GeSCI provides strategic advice to Ministries of Education in developing countries on the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Education within the context of inclusive Knowledge Societies. See www.gesci.org.

Technical Officer to support the ALICT Project
Under its Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme, GeSCI is seeking a Technical Officer to provide input and expertise to the new ALICT Project. The Technical Officer will provide the required technical expertise for the ALICT Project Team to build and experiment with a new Learning Management System as well as social networking tools.
The ideal candidate will have a background in computer science, computer engineering, information management systems or a related field, ideally to Masters Level; together with 3 years’ programming experience developing database driven, dynamic or transactional web based applications.

About the JPO Programme
The Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme is, primarily, an opportunity for on-the-job development field training for young professionals who are at the beginning of their career and who wish to make a career in the area of international development assistance.
Please note that the Programme should not be considered as a point of entry to long-term employment in GeSCI.
These officers are given on-the-job training in the various activities and procedures of the GeSCI programmes, generally in the head office in Nairobi, Kenya, but also in some projects in the field. They are expected to assume the substantive responsibilities of any junior programme official in a relatively short period of time.

About the ALICT Project
The African Leadership in ICT (ALICT) Project is in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC) and funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. The overall goal of the Project is to develop a group of African ICT, Education, S&T and Knowledge Society leaders that can become agents for change in their own countries and be catalysts for regional cooperation in the domain of ICT, Education, S&T and Knowledge Societies both at the country and sub-regional levels. The primary beneficiaries will be future and potential leaders and policy makers in AUC HRST, the Ministries of ICT, Education, Higher Education, Science and Technology and other Ministries responsible for human resources development primarily in Southern and Eastern Africa. With a budget of Euro 3m over 3 years, the Programme is expected to deliver:
• Well-developed curriculum and Capacity Building Model for building capacity of African leaders on ICT, Education, S&T and Knowledge Society issues
• A multi-stakeholder knowledge exchange platform that brings together private, public and civil society to create Knowledge Partnerships, share knowledge and contribute expertise to building the capacity of African leaders
• Institutional Capacity of the AUC HRST and capacities of 150 selected African leaders built and appropriate model(s) for long term capacity building identified.


Principal objectives of the role:
The Technical Officer will provide the required technical expertise for the ALICT Project Team to build and experiment with the Learning Management System as well as social networking tools that we need to develop for the ALICT project. Primarily:
• Providing expert technical advice on performance and appropriateness of web 2 applications
• Identifying, testing and prototyping learning management systems (LMS), content management systems and social media
• Installing, managing and maintaining learning management systems, content management systems and social media
• Setting up and managing server systems
• Customization or further development of learning management systems, content management systems and social media
• Setting up web applications to support e-learning based training programmes (e.g. document repositories, discussions forums)
• Managing student data
• Conducting regular server maintenance and backup
• Providing technical support to students and other users of various e-learning applications
• Networking actively with the Finnish ICT4E community in order to bring the latest technical trends for the use of the project


Role Profile
The qualifications, experience and skills for the role – Required (R) and Desirable (D)

Education
• Computer science, computer engineering, information management systems, web design or related field, ideally to Masters level (R)

Skills and knowledge
• Web programming skills; hands-on skills in the adaptation and modification of Web 2 applications with a high level of proficiency in PHP programming. (R)
• High proficiency in other web programming languages such as Java and scripting languages such as JavaScript or desirable (D)
• Linux systems administration (The LMS will most likely be open-source like Moodle which runs on a Linux server) (R)
• High proficiency in SQL programming and Database development skills with relational databases preferably on open source systems (e.g. MySQL and/or Postgress) (R)
• Mobile applications development (D)
• Multimedia development (D)
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of web 2.0 applications and social networking applications (R)
• Good knowledge of client server technology and general network connectivity including Wide Area Networks, Local Area Networks and their design, installation and maintenance (D)
• Excellent Knowledge of Server software (Web, Email, FTP), relational databases (MS SQL, Oracle, mySQL), computer networking, Windows Server and Unix/Linux Servers and related data security issues (D)
• Knowledge of cloud computing issues (D)
• Proficiency in English and Finnish (R)
• Excellent Interpersonal skills and communication skills (R)

Experience
• Hands-on experience on setting up, managing, programming or maintaining Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Content Management Systems (CMS) (R)
• Hands-on experience with social networking tools development and maintenance (R)
• At least 3 years hands on experience developing database driven, dynamic or transactional web based applications (R)
• Experience managing web server, preferably open source web servers (R)
• At least 2 years experience providing technical support to end users or clients/ customers (D)
• Experience developing mobile phone based web applications (D)
• Experience developing, managing or maintaining educational applications in particular learning management systems or student information systems (D)
• Experience testing software applications (D)
• Experience moderating mailing lists, collaborative workspaces or e-learning environments (D)

This is a 1-year fixed term contract with a possible extension of 2 years. The role is based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Interested applicants should apply to hr [at] gesci.org no later than close of business on Monday 12th July, enclosing a Curriculum Vitae together with a covering letter stating how you meet the requirements of the role.

Further information related to GeSCI: www.gesci.org 
GeSCI reserves the right to reject any candidates, change or cancel the recruitment process for any reason and at any stage.

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