Learner Support & Community Specialist

Are you a detail-oriented individual passionate about fostering vibrant learning communities and ensuring learners receive top-notch support? We're seeking a Learner Support Specialist to join our team, where you'll play a crucial role in engaging our community, managing community spaces, and facilitating seamless platform navigation. If you thrive in creating supportive environments and guiding learners through their educational journey, this role is perfect for you!

ABOUT US

Africa has an untapped talent pool that is increasing exponentially, with a projected workforce that will exceed India and China by 2035. Fuelled by this, our mission is to create work opportunities for millions of Africa's youth and solve the world's shortage of technology talent.

Our company SAND has 450+ staff members from 48+ countries with plans to acquire several companies around the world to become a multi-billion dollar global technology services provider that employs over 100K employees across the globe.

We have 2 brands represented in our ecosystem:

• With ALX, we are building the fastest-growing pool of technology talent in the world, training young talent across Software Engineering, Cloud Computing, Data Science and Salesforce. We are shaping the next generation of software engineers in over 60 countries.
• Through Sand Technologies we support enterprises and scale-ups around the world to develop world class technology products, build great technology teams, generate more revenue, and deliver outstanding customer experience. Our clients include one of the largest cloud computing providers in the world as well as Bestseller A/S (Denmark), Create Prime (New Zealand), Stanbic Bank (Kenya), and Tamara (Dubai).

With varying levels of expertise in software development, data, cloud, machine learning, artificial intelligence, UX design, web development, etc, we provide unparalleled opportunities to technology talent worldwide while reshaping industries, disrupting traditional business models, and creating new opportunities for innovation and growth.

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Talent Readiness (TR) team oversees the delivery of all learning programs. The TR team is in charge of designing, building, piloting, implementing, and iterating on a multi-faced ecosystem that supports our learners throughout their educational and community engagement journey. The TR team sits at the central point of the learner journey, and therefore collaborates extensively with multiple stakeholders such as Selection, CX Ops, Talent Experience, Product, Engineering, Data, Fellowship, and the City Teams.

ABOUT THE ROLE

As a Learner Support Specialist, you are at the heart of fostering a vibrant and supportive learning community within our program. Your multifaceted role encompasses various responsibilities, ensuring learners are equipped with the resources and guidance they need to thrive in the AiCE program.

Responsibilities include:

• Community Engagement and Moderation:
  • Develop the program community structure for the community platform, i.e community spaces
  • Manage the community spaces and ensure learners are on boarded and know how to navigate the community platform,
  • Foster a powerful learning community that enables forming relationships and supports the learning experience, while ensuring that the ALX values and norms of the learning experience are upheld, modeled and showcased - including potentially via peer mentorship.
  • Monitor conversations held in community spaces to ensure that all engagement is in line with our community code of conduct.
  • Flag issues raised by learners and support with troubleshooting. Escalate any important or difficult issues to relevant team members or stakeholders for additional support.
• Communications: Facilitate communication with learners through email and the community platform pre-program, onboarding, throughout the program duration, and postgraduate (where necessary)
  • Create weekly email communication including email, portal announcements, city team nudges via SMS< Whatsapp & Telegram, etc with the support of other team members
  • Review effectiveness of the different communication channels (email, portal, City team nudges) in communicating to learners the relevant program requirements
• Platform setup and moderation: Circle, Google Calendar, YouTube, Zoom, Slido, LMS and other relevant tools
  • Ensure learners are on boarded onto relevant platforms seamlessly and know how to navigate these platforms,
  • Monitor learners' usage and support with troubleshooting.
• Program support: Create, maintain & improve program processes, resources (e.g relevant guides) and tools to deliver prompt, efficient Learner Support, enabling learners to thrive in the AiCE program, including interventions for those that may have fallen behind.
• Event experience design and adaptation: Onboarding events, Weekly Office Hours for live support, Ad-hoc job readiness sessions, and any other relevant live sessions
  • Organize and execute various program events to provide learners with learning support and relevant updates throughout the program
  • Build connections with mentors, speakers, experts and more to build learners' job readiness and equip them with knowledge to thrive in the job market.
  • Organizing and manage community hangouts and mixers to foster the sense of community among the learners, reduce burnout, build connections and encourage balance.
• Program Monitoring & Evaluation:
  • Support feedback collection through observation, learner surveys and interviews to inform the program design and delivery.
  • Develop innovative ways to improve the program delivery and implement these with the support of relevant stakeholders
• Community Analytics and Reporting:
  • Track and analyze data around community engagement and learner performance to inform community management
  • Generate regular reports on key metrics related to the learning community & learner engagement, providing insights to the team for informed decision-making.
• CA and Fellow Management:
  • Ensure CAs & Fellows are onboarded and understand responsibilities clearly
  • Unearth the strengths of each CA and Fellow and help them develop - assigning them to key tasks they can thrive and learn by doing
• Program Playbook:
  • Develop / contribute to the program / team playbook to document program processes for use by other program teams / future cohorts.
• Build connections in the wider tech ecosystem for mentors, speakers, opportunities and more!

REQUIREMENTS

• High level of accuracy and a strong attention to detail. You pay close attention to all of the small particulars when working on a task or project.
• Experience with delivering on large cross-functional complex projects/programs, coupled with a detailed understanding of the risks and milestones to cross.
• A demonstrated ability to problem-solve and rapidly follow-through on deliverables.
• Strong collaborative capabilities: you are a team player and can influence your peers to drive results.
• Humility and openness to feedback: you proactively seek feedback for improvement and have an insatiable curiosity and hunger to grow.
• Self-starter mindset and are comfortable with ambiguous, ever-changing situations
• Comfortable executing in a fast-paced working environment with tight precision.