Deshpande Skilling
Chief Operating Officer – Deshpande Educational Trust
Deshpande Foundation, India is conducting a search for Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Deshpande Educational Trust, headquartered in Hubballi, Karnataka.
Deshpande Foundation (Founded by Jaishree and Gururaj Desh Deshpande) set up the Social Innovation Sandbox in Hubballi, Karnataka, India in 2008 with the realization that to have an impact at the bottom of the pyramid, solutions must be co-created with the community and capacity must be built within those communities to spread the solutions. This initiative has grown into one of India’s largest non-profit organizations employing over 1200 staff, with a footprint across four states, benefitting thousands of farmers, thousands of rural youths and thousands of school-going children in villages each year.
The Foundation today owns and operates a 300,000 square-foot residential skilling campus and a 100,000 square-foot Startup Incubator. This apart, the most valuable asset of the Foundation is the huge amount of goodwill and trust it has accumulated among the community and other stakeholders over the decade-plus of impactful work on the ground. The program has matured and has positively impacted many thousands of farmers, unemployed graduates, microentrepreneurs and incubators. By way of impact, farmer incomes have doubled due construction of farm ponds, unemployed youth who were trained at our campus now have jobs, microentrepreneurs have been trained and have grown their businesses. Many companies which have been incubated with us are now employing people to grow their businesses.
Though the progress is impressive, India is a large country and so is the size of the problem. The strength of our work lies in the capacity to bring in a systems approach to scale our solutions so that we can create larger impact.
Deshpande Educational Trust or Deshpande Skilling
The Deshpande Education trust receives contributions from the community, and grants from CSR and philanthropic funds with which it develops, pilots and executes scalable and affordable community models of educational and skilling services that complement existing school and college systems and help underserved children and youth to bridge the gap to opportunities of bright academic careers and productive working careers. Deshpande Skilling offers short-term (380 to 700 hours) courses targeted towards specific job market demands
Job Overview
We are looking for a Chief Operating Officer (COO) to manage Deshpande Skilling’s impact programs.
Skill Plus-R
A short-term, highly focused and intense residential job skilling program, offered on its campuses in Hubballi and Nizamabad.
SkillPlus
A short-term job skilling intervention offered by Deshpande Skilling at its partner colleges (90+ and growing) to local students.
Skill in Village
A before and after-school activity-led learning program targeted towards children of grades five to eight at Government Village Schools to build their confidence and aspiration to pursue a good academic career and successful life. While each of these programs is led by tenured leaders with their teams, the COO of Deshpande Education Trust, will be responsible for overseeing the institute's operations and strategic initiatives to ensure the delivery of high-quality courses and services and scale them across India
Responsibilities for the COO of Deshpande Educational Trust
- Draw granular plans for each impact program aligned with the directions of the Executive Committee and Board.
- Disseminate the plans to the respective program teams.
- Regularly monitor and review key performance parameters and quality parameters of each program and carry out pre-emptive and course corrective measures.
- Identify and drive changes in the programs to be relevant, to be faster, to get better and to get cheaper.
- Manage program design, development and overall execution.
- Promote the use of technology in the delivery of education.
- Recruit, train, assess and manage faculty.
- Manage student placements.
- Manage the residential Hubballi campus and operations at current and future locations elsewhere.
- Develop and implement a plan for scaling skill development operations across India
- Build in systems to assess in process quality of delivery of content, teaching and overall impact of all the programs.
- Liaise with program partners, funding agencies and government.
Experience for COO, Deshpande Educational Trust
- Proven track record of managing a skill development institution or an undergraduate college preferred. Or experience in managing large educational programs or learning academies will also help.
- Strong understanding of program design, analysis and management. Understanding of curriculum development, instructional design and quality assurance processes in education.
- Experience in recruiting, training, assessing and managing a large team of faculty and student placement.
- Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build and maintain effective relationships with stakeholders.
- Demonstrated experience in financial management, including budgeting, forecasting and financial analysis.
- Passion for social impact and a commitment to empowering disadvantaged communities through education and vocational training.
- The location of the position is Hubballi, Karnataka.
Education Qualifications
- An undergraduate college degree in any field. A master's degree in education or business administration would be an added qualification.
- Minimum of 10 years of experience in educational leadership or operations management. Experience with vocational skilling or adult education would be an added advantage.
