Senior Project Officer
Australian Council for Education Research, Dubai, UAE
Total years of experience :16 years, 5 Months
WORK SUMMARY: Managing administration, and strategic marketing, sales & communication for ACER’s education services to improve student-learning outcomes in schools; extensive networking with private international schools & government education authorities across Arab region
Strategic Sales, Communication and Extensive Networking with Private Schools in Arab Region
- Managing strategic sales and marketing process for ACER’s school educational services to improve student learning outcomes; and supporting schools/leadership to achieve UAE and MENA region’s priorities and performance in education, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and supporting UAE Centennial 2071 which has high focus on excellent quality of education;
- Increased school-enrollments and revenue by 40% in 2022, with 50% more students enrolling in the program in 2022 as compared to 2021; Created extensive database, and networking with leadership of private schools across Arab region, and with Government education authorities.
Managing Administration of Large Scale Assessments
- Facilitating administration of school assessments like Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) etc in UAE schools, thereby supporting progression towards National Agenda targets
WORK SUMMARY: Created specialized articles for ESG & Sustainability Best-Practice Case Studies & Publications; Marketing & Communications; networking with corporate sector network across Arab region
CSR and Sustainability Related-Specialized Case Studies; Publications and Marketing & Communications
- Created specialized ESG/Sustainability documentation for ‘Arabia CSR Awards: Best Practice Case Studies’ of corporates & Government organisations across the UAE including companies like Al Dhafra Recycling Industries, Mohamed Naser Al-Sayer & Sons Est. Co., China State Construction Engineering Corporation Middle East, Masdar, Emirates Taste Catering Services, Zurich International Life, Accenture Middle East, Four Seasons Hotels, Mediclinic; & Government departments like Dubai Police, Community Development Authority, Sakan amongst others;
- Worked on CSR newsletters, website, social media promotions and marketing collaterals including brochures and pamphlets.
Supported Arabia CSR Awards (the Green Oscars of the middle east)
- Worked for Arabia CSR Awards process including inviting nominations from Arabian corporates and public sector; compilation of award nominations, ‘Winners Booklet’ etc
WORK SUMMARY: Planned marketing strategies & implemented activities to achieve CSR sponsorships for supporting education of underprivileged school-students; Created & supported CSR investment platform, awards & awareness, community-CSR-initiatives reporting, employee engagement and volunteering opportunities.
CSR/Sustainability Awards, Events/Consultations and Reporting Functions:
- Conceptualised and managed The Changemaker Awards & event to provide recognition of work of corporates in CSR/ESG/Sustainability, volunteering, and employee engagement initiatives;
- Worked with companies for CSR and Sustainability reporting; created CSR-best practice publications;
- Created and mobilized participation for CSR-amendments/Sustainability awareness-workshops;
- Worked with companies for requisite support for CSR and Sustainability reporting; Actively created employee engagement and volunteering/giving opportunities for more than 2000 employees from donor companies in a year.
Conceptualised & Implemented CSR-sponsored Specialized Education Projects for Schools
- Mobilized CSR-funding for set-up of STEM/robotics labs, and digital-classrooms for underprivileged school children in rural India; promoted funding for other related education projects;
- Actively engaged with, created, and submitted project-update, M&E & impact reports, while overseeing financial planning and monitoring.
Marketing & Communications:
- Worked with communications team to promote an active social media campaign plan & strategy for branding of Foundation’s programs thereby expanding reach to potential/new & existing CSR based sponsors; Created & promoted newsletters, annual reports, success-stories & case studies from the field.
Fund-Raising through CSR Contributions and Donor Management:
- Contributed towards financial sustainability by mobilising Corporates, and High-Net Worth Individuals (HNIs) through CSR contributions; Key account holder and manager for donations of INR 750 Million in in 2018-19; INR 790 Million in 2019-20; and INR 1.2 Billion in 2020-21
Donor/Client Servicing, Managing Sustained Relationships; Proposal Writing, Reporting, Team -building, Financial & CRM Management
- Actively networked & nurtured strategic relations; Prepared & tracked annual budget, income, expenditure & reconciliation with Finance Department; Managed donor proposals, reports and CRM.
WORK SUMMARY: Managed UK-India government alliances & strategic relations with education & skill development stakeholders; Supported market research partnerships and skill-development projects.
Income & Grant Funds for UK-India Partnership Programmes
- Managed UK-India partnership programmes by allocating UK grant fund of upto INR 10 Million; & created opportunities for generating mutually beneficial partnership programmes. Built engagements (through study tours) with high-profile senior-Government skill-development stakeholders in the country.
