Roles of Senior Technical Advisor
and Senior Program Officer in C-EFE
Brenda Cooke, Senior Technical Advisor
Elsa Sumido – Senior Program Officer
CARICOM Education for Employment Program (C-EFE)
June 2, 2013
C-EFE Context
• CARICOM Education for Employment – 20M, 5
years
• 3 STAs in field
– Regional Coordinator/STA, OECS, Trinidad and Tobago and
Barbados
– STA, Suriname and Guyana
– STA, Belize and Jamaica
– Administrative & Finance Officers (Local – FT)
Head Office Personnel
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–
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MJF, Director, International Partnerships
Operations Manager (PT)
Senior Program Officers (2 - FT)
Admin Coordinators (2 – PT)
Canadian consultants (Gender, LMI, Entrepreneurship,
Leadership specialists)
– Caribbean consultants (Regional Advisor, Social
Marketing, Suriname specialists)
– Plus overall organizational support (VP, Finance,
Admin, HR, Marketing)
STA and SPO jobs
•
Operations Manager’s job
– Responsible for overall operational program mgt and successful delivery of CEFE
•
– Sustain relationship with partners in Canada
STA’s job
– responsible for quality and timely implementation of C-EFE workplans in their
countries of responsibility
– Regional responsibilities for particular areas (Leadership and Career Guidance)
– Sustain relationships with partners in the field
• SPO’s job
- Provide day-to-day support to STAs/field offices to ensure
- Provide day-to-day support Manager of Operations in ensuring successful
delivery of program
STA - ‘Senior’
• Representative of ACCC in the country
• Need to connect with Senior persons ---Ministers,
Presidents, business leaders
• Need to be able to work at senior level:
– Aware of big picture
– without supervision
– demonstrating sound judgment, integrity, propriety
– Knowing when to raise an issue to a higher level
STA - ‘Senior’ cont’d
• managing time, multiplicities, ambiguity
• as part of a team with other colleagues
• Senior level experience in Canada is a help – credibility.
(Ph.D. definite bonus)
• Should know about international development –
millennium goals, global initiatives, approaches by
other donors, international groups (UNESCO, ILO, etc.)
• Work with partners to help them implement their
initiatives without imposing Canadian solutions
• e.g. C-EFE example re CVQ, NTAs etc.
S
TA - ‘Technical’
Subject matter expert
Technically competent
• E.g., Curriculum, QA, Strategic
and Business Planning, LMI, etc.
• Skilled in use of computer
• People expect you to know a
little or a lot about every
subject area
• Often asked to review
country’s approaches and
provide feedback or help them
with their initiatives
• Have resources available to
share e.g. business plan
template
• Able to produce templates
– Office – (word, excel, ppt) –
competent, quick, professional
looking,
– Email
– Web meeting programs
(GotoMeeting, Webinar, VOIP
programs, LMIs)
– Equipment - use and source
– Internet research
• Everyday technical survival skills get a lease, read a map, drive a
car, arrange transportation, do
banking, keep records, call long
distance, etc.
A - ‘Advisor’
ST
• Advisor versus Manager
• We do not set up a Program Management Unit.
• Expected to be a support to partner who implements the
initiative
• Leadership from behind
C-EFE WBS
SPO – support to field offices
• Standardize systems for delivery and
administration in the field – Operations
Manual (so STAs don’t get bogged down with
procedures and will have more time to do
technical work) – events, hiring, reporting, etc.
• Align operations with ACCC and CIDA rules
• Address budget issues – financial support for
what needs to be done in the field
SPO – Support to Manager of
Operations
• Respond to CIDA requests / queries – get
inputs from STAs
• QA all standard reporting requirements,
including workplans, progress reports and
core document revisions (LM, PMF, RR)
• Oversee budgeting, spending & reporting
• Manage electronic files of everything C-EFE
• Oversee all contracting and contract
management processes
Operational Division of Labour &
Collaboration
• General rule: Everything Canada is led by Ottawa,
everything field is led by STAs
• Institutional Partnerships – SPOs deal with Canadian
partners for contract compliance (including reporting); STAs
deal with Canadian and Caribbean partners for technical
advise and linkaging support
• Lead and support roles
• Share everything to team – circulation of meeting reports
by STAs
• Solicit inputs/comments from team – circulation of major
outputs by lead
• STAs meet, Ottawa staff meets, team water cooler meetings
Admin Coordinators, IP Management
and SPOs and ACCC Corporate Staff
• Admin Coordinators support SPOs and MO
• Lessons learned and templates developed by
SPOs for other projects
• Corporate support as needed.
Some quotes / rules we live by
• “Let (ask) the STAs think, write, make decisions and
do all the technical stuff – that’s why they are paid
the big bucks.”
• “The Ottawa people are not just pretty faces, they
have brains too. So use them!”
• Never read between the lines.
• Ottawa and field offices – two different worlds.
• Share and celebrate each others’ successes.