Evaluation Coordinator

STEM Learning believes that every young person across the UK has the right to a world leading STEM education and we are committed to ensuring our support remains high quality and high impact.

 

We are looking for a driven, motivated and inquisitive individual to oversee our suite of evaluation activity and help us achieve our vision. STEM Learning is a purpose-led not-for-profit organisation who are driven by the incredible impact we have on schools, teachers and young people.

 

As our Evaluation Coordinator, you will be responsible for driving forward our approach to evaluation by delivering high quality outputs that help us to improve what we do and ensure we continue to deliver impact. As an organisation we have developed our approach to evaluation and impact and we are keen to remain sector-leading - we need someone who thrives off of being the best.

 

You should be self-motivated, innovative, organised and a great communicator. You will have a team to support you, and you should be comfortable setting the direction and managing the team to achieve its goals.

 

You will be representing evaluation for STEM Learning - working across the business and with external partners, so being able to build and maintain relationships will be fundamental.

 

You should be familiar with social research or evaluation best practice - one day you’ll be building a theory of change, the next you’ll be crunching the numbers or analysing changing attitudes. The Evaluation Coordinator will act as STEM Learning’s ‘eyes and ears’ for research findings and evaluation outputs across the sector. Alongside our education and programme experts, you’ll be expected to contribute to the development and direction of what we do - challenging, innovating and continually improving our offer.

Working closely with the Head of Monitoring and Evaluation, you will be responsible for planning, managing and delivering evaluation across all areas of STEM Learning activity.

 

The Evaluation Coordinator will provide a focal point for our evaluation activity, working closely with our Programme Managers, Fundraising Team and Marketing and Communications Team as well as liaising with strategic partners and funders to promote what we do.

 

Find out more about the role here.

 

●     Plan, manage, oversee and deliver STEM Learning’s evaluation activity:

○     plan and manage a full, aligned portfolio of evaluation across STEM Learning’s programmes.

○     work with colleagues and funders to develop and deliver effective, achievable evaluation plans.

○     manage internal and external evaluation activities across the internal team and external consultants, ensuring value for money and effective, useful outputs.

○     have oversight of evaluation activities within the team and across the organisation.

●     Ensure STEM Learning research and evaluation remains sector-leading:

○     drive continuous improvement and development of evaluation methods.

○     work alongside sector partners, government departments and evaluation specialists to establish best practice, embed learnings and test new approaches.

○     keep abreast of sector research and evaluation outputs, ensuring these are cascaded appropriately across the business

○     maintain and develop STEM Learning’s evaluation infrastructure to meet the needs of internal and external stakeholders.

●     Manage and increase engagement with evaluation activity to support STEM Learning’s vision:

○     ensure effective communication of evaluation and impact outputs across the organisation and wider network.

○     support STEM Learning in distilling and communicating research and evaluation findings for educators (school leaders, teachers, etc.)

○     facilitate and empower stakeholders to communicate and embed evaluation findings, supporting recruitment, engagement and business development.

○     continuously evaluate and improve evaluation support and outputs provided.

○     monitor and report on the effectiveness and usage of evaluation outputs.

●     Line manage and oversee the work of the Evaluation Team:

○     ensure that staff activities are delivered to time, cost and quality to achieve plans and objectives.

○     offer feedback and coaching to encourage staff to improve their skills and capabilities.

○     review staff performance on a regular basis and maintain good records.

○     collaborate with the wider team to share resource and expertise effectively.

●     Other responsibilities:

○     ensure data protection, contract and other STEM Learning policies are followed.

○     act as a ‘voice of evaluation’ across the organisation and wider network to ensure we are impact-driven.

●     Balancing priorities and resources to achieve optimum results, ensuring effective and appropriate evaluation activities delivering useable outputs and achieving value for money.

 

●     Cross-working across the organisation to ensure best use of resources to deliver effective, appropriate, and scalable evaluation.

 

●     Collaborating effectively with stakeholders: senior management, funders and a wide range of external partners, including consortium working.

 

●     Embedding evaluation expertise across STEM Learning through productive working relationships with other departments, working groups and partner organisations.

Education/experience: Masters or PhD in social research, education or related subject; relevant professional qualification, or a track record of experience in a similar or related role. Experience of communicating effectively and positively managing multiple stakeholder relationships is essential. Project and people management experience is also desirable.

Knowledge and understanding: Expertise in social research and project or programme evaluation. Operational knowledge of effective data analysis and synthesis, reporting and communicating to different (often non-specialist) stakeholders, and an ability to translate highly complex findings into ‘plain English’ is essential. Understanding theories of change, attribution and causality, IPE and impact evaluation, and importantly, why all of these things matter is fundamental.

Communication skills: Highly-developed written and oral communication skills with excellent attention to detail. Advanced interpersonal skills, flexing communication style and delivery to the needs of the audience. Ability to influence effectively at all levels.

Planning and problem-solving: Experience of planning and progressing work activities using initiative and judgement without unnecessary recourse to more senior managers. Strong self-motivation and achievement focus, with proven analytical and problem-solving capabilities. Finds a way forward in challenging circumstances.

Stakeholder management: Strong customer orientation and ability to form effective working relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. Highly skilled in advancing a reasoned, evidence-led case for a course of action, and in negotiation. Very effective skills in supplier selection and management.

Performance monitoring: Experience in monitoring key evaluation metrics, delivering high quality, robust evaluation, which both diagnoses what is working well/less well and recommends practical innovations and improvements across the organisation.

Leading others: Ability to unlock the motivation, drive and professional growth of team members, delegating effectively, monitoring performance, providing on-the-job coaching and training as required. Ability to manage work performance through timely feedback and honest, regular conversations.

Personal qualities: This role would best suit someone who is positive, conscientious, inquisitive and loves to get things done. Well-developed skills in assimilating complex information, making good decisions quickly and working well under deadline pressure. Able to maintain an enthusiastic manner and offer solutions, not problems.