Market-research and Publications Including Skill-gap and Labour Market Analysis
- Worked collaboratively with the Government of India and UK research agencies for generating strategic research reports, which included: Market Research on Skill Requirements Among Young Professionals, British Council in collaboration with IPSOS Consultancy, 2017; Future Skills in India, British Council in collaboration with Cambridge Econometrics & National Skills Research Division, 2017; Overview of India’s Evolving Skill Development Landscape, British Council, 2016
Internationally Aligned Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting on CSR-sponsored Capacity-building Projects
- Successfully piloted and reported on core-skills training projects in partnership with various state governments;
- Conceptualised and designed monitoring and evaluation tools for eliciting feedback on learning outcomes of capacity building programmes and trainings. Tools included collection of evidence through external observers and observation of trainings; pre- and post-course participant survey questionnaire; collection of evidence from training (photos, workbooks, posters); teacher focus group discussions; micro-teaching sessions to report on learnings; actual classroom observations to collect information on actual implementation of learning; and organising ‘reflection’ session to collect feedback from classroom practices
WORK SUMMARY: Managed income generation from conferences, training & subscription of assessment related academic publications with schools across India; supported in creation & promotion of teacher-training assessment modules, publications & case studies.
Managed Sales/Subscription of Academic Publications & Income Generation Through Training & Conferences
- Actively promoted new publication-subscriptions & teacher-training programs among schools across India, while also generating income through academic-conferences. In the very first year of inception, managed a combined income of INR 5 million by reaching out to 200 schools against target of 150 schools;
CBSE-CAER International Conference on Assessments
- Managed the entire gamut of activities relating to organizing CBSE-CAER assessment-conference, including program agenda, national & international speakers, & mobilized 400+ paid delegates from CBSE & IB schools across India & South Asia thereby ensuring financial sustainability of the event.
CBSE-CAER Academic Publications for Schools
- Created & published research-based and specialized teacher training publications on assessments including 12 monographs, 12 bulletins & 6 case studies & 3 bi-monthly newsletters.
Social Media & Digital Promotions; Networking & Relationship Building with School Stakeholders (private schools & government leadership)
- Used social media platforms to promote teachers’ trainings & conferences using teachers’ groups & networks; Created alliances with strategic education & school stakeholders, government organisations & individuals; Built relationship with more than 600 CBSE & IB schools & promoted activities of the Centre among school principals & teachers.
WORK SUMMARY: Achieved strategic Government, corporate & institutional partnerships and sponsorship targets through large scale education-awards & events; created & managed strategic content publications.
Sponsorships & Event Manager for Large Scale Education Conference, namely, World Education Summit (Conference, Awards & Exhibition)
- Created a highly successful first-time brand ‘World Education Summit’ in 2011 & managed the entire gamut of activities in 2011 & 12 (legacy of the event continues); Generated strategic national & international Government, corporate and institutional alliances.
- Managed overall programme agenda, high-profile international speakers, awards, promotions, government & private institutional linkages & sponsorships.
- Mobilised 1000+ paid delegates from higher education institutes, schools & colleges; Generated income for education-technology publications throughout 2011 & 2012.
- Some of the sales targets achieved included:
• event-sponsorship & publication-advertisement sale of INR 5.5 Million against no set targets in 2011; & in 2012, institutional partnerships/event-sponsorship achieved of INR 9 Million (against set target of INR 8 Million)
Leveraged Social Media to Generate Greater Reach:
- Created promotional plans & managed social media & digital platforms to generate interest & reach out to target audience for conferences & awards; Generated more than 100, 000 youtube video views; 300, 000 website views; 20, 000 Facebook likes in 2011 & 2012.
Managed Education Research Undertakings & Strategic Alliances for Education-Tech Magazine
- Planned & executed surveys & research studies in School Education, Higher education & Vocational Training sector; Created & worked with strategic partners for content alliances;
- Wrote & published articles including: ‘Smart B-Schools Survey 2010’, Digital Learning Magazine, Volume 6, February 2010; ‘Management Education Trends’, Volume 6, February 2010…& many more
WORK SUMMARY: Supported documentation, research studies & teacher training modules; Raised funds by establishing strategic partnership linkages.
Planning and Execution of Research Projects under Various Themes:
- Study of the impact of Katha Story Telling Pedagogy on the Holistic Development of Students: Created report and analysis on the Katha Storytelling Pedagogy adopted by Kathashala.
- Effects of Early Childhood Intervention on the Reading and Educational Abilities of Children of Lower SES (supported by the Bernard van Leer Foundation and Axis Bank): Created and submitted quarterly technical and financial reports with updates on the project ‘The Magical Years’; Used baseline surveys to collect information of learning levels of teachers before they undertook trainings in the project using the Katha Storytelling pedagogy.
Documentation, Reporting & Preparation of Project Proposals:
- Prepared project proposals for projects and socio-education initiatives in the community;
- Prepared annual evaluative reports; Katha Lab School Prospectus; TAMASHA! The Health and Environment Magazine for Children; Teachers Training Magazine.
Fund Raising for Katha Community Education Programmes & Income Generation projects:
- Technical collaboration achieved with Max India Foundation; Concern India Foundation for funding of Vocational Training Centers in the community; Raised sponsorship from National University for funding of ‘National Academic Conference on Elementary Education, Reading Levels & the Intuitive Teacher’.